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The suspension of certain civil liberties and the extension of police powers to combat the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has provoked concerns about the longer-term implications of the pandemic on police legitimacy. Drawing upon pathways to police legitimacy identified within the literature, this paper examines police officers' perceptions of the impacts on, and potential challenges to, police legitimacy arising from the pandemic. Qualitative interviews, video diaries and focus groups were conducted with police officers in one police force area in England, captured over a five month period in winter 2020/21. The experience of policing Covid-19 left many police officers concerned about the possible consequences for the relationship with the public. The paper cautions that any gains in public perceptions of procedural justice through using enforcement measures only as a last resort, may be offset by losses in other pathways to legitimacy. Expectations of enforcement and increased visibility plus prolonged changes to deployment practices have all heightened a focus on the more instrumental aspects of police legitimacy. Concerns were also voiced that the policing of Covid-19 has accentuated divisions in society, exacerbating the sense of multiple publics to police, with different and often competing expectations of – and beliefs about – the police. Enforcement falling more heavily within some groups and locations risks exacerbating long-standing concerns about distributive fairness. As agents of social control with unique powers to exercise force and compulsion, the pandemic will require the police to exercise continued vigilance on the means by which public consent and support are sustained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to domestic violence and abuse (DVA) poses significant challenges for the criminal justice system, with recent studies highlighting a number of significant gaps and failings in the nature of the police response in particular. This paper reports on findings from a component of the multi-stage ESRC funded project 'Justice, Inequality and Gender-Based Violence' (ESRC grant ES/M010090/1) that relates to 400 reported incidents of DVA involving intimate partners recorded by two police force areas in England in 2014. Drawing on this large data set concerning a wide range of incidents, this paper employs quantitative methods to analyse the trajectories of reports made to the police, and the factors that may influence their progress through, or attrition from the criminal justice system. In doing so, this paper finds that certain 'inequality' factors such as victim gender, vulnerability (including mental health) and incident type are found to impact the progression of cases through the criminal justice system. This work seeks to build on our understanding of what happens to incidents of DVA that are brought to the attention of the police by victims and survivors, and reflects upon how the outcomes of such incidents impact the broader debate concerning the pursuit of a formal, or criminal 'justice' in cases of DVA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a growing body of recent literature that has examined the role of the police during the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about police approaches to citizen-engagement on social media in England. Accordingly, this paper draws on robust qualitative research conducted with police officers and staff across England who utilised either official, semi-official, or unofficial police social media accounts. The paper illustrates how they understood their role on social media during the pandemic, and the opportunities and lessons that can be learned. Above all, officers and staff in the study reported that the police transitioned between three distinct stages on social media during the first year of the pandemic. First, they discussed the need to move police engagement with citizens entirely online when the first lockdown started in March 2020 to maintain contact, albeit under very restricted circumstances. Second, during the initial stages of lockdown, they believed it was important that the police shared content on social media on how to keep safe, although they also acknowledged specific challenges in relation to sharing visual content, details of coronavirus legislation, and government guidance. Third, police participants later reported withdrawing from discussing pandemic-related content on social media, and instead promoting positive and feel-good stories about generic police activity. These findings are significant because they reveal that social media enabled the police to maintain their relationship with citizens during the pandemic, although in doing so the police played less of a role in relation to broadcasting guidance and rules linked to keeping people safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, legislation was enacted in England and Wales to criminalise coercive control. While there has been considerable debate on the merits of the law, there has been little empirical study of its use in practice. This paper presents findings from a focused ethnography conducted in two police forces in England. Field observations with first response officers and specialist investigators reveal structural and social-cultural contexts that mitigate against successful implementation of the law. Specifically, we identify officer knowledge and attitudes, resourcing and the framing of the legislation itself as impeding its wider use. While we did not observe the unintended consequences feared by some observers, we conclude that systemic change is required if the theoretical benefits of the legislation are to be fully realised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As with other parts of the public sector, policing has had to confront the principles and processes attached to new public management. This paper examines the impact of police performance management on the 'occupational professionalism' of British policing actors with a particular focus on organisational units concerned with criminal investigation. Based on qualitative empirical research on two major police forces in England and Wales, the paper arrives at three main conclusions. First, there appears to be a clear impact of police performance management, with its instruments of standardised operational procedures, performance monitoring and strengthened internal accountability, on the professional autonomy given to police actors. This takes the form of what others have seen as a shift from 'occupational professionalism' to 'organisational professionalism'. Second, despite this overall trend, tensions and professional rivalries remain between police frontline officers, supervisors and middle managers around the perceived virtues and practices of performance management. In particular concerns are expressed at various levels over the dangers of 'short-termism' in police