Scott is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, focusing on experiences of the process of progression through the Scottish criminal justice system for those sentenced to life imprisonment. Scott is also a founding member and current researcher within the Scottish Prisoner Advocacy and Research Collective (SPARC) a new organisation comprising academics from various universities across Scotland including those with long term lived experience of the criminal justice system, advocating for progressive penal policy reform in Scotland.
He gained his Masters by Research from the University of Dundee, and his BSc Honours in Criminology from the Open University, during an academic journey that began as a teenager custody.
Scott’s academic and criminological perspective is informed by lived experience of both the youth and adult justice system, and he has written and presented on a range of issues for various publications and organisations, including the CYCJ, such as the impact of shaming practices and stigma in the justice system, the treatment of LGBTQ+ people in custody, the pathologizing of masculinity, the provision and pursuit of prison education, and class and habitus in navigating carceral institutions.