Professor Campbell is expert in corporate crime, organised crime, corruption, and biometric evidence. Her research is socio-legal in considering the law in context, and often involves a comparative dimension. There is an empirical element to some of her work, such as in the project on “Corporate Vehicles – Understanding the use of ‘Licit’ Corporate Entities by Transnational Organised Crime Groups in the Concealment, Conversion and Control of Illicit Finance”.

Professor Campbell publishes widely in leading international journals. Her publications include a research monograph on Organised Crime and the Law (Hart, 2013), the fifth edition of The Criminal Process (formerly by Professor Andrew Ashworth and Professor Mike Redmayne) (OUP, 2019), an edited collection on Corruption in Commercial Enterprise (Routledge, 2018), a jointly written book on The Collection and Retention of DNA from Suspects in New Zealand with Nessa Lynch (Victoria University Press, 2015) and a textbook on Criminal Law in Ireland (Clarus Press, 2020 and 2010).  

She sits on a number of editorial boards and is an Assessor for the Australian Research Council and a member of the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College.

Professor Campbell's research has significant impact outside academia. Her research has been cited by the Irish Supreme Court and relied upon in argument before the UK Supreme Court. Her work has also been cited in reports of various law reform commissions.

Professor Campbell was an appointed member of the Australian Law Reform Commission's Advisory Board for its Review into Australia’s Corporate Criminal Responsibility Regime. She is also a member of the UK Home Office Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group, and previously chaired Durham Constabulary's Ethics Committee and served on the NHS Research Ethics Committee (Scotland). 

• Criminal justice

• Criminal law

• Law of evidence

• Organised crime

Funding for research 

Professor Campbell's research has been funded by the Research Council UK’s Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security, the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Law Foundation of New Zealand, the Fulbright Commission, the Modern Law Review, and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.

She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Maryland in 2011-2012, and Principal Investigator for an Arts and Humanities Research Council network on “Corruption in commercial enterprise” (2015-17). Through these collaborative, interdisciplinary research projects and networks, she has developed and enhanced key connections with global scholars. 

Professor Campbell welcomes potential students interested in researching any area of criminal law/justice, particularly organised crime, corruption, corporate/white collar crime, the presumption of innocence, and biometrics. She especially welcomes students from Asia and the global south.