decision-making. Third, and building on this finding, varied modes of professional adaptation to the police performance regime have occurred in which some sectors, notably those involved with high profile serious criminal investigations, have worked to win professional space and exploit a hierarchy of prestige in order to actively interpret and shape agendas. We conclude that this situation is akin to the 'managed professionalism' found amongst many other public service professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic medicine has traditionally been understood as constituting a tension between medical and legal roles: a care-custody paradox. Rather than reinforcing this paradox, however, in this paper I will draw upon a study of Healthcare Professionals working within police custody suites in England in order to show the ways that they coproduce [Jasanoff, S., 2004. States of knowledge: the co-production of science and social order. London: Routledge] their work with the aim of simultaneously meeting the requirements of both their police (for instance PACE codes) and healthcare (for instance the Nursing and Midwifery Code of Practice) responsibilities. Focusing on acts of 'mundane care' [Brownlie, J. and Spandler, H., 2018. Materialities of mundane care and the art of holding one's own. Sociology of health and illness, 40 (2), 256–269], the typification of detainees and the use of detention cells as risk management tools, I will show that rather than undergoing an existential crisis, Healthcare Professionals mobilise coproduced practices in order to perform their work successfully, thereby further enabling police and detention officers to achieve their custody objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines police and national probation service (NPS) practitioners' experiences of utilising a dynamic risk management tool with registered sexual offenders (RSOs) in the community. The Active Risk Management System (ARMS) was designed as a multi-agency tool providing police with a dynamic tool for use with RSOs and the NPS with a sexual offender specific tool to support their original dynamic risk tool OASys (Offender Assessment System). Based on both quantitative and qualitative research with every police force and every NPS division in England and Wales, this paper highlights that despite a comprehensive adoption of ARMS within policing practice, the theoretical benefits of the ARMS tool have unfortunately not been realised. The resource implications of the tool's utilisation, the different needs and siloed working practices of the police and NPS as well as a staggered implementation of the tool across both agencies has presented challenges for the practical use of ARMS in both single and joint agency offender management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the current approach to the interaction between policing and sex work in England and Wales. It reviews the legal and policy context and outlines current policing guidance and priorities, introducing the Harm Reduction Compass as a mechanism to advance policing policy and optimise operational decision-making. Through critical discussion of occupational culture and reforms in policing, it also assesses how continuity, reliability, and transferability can be achieved across police forces within the existing hostile and outdated statutory framework. The Harm Reduction Compass (HRC) aims to focus policing resources on adult sexual exploitation and crimes experienced by sex workers by decoding the complexities of different individuals' personal circumstances. This paper proposes a new framework as a model to aid operational policing by triaging different scenarios to reach the most appropriate response. This new model, which identifies autonomy and harm as the most significant indicators, addresses harm and vulnerability holistically and combines policing with public health and community-based approaches; this ensures the pathway to assistance and intervention is an integrated multi-partnership. The HRC is a step forward in progressing police culture around the use of language and in dealing with crimes against sex workers in the most appropriate way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence shows that the application of problem-oriented policing can be effective in reducing a wide range of crime and public safety issues, but that the approach is challenging to implement and sustain. This article examines police perceptions and experiences regarding organisational barriers to and facilitators of the implementation and delivery of problem-oriented policing. Drawing on surveys of (n = 4141) and interviews with (n = 86) police personnel from 19 police forces in England and Wales, we identify five key barriers and facilitators to problem-oriented policing: leadership and governance, capacity, organisational structures and infrastructure, partnership working and organisational culture. These factors provide important indicators for what police organisations need to do, or need to avoid, if they are to successfully embed and deliver problem-oriented policing. The article generates critical information about the processes that drive change in police organisations and offers recommendations for police managers who may wish to implement or develop problem-oriented policing. The paper also proposes a research agenda aimed at addressing evidence gaps in our understanding of the implementation and sustenance of problem-oriented policing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 and the associated public health response directing people to stay at home and/or shelter in place generated acute awareness of, and concerns about, the likely impact on violence(s) against women across the globe. Initial reports from support services suggested that such violence increased, and that its impact was more complex. Early evidence of increased demands in relation to domestic abuse on policing was however less clear. This paper, based on findings from a larger project, offers an analysis of the initial responses to domestic abuse by the police and the courts in England and Wales during the initial pandemic lockdown of 2020. These findings are situated within wider debates concerned with the nature and impact of the current organisational structure of policing and suggests that whilst police forces responded both quickly and innovatively in order to maintain a focus on domestic abuse, their capacity to continue in this vein will be limited in the absence of wider structural and organisational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The numbers of police officers in England and Wales who resigned voluntarily from the service have been increasing rapidly in recent years. Despite this, there has been scant attention paid to this issue academically or organisationally. Using the guiding framework of organisational commitment with its focus upon active institutional identification, this paper considers police officer decisions to resign