Dr Ruth Parkes
Ruth works in the Practice Learning Team in the School. Her role involves teaching on the professional Social Work courses, allocating placements, and developing effective working relationships with local employers in the social work/social care sector. Ruth has a PhD in the psychology of workplace trauma exposure. Her research explored the experiences of Police personnel who are exposed to sexual offences.
Ruth teaches across under-graduate and post-graduate Social Work courses and allocates student placements. She has a key role in developing relationships with local stakeholders and training social work practitioners. Her teaching role with students largely focuses on criminal justice, offending behaviour and developing skills for practice. Ruth is the disability lead for the school and is passionate about ensuring equal learning opportunities for all students. She is also the deputy lead for Youth and Justice in the University-wide trans-disciplinary Criminal Justice Partnership.
Ruth joined UCLan in October 2013. She previously worked for the Probation Service for over ten years. As a Probation Officer in Greater Manchester and Cumbria, Ruth worked mainly with people sentenced to medium/long term custodial sentences, both before and after their release from prison. Her main areas of expertise are assessment, supervision and intervention with men convicted of sexual offences and domestic abuse. As a Practice Development Assessor, Ruth taught Trainee Probation Officers and assessed their practice. Her training specialisms are the use of assessment and information gathering tools such as Risk Matrix 2000 and ViSOR (the Violent and Sex Offender Register), and report writing for Court and other formal hearings. Ruth has a keen interest in criminal justice research and has published articles relating to her work on Police sexual trauma exposure.
- PhD Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, 2020
- BA (Hons) Community Justice & Diploma in Probation Studies, University of Manchester, 2004
- BA (Hons) Performing Arts & Business Management with IT, University of Manchester, 2000
- Workplace trauma exposure
- Sexual offending
- Youth and Justice
- Policing
- Trauma
- Coping
- PTSD
Ruth's research is currently concerned with the impact of sexual trauma exposure on professionals. This includes monitoring adverse impact, identifying coping strategies, and considering how workplace policy and practice helps or hinders staff in dealing with trauma exposure.
Use the links below to view their profiles:
- Criminal Justice Partnership
- University of Central Lancashire
- Youth and Justice
Telephone:+44 (0)1772 895407
Email: Email:Dr Ruth Parkes
Use the links below to view their profiles: