Cost of Living and the Criminalisation of Poverty

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2026

Join Professor Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Dr Debjani Dasgupta for an interactive online panel event which will explore how rising living costs, debt, housing insecurity and financial hardship can increase vulnerability to poverty-driven offending and contact with the criminal justice system. Participants will engage with real-world scenarios, short interactive/polling activities, and discussions with researchers and practitioners.

As the cost of living continues to put pressure on households, what happens when people struggle to afford the essentials? How does financial hardship, homelessness or abusive intimate partner relationships increase vulnerability to offending, exploitation or contact with the criminal justice system? Do some groups (e.g. women, children and young people) face particular risks when families experience financial hardship? And can prevention, diversion and community-based support provide more effective — and less costly — alternatives to prosecution and imprisonment?

These are some of the questions at the heart of this panel discussion. Drawing on research, practitioner knowledge and the lived experiences of people affected by financial hardship and the criminal justice system, the panel will bring together perspectives from policing, support services and criminal justice reform to explore the relationship between poverty, economic insecurity and crime.

Expect a lively and accessible conversation about difficult real-world choices, with perspectives from the Police Foundation, Anawim and Revolving Doors. At its heart is a fundamental question: how can we keep communities safe without unnecessarily criminalising poverty?

Chair: Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, University of Birmingham

Panellists: Ruth Halkon, Police Foundation
Joy Doal, Anawim
Kelly Grehan, Revolving Doors, joined by Ann, a contributor with lived experience