Professor emeritus Dr. Dr. habil. Stefan Machura has been teaching criminology and criminal justice at Bangor University from 2006 to 2025. He is currently guest scholar at the In Iure Institute of the Fernuniversität Hagen, the German distance learning university.

Experiences with crime and agencies involved in addressing crime form major aspects of his research.  He also studies the portrayal of crime in media and its effects on audiences. Professor Machura conducted research in Wales, the UK and beyond. He has studied the co-operation of professionals and agencies involved in safeguarding children as well as the ability of police officers to recognise cases of modern slavery. Several studies addressed the topical issue of trust in the police, the latest of these was funded by the All Wales Police Academic Collaboration (AWPAC).  Another project focused on young people’s readiness to drive under the influence of alcohol and medication that impedes their capacity to control a car. Currently, Professor Machura investigates how lay and professional judges cooperate to respond to crime. The Fritz Thyssen Foundation is funding the project.

Professor Machura has published 6 books (a further book is in preparation for 2026), edited 10 books (plus one in print for 2026), edited 5 issues of academic journals, and published 64 journal articles and 70 book chapters. In addition, he authored book reviews, comments and reports. Some of his works have been translated into Chinese, Russian and Spanish.

Stefan Machura co-founded the Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice and served as co-director. He has been external examiner for Aberystwyth University and Cardiff University. In Germany, he taught at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Deutsche Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften, Speyer. In addition, he has been a guest lecturer/professor at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Onati, Spanish Basque Country) and the University of East Finland.

In 2020, Stefan Machura received the International Prize Honorary Mention of the Law and Society Association (USA) in recognition of significant contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the field of law and society.

Stefan Machura is  a member of the editorial board of the "Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie. The German Journal of Law and Society" (info: https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/zfrs).

The Working Group on Law and Popular Culture of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on Sociology of Law (RCSL) has elected Stefan Machura as its chair.

Stefan Machura is a board member of the Sociology of Law Section in the German Sociological Association. In addition, he is a member of the extended board of the (German) Association for Law and Society “Vereinigung für Recht und Gesellschaft”.

Since 2023, Stefan Machura is a member of the Youth Justice Board Academic Liaison Network.

Professor Machura's research interests are related to the areas of sociology of law, political sociology, criminology and criminal justice, popular culture including mass media and music. In empirical studies, he has researched Welsh and UK political and legal culture. He is interested in international and transdisciplinary research, and in cooperating with scholars and practitioners from various academic backgrounds and from different countries. In his work, he uses a range of research methods, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods, cross-sectional and case studies, panel studies, randomised telephone interviews, face-to-face interviews, court observation and systematic analyses of media content. 

Former leadership roles (selection) 

• Exams Officer (postgraduate taught degrees, PGT)
• Member of pastoral team for postgraduate students
• Director of postgraduate research
• Course director for social science and criminology postgraduate degrees.

PhD students currently supervised:

• David Ashworth: Driving Offences under the Influence of Drugs
• Alicia Edwards: Agromafia
• Declan Hold: Social Policy and Crime.

 PhD students previously supervised:

• Iossif Irhoumah: Satellite Television and Informal Social Control Institutions. Libyan Society in the Era of Globalization
• Yusuf Usman: The Renewal of Hostilities in the Nigerian Delta Region in 2016 and the Failure of the Presidential Amnesty 
• Marc Lewis: Making Connections: The Socio-Economic Impacts of an All-Wales Integrated Transport System.

Modules previously taught:

Undergraduate modules

• Actors in the Legislation Process
• Administrative Courts in Action
• Administrative Policy
• Americana film genre
• BA Dissertation module
• Contemporary Social Debates
• Courts and Lawyers in the Media – Media Content, Media Strat­egies, Media Effects
• Crime and Law in Film
• Crime and the Media
• Emile Durkheim
• Interest Groups, Parties, Elections – Political Sociology
• Introduction to Criminology
• Introduction to Political Science
• Law in Film
• Law, State and Social Development as Seen by Weber and Luhmann
• Max Weber
• Media and Politics
• Prison Films 1930-2000
• Procedural and Distributive Justice
• Public Management
• Social Science Perspectives
• Sociology of Law
• Sociology of Organization and Public Administration
• The Criminal Procedure as Seen by the Defendant
• The German Courtroom Film
• Understanding Criminal Courts.

Postgraduate Modules

• Applied Research in Criminology
• Applied Social Research
• Comparative and International Criminal Justice
• Comparative Criminological Research
• International Case Studies in Criminology
• Key Issues in Crime and Justice
• Key Issues in Criminology
• LLM Dissertation (coordinator)
• MA Dissertation (module coordinator)
• Procedures and the Construction of Collective Action
• Social Science in Action
• The Research Process.

Answer phone: 01248-382214

Email: [email protected]

At Bangor University, Stefan Machura has conducted a series of empirical studies on the public perception of police and courts. The studies focus on citizen’s direct and indirect sources of information ranging from contacting police and appearing in court to the effects of popular TV series and of having family and friends in the police or the legal profession.

2015 and 2016, in collaboration with Penny Darbyshire (Kingston University), trials at youth courts were systematically observed and interviews with judges, lawyers, social workers and prosecutors, as well as experts, conducted. Stefan Machura continued these studies in the following years.

In 2016, Stefan Machura investigated the inclination of students to drive while under the influence of alcohol or of a prescription drug which comes with a warning that it impairs the ability to control a car. 

In collaboration with Fay Short (School of Psychology) and North Wales Police, Stefan Machura studied how police officers and members of the public react to cases constituting a breach of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Data were sampled in the first half of 2017, resulting in more than 800 returned questionnaires. 

In 2023, in cooperation with North Wales Police, Gwent Police, the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales Police and partners from four universities, Stefan Machura has investigated the effects of national media coverage on local trust and confidence. The project was funded by the All-Wales Policing Academic Collaboration.

The cooperation of lay and professional judges at German lower criminal courts is the focus of a research study started in 2025. The study is supported by a research grant from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. Dr Yundong Luo works as project officer.