Research Focus Areas

The Department has specific research focus areas aligned with current societal trends in the fields of social work and criminology. The research focus areas are detailed below with specific points for further clarification, illustrating their interconnectedness within the broader themes. These focus areas cut across various themes and can be applied according to the intended research topic. While these focus areas reflect the Department’s current research priorities, the Department remains open to new innovative research to stay updated with the rapidly changing society. Prospective students are encouraged to discuss and/or submit their intended research topics to the Department for consideration.

Children, the youth, family well-being, and older persons

• Best interest of the child
• Caregivers of children and older persons
• Children in need of care and protection, access to care, and forms of alternative care
• Child protection
• Guardians of children
• Couples / partners
• Challenges and needs across different types of families
• Family preservation
• Youth development
• Ageing process: challenges and resilience
• Gerontological social work

Decoloniality and African knowledges

• Decolonisation and transformation imperatives in social work and criminology theory, practice, and/or education
• Ongoing coloniality and its psycho-social, socio-economic impact
• Exploration and foregrounding of African knowledge systems for local and international contexts

Socio-economic and ecological justice, and human rights

• Climate change and adaptive strategies
• Disaster management
• Environmental criminology
• Green criminology
• Green social work
• Promotion of human rights
• Socio-economic inequalities
• Sustainable development
• Social development
• Community development
• Developmental social work
• Vulnerable and marginalised groups

Gender-based violence

• Corrective rape
• Domestic violence
• Female and male victims of gender-based violence
• Femicide
• Intimate partner violence
• LGBTIQA+ violence

Health, mental health, and well-being

• Health behaviour across the lifespan
• Health inequalities
• Health injustices, medico-legal ethics, patient rights, and health standards compliance
• Home-based care
• Mental health
• Oncology
• Palliative care
• People with disabilities
• Psychocriminology
• Social determinants of health
• Social determinants of mental health
• Traditional medicine
• Trauma
• Crisis intervention

Addictions

• Substance use and mental disorders
• Substance misuse
• Substance use disorders
• Behavioural addictions, e.g., excessive exercise, gambling, and internet addiction
• Service delivery in the field of addictions, i.e., prevention, early intervention, treatment, and aftercare and reintegration services
• Harm reduction approach to substance use

Criminal justice system

• Aetiology of offenders and criminal behaviour
• Role of safety, and security institutions
• Crime reduction on a primary, secondary and tertiary level
• Human rights of offenders
• Profiling of offenders
• Judicial procedures
• Law enforcement
• Corrections
• Rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders
• Restorative justice initiatives
• Offenders across the lifespan (children, youth, adults, and older persons)
• Policing of crime
• Victimology

Management of crime

• Gun control policies
• Risk assessment in the crime control and management milieu

Digital and cyber world

• Cybercrime
• Digital divide
• Hybrid human service delivery
• Digital human service delivery
• Information and communication technologies
• Peoples’ welfare during fourth and fifth industrial revolution
• Inclusive practice / human service delivery

Employee wellness

• Wellness and well-being of workers
• Discrimination and violence in the workplace
• Prevention and treatment of workplace challenges (e.g., sexual harassment in the workplace, workplace bullying)
• Monitoring and evaluating, as well as return on investment studies related to  employee wellness programmes
• Workplace wellness policy

Updated August 2024