Dr. Conley is a specialist in British and Irish history and her research focuses on the social history of criminal violence.She has published three books, The Unwritten Law: Criminal Justice in Victorian Kent (Oxford, 1991); Melancholy Accidents: The Meaning of Violence in Post-Famine Ireland (Lexington Books, 1999); Certain Other Countries: Homicide, Gender and National Identity in Late Nineteenth Century England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales (Ohio State University Press, 2007).