voluntarily from the police service. It does this through an analysis of a survey distributed to police officers from one English force who had resigned voluntarily between November 2014 and June 2019. The findings demonstrate that resigning police officers highly value the occupation they have joined, the nature of their work, the opportunities for fulfilling public service ambitions and the satisfaction of working with policing colleagues as part of a team. The findings also indicate however that they are ultimately frustrated by the perceived inability of the organisation to manage the demands upon them and by a sense of organisational 'injustice' emanating from perceptions of a lack of 'voice', leadership, autonomy and support. This damages the exchange-based working relationship between officers and managers, causing a decline in affective organisational commitment. Consequently, these factors have a negative personal impact upon their physical and mental health and an impact upon their caring responsibilities and personal relationships outside of their working environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on ethnographic research carried out in England and Wales soon after the Lawrence Inquiry to present an historical analysis of the strategies used by officers to manage interactions with suspects during police stops. The paper uses Goffman's conceptual apparatus to explore how officers established order during interactions, monitored suspects' demeanour closely to decide what was going on and how to proceed, and carefully controlled information to stage-manage encounters. By way of comparison, the paper describes interactions with known offenders who were stopped more regularly. The conclusions emphasise how officers exerted control during interactions through subtle uses of power, and discusses the policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactional justice is concerned with how far victims feel (i) respected by justice officials ('interpersonal justice') and (ii) informed about the progress of their case and the justice process overall ('informational justice') [Laxminarayan, M., Henrichs, J., and Pemberton, A. (2012). Procedural and interactional justice: a comparative study of victims in the Netherlands and New South Wales. European journal of criminology, 9 (3), 260–275; Laxminarayan, M. (2013). Interactional justice, coping and the legal system: needs of vulnerable victims. International review of victimology, 19 (2), 145–158]. This paper explores the experience of interactional justice for victims of 'honour'-based violence and abuse (HBVA) who report to the police in England and Wales. HBVA refers to abuse perpetrated with reference to ideas of 'shame' and 'honour'. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 36 victims of HBVA across England. This paper documents their experience and extends the framework of interactional justice proposed by Laxminarayan et al. (2012). First, we identify intersectionality, in particular, the positions of gender, ethnicity and immigration status within the victim–officer encounter, as central to interpreting the interpersonal experiences of HBVA victims with police. Second, we find that how information is used and delivered can be as important as the content and timeliness of communication. Twenty of our sample of 36 participants were happy with the initial police response, but only 9 were happy with their reporting experience overall. We argue that focusing on HBVA victims' interaction with justice actors could enable us to understand and improve HBVA victims' experience of, and satisfaction with, the justice system overall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence disclosure schemes are being adopted by police forces in countries around the world, yet they remain controversial and empirically under-researched. This paper presents findings from the largest study of police implementation of such a scheme to date, drawing on in-depth interviews and Freedom of Information data from 12 police forces in England and Wales. We reveal that victims of domestic abuse face a 'postcode lottery' of disclosures, with some receiving minimal or no information about the criminal histories of their partners, and others receiving lengthy and detailed descriptions. We identify and analyse two contrasting police approaches to disclosure: 'risk-averse' approaches, which are driven by efforts to avoid costly legal action by disgruntled offenders, and to minimise the resource implications of the scheme; and 'permissive' approaches, which are more explicitly victim-centred, reflect an increasingly prevalent 'coercive control' discourse, and are informed and guided by close collaboration with specialist partner agencies. The discussion sheds light on the shifting culture of domestic violence policing in the UK, yields immediate recommendations for the regulation and best practice of domestic violence disclosure schemes, and has methodological implications for efforts to assess their effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policing of young people, especially through stop-and-search, has been rigorously debated in the context of rising violence in the UK. While concepts based on procedural justice theory and perceptions of police fairness are directly relevant to these debates, these have rarely been tested on young people, nor have they taken account of the impact of stop-and-search. This paper examines young people's experiences of stop-and-search in two Scottish and two English cities, and tests the relationship between these experiences, their trust in the police, their perceptions of police legitimacy and their compliance with the law. The study finds that Scottish adolescents, who experienced higher volume stop-and-search, had more negative attitudes to the police and perceived them to be less procedurally fair than English adolescents. Structural equation modelling confirms that principles of procedural justice theory do apply to young people in this UK sample. However, our findings suggest that stop-and-search may damage trust in the police and perceptions of police legitimacy, regardless of the volume of police stop-and-search, and this may result in increased offending behaviour. With ongoing calls to increase the use of stop-and-search in response to recent increases in knife crime in England, we argue that its use needs to be carefully balanced against the, as yet poorly evidenced, benefits of the use of the tactic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuelled by the declining numbers of warranted detectives and growing demand for non-traditional skill-sets within the police in England and Wales, non-warranted Civilian Investigators (CIs) were introduced by the Police Reform Act 2002 to enhance the police's investigative capacity. In the absence of existing research on CIs, this paper uses the junior partner thesis as an analytical lens through which to examine the nature of the CI role relative to that of