María Contreras is PhD in Legal and Social Sciences from the University of Malaga (2020). Her PhD Thesis “Waiver of the criminal procedure as a response to foreign offenders who can be administratively deport” was supervised by Elisa García-España and received the received the Cum Laude distinction.

She began her professional career as a probation officer in Barcelona (2006-2010), her research career analyzing the efficacy of the work for the benefit of the community orders (Ajuts CEJFE, 2009) and her academic experience as adjunct professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (2009-2014). Since 2015, she has been linked as a researcher to the Institute of Criminology of the University of Malaga – especially to the Observatory about Criminal Justice Responses towards Immigration – and as an assistant professor of Criminology at this same university. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Pompeu Fabra University.

Her lines of research cover crimmigration, the judicial individualization of the penalties, the effectiveness of reintegration policies and, in general, evidence-based penal practice.