Dr Julie Berg

Professor of Criminology

Julie Berg is Professor of Criminology in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow and a member of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research.

Julie’s research sits at the intersection of criminology and governance studies, focusing on polycentric and whole-of-society governance, sustainable development, security, and the governance of harm in African and Global South contexts. She examines how societies respond to new and converging harms (including those associated with climate change) that extend beyond conventional crime frameworks, and how these global harmscapes are reshaping criminology as a field of inquiry. Her work has developed concepts including harmscapes, governing-through-harm, and assemblages of care, and she has co-developed southern blue criminology, which brings decolonial perspectives to oceanic harms and human–non-human entanglements. She also co-leads the Small Islands Security Governance Research Group, an international multidisciplinary network advancing research and dialogue on security governance in small island contexts.

Recent publications include:

  • Berg, Julie, Hübschle, Annette, Scott, John and Watson, Danielle (2026) Small island developing states: emerging harmscapes and criminological directions. In: Pessoa Cavalcanti, Roxana, Fonseca, David S., Vegh Weis, Valeria, Carrington, Kerry, Hogg, Russell and Scott, John (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.
  • Hubschle, Annette and Berg, Julie (2026) Rethinking ocean harmscapes through the lens of southern blue criminology. In: Pessoa Cavalcanti, Roxana, Fonseca, David S., Vegh Weis, Valeria, Carrington, Kerry, Hogg, Russell and Scott, John (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.
  • Berg, Julie and Shearing, Clifford (2026) Policing and spatial imaginings. In: Donnelly, Fayeand Schwarze, Tilman (eds.) Security and Space: In Pursuit of Interconnections. Bristol University Press. ISBN 9781529245684
  • Watson, Danielle, Blaustein, Jarrett, Pino, Nathan W. and Berg, Julie (2025) Crime and governance in the Global South. Annual Review of Criminology, 8(1), pp. 291-310.
  • Berg, Julie and Shearing, Clifford (2024) ‘Everything-old-is-new-again’: private urban security governance responses to new harmscapes. Urban Studies, 61(14), pp. 2703-2718.
  • Hübschle, Annette and Berg, Julie (2024) Southern blue criminology: rethinking ocean harmscapes in a global context. Frontiers in Conservation Science, 5, 1422829.
  • Malik, Ali and Berg, Julie (2024) Polycentric governance, epistocracy and the limits of policing knowledge in preparing for the climate crisis. Policing and Society, 1-15.
  • Cooper-Knock, S.J., Berg, Julie and Diphoorn, Tess (2024) Publics of policing: Expanding approaches to nodal policing. Policing and Society, 34(1-2), pp. 87-103.