Professor Carolyn Hoyle has been at the University of Oxford Centre for Criminology since 1991 and was Centre Director from 2012 - 2017. She is currently Director of Graduate Studies (Research) and Director of the Death Penalty Research Unit, based in the Centre.

She has published empirical and theoretical research on a number of criminological topics including domestic violence, policing, restorative justice, the death penalty, and wrongful convictions. Her research into applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission concerning alleged miscarriages of justice was published by Oxford University Press in January 2019: Reasons to Doubt: Wrongful Convictions and the Criminal Cases Review Commission

She is currently working on a range of research studies with the team at the Death Penalty Research Unit and The Death Penalty Project including a project to map foreign nationals at risk of capital punishment in Asia and the Middle East, studies on elite and public opinion on the death penalty in Indonesia, Zimbabwe and Taiwan, and deterrence research in Indonesia.

She teaches courses on the MSc in Criminology & Criminal Justice on: 'Restorative Justice'; 'The Death Penalty'; 'Victims', and 'Academic Communication Skills' as well as running the DPhil programme. She supervises DPhil, MPhil and MSc students on her main areas of research, but is particularly keen to work with students focused on the death penalty.