warranted detectives. Findings point to an evolving 'equal partner' role for CIs, resulting in an expansive occupational remit which belies their place in the formal police organisational hierarchy as the complementary 'junior partners' of detectives. The article concludes by arguing for better accommodation of the CI role/remit within the police organisational infrastructure. Developing effective training and progression opportunities for CIs are essential if the police are to retain both their specialist skills-sets and the organisational memory they represent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police community support officers (PCSOs) in England and Wales have become an integral part of neighbourhood policing since their national roll-out in 2008. The research reported here is based on the first-hand accounts of PCSOs from a four-month ethnographic study in a northern police force. Using Erving Goffman's theoretical framework and concept of performances, this paper argues that PCSOs still face ongoing pressures from inside the organisation to defend their position to police colleagues. PCSOs are still experiencing negative and bullying attitudes toward their existence and document the difficulties they face in being accepted. In response to this, some PCSOs have been known to conceal their status by modifying their uniform and using a current desire for increased visibility to enable presentational strategies in image management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

72,000 men in England and Wales are victims of sexual violence each year. While sexual violence against men is slowly becoming recognised as a sociological and criminological issue because victims are steadily coming forward due to changes in policy and practice, gradually improving the reporting rate that causes sociologists and criminologists to take notice of a necessity to address the issue, there still however remains a noticeable gap regarding the context, contours, and consequences of policing male rape within England. This paper makes some attempt to fill in this lacuna, using data including police officers who completed in-depth interviews and qualitative questionnaires (53 officers in total). This article focuses on several themes that emerged from the data, such as police insensitivity/secondary victimisation; police treatment of male rape; and police training, inter alia. It explores police officers' level of comprehension relating to the topic of male rape and, in turn, evaluates police training (or lack thereof) provided to help with understanding male rape. It considers the implications of poor police practice with regards to male rape. The results show that there are some police discourses that suggest that only women can be victims of sexual violence, not men, shaping how some officers think about and respond to male rape victims in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In efforts to combat organised crime, police forces have adopted variations on the pulling levers approach to individuals and groups identified with gun crime, drug supply and other serious offences. Once identified, those individuals and their networks are targeted for interventions from criminal justice agencies and their partners. When levers are pulled, criminals find their lives made intolerable by the attentions of multiple agencies. Identifying the right people for this sort of attention and the quality and currency of police intelligence are, then, key concerns for such strategies. But the choice of levers, and their implications also raise some difficult questions. The law is explicitly applied differently to those associated with organised crime than to anyone else. This paper reviews evidence from two ethnographic studies, one of police officers in three police forces in England and Wales, the other from a third-party policing arrangement in the Danish night-time economy. We seek to understand the ways in which levers are understood and used, raising questions about the efficacy of pulling levers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New recruits within policing are involved in a process of negotiating and creating meaning within their newly shaped identities. Within this identity formation, members engage in both categorisation and comparison in an attempt to sustain the group and to enhance the self-image of the group member. The benefits of inclusion and enhanced group identity however must be analysed alongside the inevitable exclusion and 'othering' that also occur. Using the framework of social identity theories, this paper seeks to consider new police recruits in England and their perceptions of, and attitudes towards, victims and potential victims of crime. It does this through an analysis of qualitative data obtained through a piece of longitudinal, ethnographic research which focussed upon new police recruits to an English police force. The research followed the police recruits for four years and in doing so, attempted to produce a holistic description of their developing cultures. What emerged from the findings was an enthusiasm for assisting victims of crime but within the context of culturally defined notions of what a 'victim' might constitute. By sharply delineating between 'deserving' and 'undeserving' victims of crime, police officers are contributing to the 'diminishing status' of certain potential victims through privileging certain identities over others. Police officers are one of the key definers of victim status and through this process of 'informed neglect' are contributing to the discrimination and alienation of certain parts of the community. This has the potential to add to the exclusion of those who are already socially, educationally and economically ostracised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a decade of rapid spending increases under New Labour, this paper seeks to explain the pattern of growth in the range of strategic actions undertaken by police services during that period. Referring to a longitudinal analysis of documents, including annual reports, which related to strategic actions taken by one English police service (Blueshire), the common perception that ‘police mission’ has been subject to expansionary pressures is placed under scrutiny. An analysis is conducted which differentiates between new and cyclical policy issues and whether the strategic response is locally or centrally directed. Content analysis derived data has been supplemented with information secured during interviews with police leaders, to provide greater contextual depth. While it was observed that the capacity of police leaders to focus on core policing roles has, to some extent, been compromised, this cannot be explained purely in terms of central government pressure. The concept of path dependency is used to explain how this has occurred. A discussion is provided of the implications for the strategic direction of policing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]