Sara Correia is a final year ESRC-funded PhD student at Swansea University’s Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, where she has recently been appointed as a Lecturer in Cyber Threats. Her research focuses on victims of cybercrime and fraud.
She is the winner of Swansea University’s Outstanding Research & Innovation Rising Star Award 2020.
Sara said: “My aim is to use data to make sense of the world we live in - and hopefully make it a little better. My work is carried out with regional organised crime unit Tarian. Working with members of the University and Tarian, I am hoping to advance understanding of victimisation patterns enabling criminal justice agencies to target their resources more efficiently.”
Professor Stuart Macdonald, based at the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, and Director of the University’s Cyber Threats Research Centre (CYTREC) said: “Sara’s research is remarkable, firstly, for its thoroughness and, secondly, for its interdisciplinarity, with her analysis combining computer-based advanced quantitative methods with rich theoretical insights concerning constructions of victimhood and vulnerability. It is also an excellent example of impactful research. The project was co-created with Tarian and Sara’s findings speak directly to their institutional needs and priorities.”
According to one senior police officer, Sara’s work: “has broken down barriers, set new standards, and established a new, open approach of cooperation between law enforcement and academia. It has also informed our decision-making around who our most vulnerable victims of cybercrime are and ultimately ensured that we are more victim-focused to our communities.”
Sara has successfully captured funding to support her research and co-organised numerous cybercrime events attended by leading experts and stakeholders from across the world.
She has presented her findings at several international conferences, both in the UK and overseas. Alongside her thesis, Sara has secured her first sole-authored article in the peer reviewed journal Crime Science and has co-authored an article and a Home Office publication on the scale and nature of fraud in the UK.
Find out more about Sara’s work.
