Dr Katie Benson is Lecturer in Criminology at Lancaster University, where she teaches and researches in the areas of money laundering and organised, white-collar and financial crimes. Before joining Lancaster, Katie was a Research Associate in the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Manchester, where she was involved in projects on (anti-)bribery and corruption in multi-national businesses, domestic bribery, and the cross-border distribution of counterfeit alcohol. She has worked as Knowledge Manager for the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency and as an Intelligence Analyst within UK law enforcement, and has worked with, or provided advisory/consultancy services to, various government bodies, law enforcement organisations, research institutions and investigations.

Katie was awarded a PhD in Criminology from the University of Manchester in 2016; the ESRC-funded project focused on the facilitation of money laundering by legal and accountancy professionals. She also holds an MRes in Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies (Distinction; University of Manchester) and an MSc in Criminology (Distinction; University of Leicester).

Katie's primary research focus is the involvement of legal professionals in the facilitation of money laundering, and the criminal justice and regulatory responses to this. 

Katie's primary area of research is the role played by lawyers in the facilitation of money laundering, and the criminal justice and regulatory responses to this. Her monograph on this subject, Lawyers and the Proceeds of Crime: the Facilitation of Money Laundering and Its Control, was published by Routledge in April 2020. 

Katie's broader research interests cut across the fields of 'white-collar' and financial crime, illicit markets, regulation, and the management of criminal proceeds. She has been involved in research on bribery in multinational businesses, domestic bribery, and the cross-border distribution of counterfeit alcohol. Other current projects focus on developing an alternative framework for the conceptualisation and analysis of money laundering, and promoting new voices and emerging research in the fields of (anti-)money laundering, (counter-)terrorist financing and asset recovery.