Hi, I am Haitao Shi (Heydon)

Criminology, Criminal Justice Policy, Policing, Data Analysis

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As a criminologist, I am passionate about using innovative and forward-thinking research methods to analyse crime-related data. I am currently working as a research assistant for professor Angus Bancroft at the University of Edinburgh. The projects I am involved in encompass a wide range of subjects. They include research on national darknet cultures in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Tampere and Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz; the development of R Shiny Apps for the Drug Research Network Scotland; the use of machine learning and Perspective API for analyzing Crimebb and CrimeBB datasets from the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre; and investigation into the challenges and experiences undergone by Chinese students studying at the University of Edinburgh. I am also serving as a researcher for a project titled 'Rhizomatic Networks, Circulation of Meanings and Contents, and Offline Contexts of Online Drug Trade', funded by the Polish Ministry of Science. I possess a strong foundation in the subject and a passion for sharing the knowledge of criminology with others. I served as a Postgraduate Peer Support Leader at the University of Edinburgh from 2018 to 2019. I gained experience teaching students how to conduct effective literature reviews and data analysis for their projects.

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Research Competencies

  • Quantitative Research Methods: R (RStudio/VS Code), Python (PyCharm), SPSS, MAXQDA
  • Qualitative Research Methods: Nvivo, RQDA, ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA
  • Database: MySQL, Redis
  • Version control: Git
  • Data visualisation: Gephi, R, QGIS
  • Cloud computing: Microsoft Azure, ORACLE, AWS
  • Writing, editing and presentation: Notion, Obsidian+Excalidraw, Scrivener, LaTeX, Quarto, Reveal.js

research projects

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Drug Policing in China


I earned my PhD in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh, under the expert supervision of Angus Bancroft and Hugo Gorringe. My PhD thesis titled "Drug Policing in China: Drug Laws, Police Culture, and Police Professionalisation" explores how the challenges and problems of police professionalisation affect drug policing. It demonstrates how guanxi interacts with frontline policing and affects police professionalisation. While it evaluates the changes brought about by stricter supervision of officers and academisation due to police professionalisation, it highlights the importance of craft-based knowledge in policing. It identifies and analyses educational, structural, and cultural challenges to police professionalisation and attempts to understand police culture by incorporating the 'agency' of police officers with regard to cultural acceptance, rejection, and development. The thesis also examines the different cultures across different generations of police officers and argues that professional competence is disrupting traditional power systems within police organisations. The study provides insights for police reform in drug control, focusing on harm reduction and improved quality of law enforcement.

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Data Analysis

I find great pleasure in employing a diverse range of software and programming languages for data analysis, statistical interpretation and visualisation. For instance, these four graphs, among others, were created for a project analysing a darknet platform called Nemesis. I used Gephi to illustrate the correlation between drugs being sold together, MaxQDA for a qualitative analysis, R for visualising the bigram via a Markov chain, and R again to create an interactive Sankey Diagram depicting the sales route of Cannabis.

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Web Scraping and RShiny App Development

I used Python/R language to circumvent anti-crawl mechanisms like Cloudflare bot detection, CAPTCHAs, login protections, and time interval detections. I managed to scrape all data, including concealed information, from illegal drug trading forums and darknet platforms for the project titled 'Rhizomatic Networks, Circulation of Meanings and Contents, and Offline Contexts of Online Drug Trade', funded by the Polish Ministry of Science. I am also in the process of developing RShiny Apps for Drug Research Network Scotland, which allows users to visualise the authors and their contributions in Scotland.

education

2009 - 2013

LL.B Public Security

East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL)

Shanghai, China

Modules (69 in total): Criminology, All kinds of Laws, Criminal Sociology, Criminal Psychology, Theory and Practice of Correction, Crime Control Technology.

2013 - 2014

MSc Criminal Justice Policy

London School of Economics and Political Science

London, United Kingdom

Modules: Criminal Justice Policy, Policing and Police Power, Illegal Drugs and Their Control, Globalisation, Gender and Development, Policy and Practices, Qualitative Research Methods

Dissertation: Analysing the Impacts of Prison Architecture on Offenders and Their Rehabilitation

2016 - 2023

PhD in Sociology

University of Edinburgh

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Thesis: Drug Policing in China: Drug Laws, Police Culture, and Police Professionalisation

Supervised by Prof Angus Bancroft and Dr Hugo Gorringe.

publications

working experience

  • June 2023 - Now

    Research assistant

    University of Edinburgh

    Edinbrurgh, United Kingdom

    I am working under the guidance of one of my PhD supervisors, Professor Angus Bancroft, from the Department of Sociology.

  • Jul 2022 - Dec 2023

    Web Crawler Engineer/Researcher

    Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz

    EBydgoszcz, Poland

    Using Python and R to scrape all data, both overt and covert, from websites including Dopek and Cebulka (darkweb platforms), and Hyperreal, and organising it in a tidy format suitable for machine learning applications.

  • Sep 2018 - Sep 2019

    Mentor of the Postgraduate/Peer Support Leader

    University of Edinburgh

    Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    • Teaching students how to do data analysis and literature reviews effectively
    • Creating WeChat groups for students to share information and help each other

  • Sep 2014 - Nov 2014

    internship

    International Drug Policy Consortium

    London, United Kingdom

    • Updating the ICPD website and writing brief introductions of IDPC news and publications
    • Freeing colleagues to perform repetitive and time-consuming tasks by providing technical support
    • Launching a new social media tool in Chinese
    • Researching drug policy in the Caribbean
    • Supporting IDPC in identifying new donors

Awards and Grants

  • 2023: Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (Funded by Microsoft)
  • 2023: Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals (Funded by Microsoft)
  • 2023: Path Analysis with Interactions and Indirect Effects in R (Funded by Instats)
  • 2022: R Statistics Essential Training (LinkedIn Learning Certificate)
  • 2022: Statistics Foundations 1 (LinkedIn Learning Certificate)
  • 2022: Statistics Foundations 2 (LinkedIn Learning Certificate)
  • 2021: Data Science: Machine Learning Certificate from HarvardX with full marks (Funded by The Macquarie Group Scholarship)
  • 2019: Understanding and Policing Gangs Conference (Funded by Cumberland Lodge)
  • 2016—2023: Three times PGR Research Support Fund (Funded by University of Edinburgh)
  • 2013: Shanghai Outstanding Graduates
  • 2010—2012: Three times Excellent Student and First Scholarship of ECUPL
  • 2011: Prize for Excellence of 4th "UN Asia Crime Prevention Foundation", College of Criminal Justice Students Academic Innovation Contest
  • 2011: National Scholarship of China

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