Rashmee Singh

Associate Professor
picture of Rashmee Singh.

r78singh@uwaterloo.ca

519-888-4567 x 43020

PhD Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies (University of Toronto)
MA Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies (University of Toronto)
BA Sociology (London School of Economics)

Research, Teaching and Supervision Areas

  • Violence against Women
  • Feminist Legal Theory
  • Post-Colonial Feminist & Critical Race Theory
  • Criminology & Sociolegal Studies
  • Specialized Courts
  • Sex Work

Current Research

  1. My primary project is a 5 year, SSHRC Insight grant funded comparative study on the governance of sex work in the United States and Canada. The project examines specialized prostitution and human trafficking courts in multiple American cities and anti-trafficking movements in Southern Ontario with a specific focus on the role of the voluntary sector in both contexts. Dr. Marcia Oliver (Wilfred Laurier University) is a co-investigator on the project.
  2. My second project, funded by a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant, examines the impact of COVID-19 related disruptions on Toronto’s specialized domestic violence courts and the delivery of court-mandated, Partner Abuse Response (PAR) services to men convicted of domestic violence offences. The study in being conducted in collaboration with Counterpoint Counselling and Educational Cooperative, a grassroots feminist anti-violence organization located in Toronto. Dr. Andrea Quinlan is a co-investigator on the project.

Research Grants

2020: SSHRC Insight Grant (Principal Investigator)Project Title: “The Role of the Penal Voluntary Sector in the Governance of the Sex Trade: A Comparative Study” Funds: $89,227

2020: SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant (Principal Investigator) Project Title: “A Partnership to Evaluate the Impact of COVID-19 on Criminal Justice and Community Responses to Domestic Violence” Funds: $24,912

2017: Insight Development Grant UW/SSHRC Research Incentive Fund (Principal Investigator)
Project Title: “Penal Welfarism and the Production of Market Citizens in Specialized Prostitution Courts”
Funds: $10,000

2016: University of Waterloo Gender Equity Grant (Co-investigator)
Project Title: “Health Condition Disclosure Among Pre-Tenure Women: What is and isn’t Reported and Why”
Funds: $9,996

2015: Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (Co-investigator) Project Title: “Sexual Violence on Ontario University Campuses.”
Funds: $236,220

2014: SSHRC Insight Grant (Co-investigator)Project Title: “Seeing Crime: Visual Evidence, Victims & Domestic Violence”
Funds: $177,254

2013: UW/SSHRC SEED Grant (Principal Investigator) Project Title: “Exploring Criminal Justice and Community Partnerships: Chicago’s Specialized Courts for Sex Workers”
Funds: $5500

Publications

Singh, Rashmee (2024). “Rescuing Women from the Brinks of Whiteness: Carceral Restoration in a Human Trafficking Court.” The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 64, Issue 2, March 2024, Pages 275–291, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azad030

Singh, Rashmee (2022). “Shape Shifting: The Penal Voluntary Sector and the Governance of Domestic Violence.” In eds, Derek Silva, Alex Luscombe & Kevin Walby, Private Influences, Privatization, and Criminal Justice in Canada. UBC Press, pp. 198-220.Singh, Rashmee (2022). 

Quinlan, Andrea & Singh Rashmee (2020). “COVID-19 and the Paradox of Visibility: Domestic Violence and Feminist Caring Labour in Canadian Shelters.” Vol, 46, No. 3, Feminist Studies, pp.572-582.

Singh, Rashmee & Moore, Dawn (2020). “Bare Death: Femicide, Forensics, and the Necropolitics of the Corpse.” In eds, Marie-Andree Jacobs and Anna Kirkland, Research Handbook on Socio-Legal Studies of Medicine and Health. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 287-302. 

Sibley, Marcus A., Wohlbold, Elise, Moore, Dawn and Singh, Rashmee (2019). “How She Appears:” Demeanour, Cruel Optimism and the Relationship Between Police and Victims of Domestic Violence” in eds. George Pavlich and Matthew P. Unger, Entryways to Criminal Justice.  University of Alberta Press. 

Singh, Rashmee (2018). “‘Setting a Good Example for the Ladies:’ Example-Setting as a Technique of Penal Reform in Specialized Prostitution Court.”  The British Journal of Criminology, 58 (3), 569-587.  

Moore, Dawn and Singh, Rashmee (2018). “Seeing Crime, Feeling Crime: Visual Evidence and Emotions in the Prosecution of Domestic Violence.” Theoretical Criminology, 22(1), 116-132.

Singh, Rashmee (2017). “‘Please Check the Appropriate Box:’ Documents and the Governance of Domestic Violence.” 42 (2), Law and Social Inquiry, 509-542.

Singh, Rashmee. (2016) “Importing Feminisms: Racialized Migrants and Gender Violence in Toronto’s Diaspora.”  Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 23 (4), 508-530.

Singh, Rashmee (2016). “Domestic Violence and Mandatory Charging: Re-evaluating the Zero Tolerance Approach” in eds., Roberts and Grossman, Criminal Justice in Canada: A Reader.

Moore, Dawn and Singh, Rashmee (2015). “Seeing Crime: ANT, Feminism, and Images of Violence Against Women” in Dufresne and Robert (eds.), Actor Network Theory and Crime Studies: Explorations in Science and Technology. London: Ashgate, 67-81. 

Singh, Rashmee (2012). “When Punishment and Philanthropy Mix: Voluntary Organizations and the Governance of the Domestic Violence Offender” Theoretical Criminology, 16(3), 269-287. 

Singh, Rashmee (2010) “In Between the System and the Margins: Community Organizations, Mandatory Charging, and Immigrant Victims of Abuse” Canadian Journal of Sociology, 35 (1), 31-62. 

Singh, Rashmee (2010) “Immigrant and Refugee Women and the Unintended Consequences of Domestic Violence Policy,” in ed. Kirsten Kramer, Criminology: Critical Canadian Perspectives. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada, 191-204.

Research Reports

Singh, Rashmee, Quinlan, Andrea and Olenewa, Jenniffer (2023). Final Report: Impacts of COVID-19 on Ontario Domestic Violence Shelters.

Buss, Doris, Majury, Diana, Moore, Dawn, Rigakos, George, and Singh, Rashmee (2016). Reponses to Sexual Violence at Ontario University Campuses. Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.   

Wortly, Scot, Randy Seepersad, Rashmee Singh, Andrea McCalla, Carolyn Green, Natasha Madon, Nicole Myers, Carolyn Cotes-Lussier and Terry Roswell (2008).  The Root Causes of Youth Violence: A review of Major Theoretical Perspectives.  Ministry of the Attorney General, Government of Ontario.