FEATURE: A new report suggests that tackling violence as a public health issue, and developing preventative, health-based interventions for children and young people, can save significant long-term funds across criminal justice, health, and education, and help to break cycles of crime and harm, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.
ANALYSIS: The South Caucasus region of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia is increasingly becoming a hub for organised crime networks spanning borders between Europe, Eurasia and beyond, warns a new study from the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime, with the region’s ports and borders also being used by both organised crime and licit trade to beat sanctions imposed on Russia, as Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen reports.
FEATURE: The standard of crime recording for forces across England and Wales has improved significantly over the past decade, according to the latest report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services – but there are still concerns around violent and anti-social crime statistics, over-recording, and the use of N100 reports in relation to unconfirmed rapes and attempted rapes, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.
FEATURE: With a Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry now underway into the channels, technologies and actors responsible for disinformation and misinformation in the UK, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at research efforts and funding to tackle disinformation across Europe, and how focusing on inclusivity can help to counter attempts to create discord and division.
ANALYSIS: The 2025 edition of the European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (EU TE-SAT) has highlighted the growing number of young people involved in terrorism, and the use of artificial intelligence, social media and gaming to target vulnerabilities such as mental health, isolation and digital addiction, while the impact of geopolitical developments in Russia, Syria and other parts of the African continent also pose a threat, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.
10th September 2025
OPINION: With online cross-border financial scams driving fraud to new levels – it now accounts for 40% of all crime against individuals in England and Wales – most police and government efforts remain focused on preventative and defensive measures; but new research from Professor Mark Button and Associate Professor Branislav Hock at the University of Portsmouth highlights several ways to take more offensive actions against fraudsters, including embracing the work of the private anti-scam community.
ANALYSIS: With an increasing focus on the impact of organisational stress on police officers, University of Cambridge researcher Dr Susannah Hickie explored the perceptions of Police Service of Northern Ireland officers of the formal mental health support available to them, and found that many viewed such provision as inaccessible, highlighting issues such as the repercussions of seeking support, the associated stigma, and a ‘tick-box’ culture as the main barriers.
3rd September 2025
ANALYSIS: While concerns around the rise in Canada’s fentanyl use have focused on a rise in deaths and drug-related disorders, new research by Associate Professors Dr Marta-Marika Urbanik (University of Alberta), Dr Katharina Maier (University of Winnipeg), Dr Matthew Valasik (University of Alabama), and Wilfrid Laurier University Assistant Professor Dr Carolyn Greene, has highlighted the issue of drug gangs exploiting vulnerable people’s homes in Thunder Bay, Ontario, driving up homelessness and violence.
FEATURE: New research by Paris Graduate School PhD researcher David Graves, a former UK fraud squad detective, suggests that the creation of a National Crime Co-ordination Centre could enhance collaboration between police and private investigators, co-ordinate the multi-agency response to major and emerging threats including organised crime, and improve public confidence in policing, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen.
21st August 2025
OPINION: County lines drug dealing was defined in the UK by the National Crime Agency in 2015, and has evolved considerably over the last 10 years, with some believing the term itself is now outdated; University of Liverpool Graduate Teaching Fellow and PhD Candidate Jenna Carr, a former county lines caseworker, argues that the evidence of the past decade suggests policing-led crackdowns on county lines are largely ineffective, and that public health and addressing the demand for drugs should be the priority.
INTERVIEW: The latest wellbeing survey of police officers in England and Wales has been labelled a “wake-up call” by Andy Rhodes, Service Director at Oscar Kilo, the National Police Wellbeing Service, who told Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons that the police service is on “borrowed time” when it comes to officer attrition through exhaustion and fatigue, and warned that policing “can’t keep pushing the pedal harder”.
ANALYSIS: The latest police workforce data for England and Wales shows that while successive governments have promised more funding and additional officers, the total police workforce still remains smaller than at its previous peak 15 years ago; in the first in this new series of articles on workforce development, Ian Wiggett looks at the changes in size and make-up of the police workforce over the past year – the first under a Labour Government since 2010.
FEATURE: New research highlights how organised crime groups and long-term corporate actors are increasingly involved in a range of waste crime, attracted by the significant profits as well as the relatively low level of deterrents and punishments, as Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen reports.
ANALYSIS: Police wellbeing is increasingly a matter for serious concern in the UK, highlighted most recently by the results of the National Police Wellbeing Survey; Dr Ashley Cartwright and PhD Researcher Ellie Hutchison of the University of Huddersfield’s Crime and Policing Research Centre believe new research into individuals’ character strengths could lead to an evidence-based interventions programme that will proactively build psychological resources to help shape a healthier, more resilient police service.
9th August 2025
ANALYSIS: Recent horrific events and the accompanying media headlines have led some to believe Australia is in the grip of a knife crime epidemic; in this second article in a series from The Conversation on weapons and violence in Australia, Macquarie University lecturers Professor Alex Simpson and Dr Vince Hurley argue that the latest crime data suggests the use of weapons and violent crime in the country is decreasing, and that compared to many other others, Australia fares well on these issues.
ANALYSIS: The recent Independent Criminal Courts Review endorsed expanding the use of out-of-court resolutions – which can provide effective resolutions to crimes, and save victims from the stress and lengthiness of court – but what do victims think? New research by Transform Justice highlights considerable support for the approach among victims of crime, and identifies some of the reasons behind their dissatisfaction with the process – including lessons for policing – as Transform Justice Research and Policy Officer Ella Thomson explains.
FEATURE: A new report from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has found that most countries have gaps in their understanding of terrorism financing trends, with terrorist organisations exploiting vulnerabilities both in traditional financial systems, and increasingly through online opportunities; the FATF is calling for greater international collaboration and the harmonisation of legal frameworks, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.
