Research

FEATURE: The latest report from Statistics Canada shows that firearm-related violent crime in the country has reached a 14-year high, with shooting homicides reaching record levels, prompting calls for more resources to be put into frontline policing, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Last year the UK Government reformed the National Referral Mechanism – the framework for identifying potential victims of modern slavery – in an effort to speed up decision making and police action against those accused of exploitation; but Research Assistant Ying Zhang and Professor Chee Yew Wong of the University of Leeds argue that the reforms have actually made the situation considerably worse for potential victims.

FEATURE: In the latest in the new series of The Police Student focusing on Criminology in Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores right realist perspectives, rational actors, and the development of a societal ‘underclass’.

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.

OPINION: Last month’s Annual Youth Justice Statistics for 2022-23 showed fewer children sentenced or cautioned, improvements in disproportionality, and the lowest number of children in custody, but more children being stopped and searched and arrested, including those entering the criminal justice system for the first time; Keith Fraser, Youth Justice Board Chair and Board Champion for Over-Represented Children believes that while there are “rays of optimism” in the figures, much more need to be done to embed change.

OPINION: Social media platforms are flooded with millions of posts every minute, and artificial intelligence (AI) can play a crucial role in monitoring harmful content; Professor Stuart Macdonald, Postdoctoral Researcher Ashley Mattheis and Honorary Research Associate David Wells of Swansea University’s Cyber Threats Research Centre look at the potential and the pitfalls of using AI to identify terrorist content online.

FEATURE: The conflict between Israel and Hamas has seen huge increases in hate crimes (both Islamophobia and antisemitism) around the world; but the sharp rise in antisemitic attacks reflects a trend that predates the current crisis in Gaza, prompting the launch of an EU strategy on targeting antisemitism and a call for police and others to collaborate on protecting Jewish places of worship, schools, and community gatherings, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

FEATURE: Speaking at the Canterbury Centre for Policing Research’s annual conference, Dr Emma Williams – Director of the Open University’s the Centre for Policing Research and an academic with years of experience exploring the police approach to rape cases – gave her overview of why reform in this area is so difficult to get right, and her hopes that Operation Soteria could provide the path to progress, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

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.

INTERVIEW: Police personnel and their families continue to be at risk from online hate and harmful threats; Professor Petra Bayerl from the Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence & Organised Crime Research (CENTRIC), explained to Policing Insight how a ground-breaking project with six police forces is seeking to better understand the challenges, risks and harms police officers and their families face when online.

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: Research in Kenya and more widely across Africa has highlighted low public trust in police and a prevailing perception of corruption, and that lack of trust in Kenyan police has been expressed more keenly by those living in urban areas; Professors Kristine Höglund and Emma Elfversson of Uppsala University explore the reasons for the differences between urban and rural communities, the implications for police reform, and what can be done to address the issue.

FEATURE: A new Home Office-funded project from the Canterbury Centre for Policing Research (CCPR) explores the experiences of those tackling violence against women and girls in Kent’s night-time economy; it finds that police feel “understaffed and stretched”, with concerns about the safety of ‘single-crewed’ officers at night and mixed relationships with essential local security staff, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

ANALYSIS: This month the Global Law Enforcement & Public Health Association (GLEPHA) published a series of reports as part of the ‘Envisaging the future of policing and public health’ project, covering a range of topics including violence prevention, mental health, and policing marginalised communities; in the first in a series of seven articles, Policing Insight’s Thomas James looks at GLEPHA’s report on diversion, defection and referral programmes, including examples from the UK, US, South Africa, Italy, Vietnam, Belarus and Ukraine.

OPINION: After several years of declining road deaths in pursuit of Vision Zero, road fatalities in Australia in 2023 reached levels not seen in nearly a decade; Senior Lecturer Dr Milad Haghani of UNSW Sydney believes that more focused and tailored safety campaigns together with closer monitoring of the community road safety climate can help to get Australia back on track.

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 England and Wales have the power to warn someone when they know their partner poses a real risk of danger under what is known as Clare’s Law, but the level of disclosures varies hugely between forces; research by University of Essex Criminology and Ethics Lecturer Dr Katerina Hadjimatheou suggests that lack of resources, data sharing concerns and cultural resistance within policing all contribute to the problem.

ANALYSIS: With law enforcement in many democracies focusing on the need to develop a policing culture committed to society’s ethical values, the issue of moral injury – when an officer experiences psychological distress arising from actions (or a lack of action) that violates their own moral code – has come to the fore; Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood, a former Toronto Police officer and now part-time professor, explores the concept of moral injury, it’s impact on officers and communities, and what can be done to address the issue.

FEATURE: The latest survey of police wellbeing in England and Wales, coupled with a report comparing research from other staff associations, inspectorates and other bodies, has highlighted significant increases in stress and anxiety and a decline in feeling valued among officers which could also impact on service delivery; but forces that have acknowledged and prioritised wellbeing issues have seen a much more positive trajectory for officers and staff, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: The fall in public trust and confidence has become an issue for policing in many jurisdictions, and recent research in Canada suggests the country’s law enforcement agencies have work to do; Vernon White, former Chief of Ottawa Police Service, and Joe Carlebach, former Hammersmith and Fulham councillor, explore the findings from the most recent surveys, and the efforts being made by a number of forces to rebuild public trust.

ANALYSIS: One of the arguments put forward for the launch of new non-degree recruitment pathways in the UK is that the public want police officers on the streets rather than in classrooms; but research by former police officer Tom Andrews, now a University of Derby Policing Lecturer, suggests that the public are in favour of post-A Level qualifications for police officers – just don’t call them degrees.

FEATURE: In the latest in the new series of The Police Student focusing on Criminology in Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores critical perspectives on crime, including Marxist approaches to criminology, white collar crimes and corruption, and critical race theory.

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.

INTERVIEW: In recent years – and particularly since the Covid pandemic – the levels of public trust and confidence in policing in the UK have shown a worrying decline; Policing Insight’s Martin Gallagher spoke to Prof Ros Searle, an occupational psychologist and specialist in organisational trust, about the challenges facing policing, and what it can do around recruitment and leadership to rebuild that trust and confidence.