Anthea joined the University of Birmingham in September 2020 as Head of School of Social Policy (2020-2022) from the University of Leeds where she was Pro-Dean for Research in the Faculty of Social Sciences (2015-2020) and Director of Research (2014-2015) and REF led (2012-2014) for the School of Law. Prior to this she worked at the Universities of Hull and Leicester.

Anthea undertakes research and publishes on many aspects of the criminal justice process crossing boundaries between law, sociology, social policy and science and technology studies. She has a longstanding interest in bail/remand and pre-trial detention and the use of electronic monitoring (tagging) in the criminal justice process. Her interests extend to prisons and community sentences, private and voluntary sector involvement in criminal justice, compliance and emerging technologies, particularly the use wearable devices to track individuals in areas as diverse as mental health, dementia care, children in care, terrorism and immigration.

She has been awarded nearly £3 million of research funding. Her research has been funded by the ESRC, AHRC, European Commission, Home Office, Ministry of Justice and third and private sector organisations.