Research

OPINION: Police in the UK have little discretion to resolve cases involving hate speech with an out-of-court sanction, although an evaluation of this approach recorded reduced reoffending and successful completion rates; Penelope Gibbs, Director of campaign group Transform Justice, believes education of those committing one-off hate speech crimes could be much more effective than court fines, and could reassure victims that such behaviour wouldn’t be repeated.

FEATURE: In the last in this current series of The Police Student focusing on Criminology in Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly looks at how victims experience the criminal justice system, the myths around ‘deserving’ and ‘underserving’ victims, and how restorative justice can give victims a greater voice in the justice process.

LATEST RESEARCH: This summary curates the key policing-related research that's been published online in the last week, with links to the original journal articles, and selected abstracts.

ANALYSIS: New research undertaken in Cleveland Police into police pursuits has highlighted how forces could target their stretched resources more effectively, and potentially improve training on local and rural roads, as well as indicating opportunities for police to work with manufacturers and other partners to make better use of technology in preventing pursuits, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Ahead of this week’s conference on learning from and embedding victim and survivor experiences in response to child sexual abuse (CSA), Dr Sarah Colley, Postdoctoral Researcher at event organisers the International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute, underlines the importance of listening to – and acting on – the lived experiences of victims and survivors of CSA.

LATEST RESEARCH: This summary curates the key policing-related research that's been published online in the last week, with links to the original journal articles, and selected abstracts.

ANALYSIS: New research led by Abertay University’s Dr Ben Jones and funded by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research’s Future of Policing Scheme has highlighted the new challenges around retrieving fingerprints from polymer banknotes introduced in the UK in 2015, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the latest opportunities for police researchers and innovators under the Horizon Europe programme, which includes funding specifically to explore the ability to mitigate new threats and to adapt investigation strategies in the ‘Internet of Things’ era.

INTERVIEW: Having had her own battles with anxiety and mental health, Police Scotland’s Sgt Laura Gibson embarked on a Churchill Fellowship study to explore the efforts made by law enforcement agencies in the US to better prepare recruits for the psychological impact of the job, as well as to understand more about why officers do take their own lives – lessons she believes could have real benefits in the UK, as she told Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

LATEST RESEARCH: This summary curates the key policing-related research that's been published online in the last week, with links to the original journal articles, and selected abstracts.

FEATURE: A new report from the Childlight campaign group has highlighted the staggering scale of online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) – with estimates that at least 300 million children a year are victims – and has urged governments, health experts and law enforcement to tackle OCSEA as “a global health pandemic”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: A new report from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties claims that Ireland’s An Garda Síochána has yet to make significant progress on addressing a number of human rights concerns highlighted six years ago; but the force has strenuously defended its approach, pointing to a number of developments around cultural awareness, community and diversity as evidence that human rights remain at the heart of the Garda’s role, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: New research by Deakin University PhD Candidate Jess Woolley has highlighted how some perpetrators of family violence are weaponising suicide threats, leading to concerns among police officers that addressing the mental health of the perpetrator as a priority can subsequently leave victim-survivors at risk and without adequate protection.

LATEST RESEARCH: This summary curates the key policing-related research that's been published online in the last week, with links to the original journal articles, and selected abstracts.

ANALYSIS: Police in New Zealand – as with many other jurisdictions – are facing significant growth in callouts to mental health incidents, and are considering various approaches; new research by Auckland University of Technology Associate Professor Katey Thom, and Sarah Gordon, Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Otago, suggests that shifting to a trauma-informed support system could improve responses and reduce police involvement.

INNOVATION: An 18-month sleep, fatigue and recovery biometrics pilot programme run in Merseyside Police by the UK’s National Police Wellbeing Service and Liverpool John Moore’s University has received funding to undertake an evaluation of the benefits of wearable technology, with a view to rolling out a toolkit across the service, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: As collaboration between law enforcement agencies becomes increasingly critical to combat cyber threats, Luísa Proença, Deputy National Director of the Portuguese Judicial Police, spoke exclusively to Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth about the importance of research and innovation, and how their participation in the European NOTIONES network is bringing law enforcement agencies together to improve intelligence functions.

OPINION: The Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is considered to be a pioneer in Canadian police oversight; but University of Guelph Associate Professor Kate Puddister, and Brock University Assistant Professor Danielle McNabb, argue that the SIU’s mandate is too narrow to be effective, and point to alternative approaches which are able to consider all types of complaints against police, as well as reviewing police policy, to prevent misconduct in the first place.

ANALYSIS: Europol has identified 821 criminal networks with 25,000 members from 112 different nationalities which carry the biggest threat both inside the EU and internationally – based on the fact they are agile, borderless, controlling and destructive – and has called for “a culture of proactive international police co-operation” to tackle the threat, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A new series of online ‘wellness cafés’ organised by the Recruitment, Retention and Wellbeing of Investigators sub-group of the National Police Chiefs’ Council is offering wellbeing support to secondary investigators and analysts at risk of traumatic stress and burnout because of the material they handle; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to initiative leader Dr Fazeelat Duran and fellow researcher Dr Amy Burrell about the significant and often overlooked risks facing staff.

FEATURE: With law enforcement agencies around the world looking to make the best use of volunteers, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at a EU new report by a group of research projects which has identified a range of measures to leverage the maximum potential from community volunteers in responding to and recovering from major disasters.

ANALYSIS: The concept of coercive control has been recognised for more than 15 years, and coercive and controlling behaviour was introduced as a criminal offence in 2015; but research by Julia Pitman, justice policy, campaigns and research professional, highlighted key barriers the police face in recognising female offenders as victims of coercive control, including lack of officer skill and experience, and inadequate policy and guidance.

ANALYSIS: Despite widespread recognition of the importance of local policing in England and Wales, there is very little consistency or consensus around its delivery; a new research project by the Police Foundation will examine variations in local policing approaches, the rationale behind them, their relative strengths and weaknesses, and how different designs can meet future policing challenges, as Research Director Andy Higgins explains.

INTERVIEW: A new report from the UK’s National Rural Crime Network has highlighted the role of organised crime in many of the machinery thefts devastating farming communities; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Northumbria Police Superintendent Andy Huddlestone, head of the National Rural Crime Unit, about the need for better data sharing, more resources, and greater prioritisation by forces to tackle a growing crime trend.