Prof Jonathan Shepherd
Research Theme
Applied Clinical Research & Public Health
Research Group
Professor Jonathan Shepherd CBE FMedSci directs the Cardiff University Violence and Society Research Group. His research on clinical decisions and community violence has made many contributions to clinical and public policy and legislation. Prompted by his discoveries he led the development of the prototype UK community safety partnership which he continues to chair and which was used as a model in the Crime and Disorder Act; the pioneering Universities' Police Science Institute; the prototype data sharing model for violence prevention which was adopted in the 2008 UK violence reduction strategy and by the Coalition Government in 2010; and a prototype care pathway for victims of violence. His surveys, laboratory work and field experiments on glass injury resulted in a switch to tempered glassware in the UK licensed trade. His research also prompted the historic first National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal in 2000. As a result of these guidelines and his advocacy for selective surgery, third molar removal declined substantially: 30,000 fewer operations were carried out in the NHS in 2003 compared to 1996. He won the 2008 Stockholm Criminology Prize (the first UK recipient of what The Times described as "the equivalent of a Nobel prize"); is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists reflecting his contributions to alcohol misuse and traumatic stress treatment services, of the College of Emergency Medicine and of the Faculty of Public Health at the Royal College of Physicians. He has served as vice chair of the national charity Victim Support and is an elected member of Council and Trustee of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He sits on the Wales Assembly Government public services ministerial advisory group and, as the clinical member of the Whitehall alcohol strategy group, helped develop and deliver the national 2012 strategy. He is a member of Council of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a member of the Home Office Science Council.