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Lecturer in Criminology

I originally joined the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ as a student in 2012. After completing undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications at the university, I moved on to the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ of Birmingham to pursue a PhD in Political Science, which I am due to submit in 2022.

Since starting my PhD, my research has focused on studying the varied approaches that are taken to regulating political finance around the world. I aim to understand how political finance is regulated, before identifying the factors that influence the divergent approaches that are taken. This project is a mixed methods study, which incorporates unsupervised machine learning, archival research, and thematic analysis.

My most recent project, published in Electoral Studies, was oriented toward the development of a cross-national database for the categorization of political finance regimes. Based on data from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, the ‘Regulation of Political Finance Indicator’ (RoPFI) compares political finance regulations across 180 nations. Information on the project and data visualizations are available at my website

In conjunction with this research project, I hold a keen interest in studying election campaigns. My analysis of political spending during the 2020 US Election has been quoted by ITV News and featured in The Conversation, with further contributions to ECPR’s The Loop, LSE US Politics and Policy and PSA Political Insight magazine.

Having previously taught at the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ of Birmingham, I returned to the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ to teach on the Criminology Masters programme in the 2020/2021 academic year. My current teaching areas focus on Corporate Crime and Research Skills/Methods. In future, I aim to teach and research topics that bridge the disciplines of Criminology and Political Science, by focusing on the links between corporate and organized crime, political campaign contributions, and government decision making.

Other References

• uk.linkedin.com/in/williamhorncastle
• twittecom/willhorncastle
• ropfi.com

Qualifications

• PhD Political Science – ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ of Birmingham (in progress)
• PGCert in Advanced Research Methods – ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ of Birmingham
• MA Criminology – ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½
• BA Hons Criminology – ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½
• Fellow of Advance HE

Teaching Expertise

• Corporate Crime
• Crimes of the Powerful
• Crime and Politics
• Research Skills
• Quantitative/Qualitative Research Training

Research Interests

• Political Finance
• Political Institutions
• Electoral Regulations
• Comparative Research
• Machine Learning in Social Research

Projects

• Developing the Regulation of Political Finance Indicator (2017-2022)

Publications

• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2022) ‘Competition, Organization or Ideology? Process Tracing the Development of Australian Political Finance Reforms (1980—2020)’, REPRESENT Mini-Workshop, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ of Nottingham, 10 November.
• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2022) ‘A novel dataset of global political finance regimes’, ECPR The Loop, 10 October. Available at:
• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2022) ‘Model based clustering of political finance regimes: Developing the Regulation of Political Finance Indicator’, Electoral Studies, 79 (1) pp.1—12. doi: 0.1016/j.electstud.2022.102524.
• Horncastle, W.C.R (2021) ‘Electoral Competition or Party Ideology? Examining the Incentives Behind Political Finance Reform’, Random Access Memories Conference. PSA ECN, 5-9 July. Available at:
• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2021) ‘The Parliament of New Zealand’, PSA Parl: Parliamentary Overviews, 20 April. Available at:
• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2020) ‘The 2020 election was the most expensive in history, but campaign spending does not always lead to success’, LSE US Politics and Policy, 27 November. Available at:
• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2020) ‘The scale of US election spending explained in five graphs’, The Conversation, 15 October. Available at:
• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2020) ‘Ten years on, the legacy of Citizens United still threatens representative democracy in the United States’, LSE US Politics and Policy, 21 January. Available at:
• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2019) ‘Comparative political finance: Towards a unified approach for measuring and categorising political finance systems’, Making Sense of Contemporary Politics. PSA ECN, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ of Exeter, 24 June.
• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2019) Measurement Tools for Comparative Political Finance: Excessive Reductionism or Valuable Simplicity? Electoral Regulation Research Network and Democratic Audit of Australia Working Paper Series No. 54. Available at:
• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2018) ‘Marx’s Renaissance: Explaining the Growth of the left in the UK and beyond’, Political Insight, 9 (3) pp.16-19. doi: 10.1177/2041905818796575.
• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2018) ‘Assessing the current state of the Left in the UK: how did we get here and what does the future hold?’, The Future of the Left in the UK and Germany’ Symposium. Institute for German Studies, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ of Birmingham, 10 October.
• Horncastle, W.C.R. (2018) ‘Neoliberalism, Political Finance, and Inequality: A mixed-methods investigation into the relationship between political finance regulation and income inequality’, A Platform for the Researchers of Tomorrow. Westmere House, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ of Birmingham, 15 March.

Contact Details

E: william.horncastle1@beds.ac.ukÌý

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