DrCiara Molloy

Ciara Molloy joined the Sutherland School of Law in September 2025 as an Assistant Professor in Criminology.

Prior to joining UCD, she worked as a Lecturer in Criminology in the University of Sheffield from 2023-2025. As part of this role she acted as Deputy Director of Student Recruitment in the Law School. She also served as a steering committee member of the interdisciplinary Centre for Contemporary and Modern History (CoMo).

Ciara also previously worked as Service Coordinator for the Crime Victims Helpline, a charity which provides information and emotional support to all those affected by crime, between 2022-2023. As part of this role she conducted research on the implementation of the Victims' Rights Directive in the Republic of Ireland under the auspices of the BeneVict project (spearheaded by Victim Support Europe and co-funded by the European Union).

Her research interests include historical criminology, cultural criminology, victimology, policing and restorative justice. She has published in international peer-reviewed journals such as the British Journal of Criminology, Criminology & Criminal Justice, Crime, History & Societies and the Law and History Review. She has also contributed articles to The Conversation and RTÉ Brainstorm, and has presented her research findings on television documentaries and podcasts. 

Alongside Dr Richard McMahon, she is co-editor of the Studies in Irish Crime History book series published by Cork University Press. She is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Historical Criminology and Policing: An International Journal. Ciara is currently working on a monograph on Irish youth subcultures based on her PhD research, which was undertaken in UCD and funded by the Irish Research Council.

She teaches across a variety of areas ranging from historical criminology to research methods, and is a fellow of Advance HE/Higher Education Academy UK. She is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.