Claudia Vince

Claudia Vince is a part-time PhD student at the Prison Research Centre, funded by the ESRC. Her research explores experiences of trauma among men and women serving life sentences. Drawing on an exploratory framework of trauma, her work considers the different stages at which people may encounter traumatising experiences – in childhood, in response to committing a serious violent offence, in receiving a life sentence, and during long-term imprisonment. The research pays particular attention to how gender shapes these experiences, especially in relation to the ways men and women express distress in ways deemed socially acceptable within prison settings.

Alongside her doctoral research, Claudia is Programme Director for the Prison Reform Trust’s Building Futures programme, which focuses on the experiences of individuals serving long prison sentences. In this role, she manages research projects in prisons, develops long-term engagement with prisoners, and creates opportunities for those serving long sentences to directly influence the policies and debates that affect their lives.