Jon Silverman is Professor of Media and Criminal Justice at the University of Bedfordshire. He is also a freelance Journalist/Broadcaster and Author. He is a frequent contributor to BBC radio and TV programmes and was Criminal Justice Analyst for BBC News Online. For thirteen years, 1989 to 2002, he was the BBC Home/Legal Affairs Correspondent.

He is the Author of two books – one on crack cocaine and the Yardies (1994) and one on sex offenders, media and society (2002). He is currently writing a book about the impact of a changing media on senior criminal justice policy-makers. He is a regular conference chair and has trained journalists in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic and Macedonia. He is an authority on international war crimes tribunals.

He is an associate editor of Safer Communities and a member of the editorial advisory group of the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice. He is a trustee of Fair Trials International