Currently I am conducting a postdoctoral research project on legitimacy of private security. I am an Editor in chief of 'Haaste' trimestrial publication.

I have a Docent in Criminology (Associate Professor, UTU). I hold a PhD in sociology (2017, University of Helsinki) and I have previously worked ten years at the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy (University of Helsinki). My research there has included research topics such as trust in policing, young people’s experiences of police and private security guards (PhD), crimes against businesses and crime victims.

I have participated in an interdisciplinary research project on asylum seeker decisions (University of Turku). Together with international researchers we have led a comparative project about experiences of policing among ethnic minority youth in the Nordic countries (University of Turku). I have strong expertise in empirical methods, both qualitative and quantitative.

In my current project, I am interested to study the effects of the rapid rise of private security, which indicates a shift from a criminal justice system monopolized by the state and its police to a pluralized policing system. I am studying experiences of ethnic profiling and how to improve relations between young people and policing agents. Furthermore, I am interested to solve to what extent private security has succeeded in legitimating their role in policing. These aims are studied empirically and theoretically. By developing approaches of procedural justice, securitization and privatization of policing, the study produces knew knowledge about societal changes.

Please see the full list of my publications attached in the links above.

I have taught criminology and sociology of law in different universities, University of Turku (Faculty of Law) and University of Helsinki (Faculty of Social Sciences). Currently, I am teaching a master's thesis seminar and special study modules related to topics of crime control, crime, society and power.

I have developed with my colleague ‘a peer pressure and support method’ for writing conclusion section for article-based dissertation and for cooperating during writing. Based on it, we published an open access article in Journal of University Pedagogy. Title: Vertaistuella tohtoriksi: tällä mallilla artikkeliväitöskirjan yhteenveto syntyy (melkein) kuin itsestään.