About Dr Lauren Steckles-Young
I joined the Social Sciences team in 2020 supporting and teaching across social studies. Prior to higher education, my working background falls within supporting individuals from various backgrounds across the north-east of England in the community during involuntary stays in psychiatric hospitals, and within the prison service.
As well as practical support, I provided Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and Dialectic Behavioural Therapy (DBT) skills-based sessions and workshops across the country, in collaboration with survivors, service users, and professionals. My practice and research expertise currently feed into the young people, harm and vulnerability unit of the university's Advanced Social Work CPD.
My research interests include social media, cultural spaces online, disability studies, critical realist analysis, digital criminology, and the relationship between harm and crime (zemiology) with previous experience investigating male victimisation in domestic violence and safeguarding in youth justice. I recently completed my PhD which explored the impact of social media on experiences of embodiment, self-esteem and disordered eating patterns. This research focused on the experience of online culture and the spaces created that encourages harmful (and at times, hateful) narratives, including diet culture and influencer culture across an array of social media platforms. My doctoral research focused specifically on the observation of Reddit and Tattle.Life as one phase of my research design.
I completed my BSc (Hons) in Criminology at Teesside University in 2017, followed by my MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Durham University in 2018, and my Social Science PhD at the University of Sunderland in 2024.
I am also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the British Society of Criminology and their Hate Crime research network.
Teaching and supervision
I am currently module leader for:
- CRM102: Criminal Justice: Theory and Practice
- CRM304: Pathologising Crime: Disability, Confinement, and Justice
- LCPM04: Inequality and Vulnerability in the Criminal Justice System
- SSCM48: Empowerment and Ability: Understanding a 'Disabling' Society
You'll also find me teaching:
- CRM105: Becoming a Criminologist
- CRM305: Exploring Violence and Social Harm
I also supervise dissertation students on BSc (Hons) Criminology, MSc Leadership in Criminal Justice and Policing, and MSc Inequality and Society. My supervision on these courses will vary each academic year.
Interests
- Cultural spaces online (i.e. diet culture, influencer culture, media consumer culture)
- Youth mental health, body image and self-esteem
- Social media and the digital age
- Disability studies
- Hate studies (particularly, the normalisation of hate online)
- The relationship between harm and crime (zemiology)
- Vulnerability
- Digital criminology
Research
My research interests are predominantly based within under-investigated research areas around marginalised groups in society. I am particularly interested in experiences of mental health, disability and how other intersections of a person's identity may impact their experience of support.
I have previously conducted research around the male victimisation of domestic violence, followed by qualitative data collection into the safeguarding of young people, involved in the Criminal Justice System based within Tees Valley and Darlington areas. My research predominantly uses mixed methodological approaches or multiple data collection methods to produce holistic perspectives within my research areas.
I recently completed my PhD which explored the impact of social media on experiences of embodiment, self-esteem, and disordered eating patterns. My doctoral research explored the application of 'harms' to diet culture, while considering not just the impact that this (and wider areas of social media) has on youth mental health and/or self-esteem, but the normalisation of online hate that takes place as a means of day-to-day communication online. Thus, the impact social media may have over disordered eating patterns, and body image-related issues – exploring vulnerability within diet culture.
I am a researcher who leads with the use of qualitative methods and has experiences of facilitating interviews with participants from a range of backgrounds, including the interviewing of individuals with lived experience, professionals and people wanting to share their public perceptions around my areas of interest. I also have experience in the use of digital ethnographic methods (predominantly, passive ethnography). My doctoral research focused specifically on the observation of Reddit and Tattle.Life as one phase of my research design.
Further information
In the media:
- Featured on The Sociology Show(opens in new tab) podcast with Matthew Wilkin in May 2022, to discuss ongoing research and Government legislative amendments around nutrition, body image, and digital media.
- Featured on the Out of the Blank(opens in new tab) podcast with Robbie Robertson discussing my ongoing research around online diet culture and the implications of virtual lifestyles and social media on the day-to-day living of young people.