Peter Squires began working at the University of Brighton in 1986. Before that he taught sociology and social policy at Roehampton Institute and for the Open University and at Bristol Polytechnic. He graduated in Sociology & Social Policy from the University of Bristol and his PhD. titled, Studies in the Criminalisation of Poverty, was completed there in 1985. After experience as a management Committee member of the Brighton Community Law Centre and the Community Health Council he was elected as a Brighton Borough councillor for Regency Ward (1990-1994). Since the early 1990s he has helped develop the new teaching and research specialism in criminology and criminal justice at SASS. This has attracted many new students and led to the significant growth of the school. The school is now developing a Criminology Masters portfolio. In the local area he has undertaken a great deal of research and consultancy with, among others, Sussex Police, the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and the Youth Justice Board. In 2003 he was co-opted onto the Home Office Firearms Consultative Committee as a result of his work in the field of firearms and crime. View profile on The Guardian’s ‘Academic Experts’ directory, October 2007.