Search

Experimentation, innovation, and evaluation are key elements of Evidence Based Policing (EBP), itself often aligned to wider efforts to improve police professionalism. Producing new evidence of ‘what works’ is an important part of the challenge of developing more effective policing responses to complex demands in a period of limited resources. Drawing on our experience of understanding successful innovations in policing domestic abuse, we reflect on the quality and status of research evidence in policing and the implications that these might have in terms of informing good practice. We worked in collaboration with police staff to identify areas in which innovation in policing domestic abuse has been successful. Selected projects were required to meet the criteria of having been developed from an evidence base (broadly defined to include professional expertise, scientific research and guidance from authoritative bodies), subject to evaluation and as having had a demonstrable positive impact. Our collaborative work identified some interesting variations in terms of understandings of these three criteria in the context of innovations in policing domestic abuse. Here we reflect on what passes as evidence and evaluation and more broadly what counts as research which helps determine what works, all as part of our project to build capacity through collaborative partnership policing.

Over the past decade the national governments of the UK have repositioned ‘community safety’ as a priority area. The complexity of reducing real and perceived crime rates and levels of antisocial behaviour is widely accepted. This has inspired the development of numerous programmes aimed at delivering safer and stronger communities in specific contexts. One of the strategies promoted in Scotland is the Community Warden Scheme, which aims to provide a ‘uniformed, semi-official police presence’ at a community level. Scotland's Community Wardens characterise the growing trend towards the pluralisation of police service providers, as a myriad of actors constitute the ‘extended policing family’. Amidst the diversification and expansion of policing actors, issues surrounding public accountability and policing authority loom large. This paper aims to critically examine the role of Scotland's Community Wardens in relation to the broader policing landscape, drawing on empirical data generated in one city (...

The potential benefits of public space frequently translate into inequitable social and spatial outcomes for specific groups. Young people in particular are being excluded from public spaces through a range of explicit and implicit measures. In the UK, one significant trend constraining their ability to access such space is the extent to which they are commonly perceived as perpetrators of anti-social behaviour. The perceived levels of anti-social behaviour associated with the ‘ASBO generation’ are exacerbating concerns over youths’ presence in, as opposed to absence from, public space. Synthesising new ethnographic research with existing debates about the relationship between young people, anti-social behaviour and public space, this paper argues that it is necessary to address the multifarious discursive processes and material practices influencing young people’s use of public space. The paper demonstrates how, as opposed to eradicating young people from public space, Community Wardens in Dundee often provide them with the opportunity for positive and meaningful encounters with places (and people) in their local communities.

What is the political allure, value and currency of emotions within contemporary cultures of governance? What does it mean to govern more humanely? Since the emergence of an emotional turn in human geography over the last decade, the notion that our emotions matter in understanding an array of social practices, spatial formations and aspects of everyday life is no longer seen as controversial. This book brings recent developments in emotional geography into dialogue with social policy concerns and contemporary issues of governance. It sets the intellectual scene for research into the geographical dimensions of the emotionalized states of the citizen, policy maker and public service worker, and highlights new research on the emotional forms of governance which now characterise public life.

Developing a critical analysis of the relational and situated practices of social policy, this paper draws on an evaluation of an early intervention project in Scotland (UK) where volunteer adult mentors supported young people ‘at risk’ of offending or antisocial behaviour. Contributing to ‘enlivened’ accounts of social practice, we explore how practices of mentoring developed through the co-presence of mentor and young person in the often transitory spaces of care which characterized the ‘diversionary activities’ approach in the project. We expand the notion of the relational in social practice beyond the care-recipient dyad to include wider networks of care (families, programme workers, social institutions). The paper explores how such social interventions might both be ‘good’ for the young people involved, and yet recognize critiques that more individualized models of intervention inevitably have limitations which make them ‘not enough’ to deal with structural inequalities and disadvantages. Acknowledging the impacts of neoliberalism, we argue critical attention to diverse situated relational practices points to the excessive nature of engagement in social policy and provides scope for transformative practice where young people’s geographies can be ‘upscaled’ to connect to the realms of social policy and practice. Résumé Développant une analyse critique de la politique sociale des pratiques relationnelles en situation, cet article s’appuie sur une évaluation d’un ancien programme d’intervention en Ecosse (Royaume-Uni), où des mentors adultes bénévoles aidaient des jeunes « en danger » de commettre un délit ou d’adopter un comportement antisocial. En apportant une contribution aux comptes rendus « animés » de politique sociale, nous explorons comment les pratiques de mentorat se sont développées à travers la coprésence d’un mentor et d’un jeune pendant les périodes souvent transitoires de prise en charge qui caractérisaient les approches d’« activités de diversion » de ce programme. Nous élargissons la notion du relationnel dans la pratique sociale au-delà de la dyade prise en charge-bénéficiaire en incluant les réseaux plus vastes de prise en charge (famille, acteurs du programme, institutions sociales). L’article explore dans quelle mesure les interventions sociales peuvent être « bonnes » pour les jeunes concernés mais reconnaît aussi les critiques que les modèles d’intervention plus individualisés ont inévitablement des limites qui les rendent « insuffisantes » pour gérer les inégalités et désavantages structuraux. Reconnaissant les effets du néolibéralisme, nous avançons l’argument que l’attention critique envers les diverses pratiques relationnelles en situation suggère la nature excessive de l’engagement politique social et donne la possibilité d’une pratique transformative où les géographies des jeunes peuvent être « améliorées » pour être reliées aux domaines de la politique et de la pratique sociales. Resumen Desarrollando un análisis crítico de las prácticas relacionales y situadas de la política social, este documento se basa en una evaluación de un proyecto de intervención temprana en Escocia (Reino Unido), donde mentores adultos voluntarios apoyaron a jóvenes ‘en riesgo’ de ofender o de mostrar un comportamiento antisocial. Contribuyendo a informes ‘animados’ de política social, se explora cómo se desarrollaron las prácticas de tutoría a través de la co-presencia de mentores y jóvenes en espacios a menudo transitorios de atención que caracterizaron el enfoque de las ‘actividades de distracción’ en el proyecto. Se amplía la noción de lo relacional en la práctica social más allá de la díada cuidado-receptor para incluir redes más amplias de cuidado (familias, trabajadores del programa, instituciones sociales). El trabajo explora cómo este tipo de intervenciones sociales podrían ser ‘buenas’ para los jóvenes involucrados y, sin embargo, al mismo tiempo, reconocer las críticas de que los modelos más individualizados de intervención tienen inevitablemente limitaciones que los hacen ‘no suficientes’ para hacer frente a desigualdades y desventajas estructurales. Reconociendo los impactos del neoliberalismo, se argumenta que la atención crítica a diversas prácticas relacionales situadas apunta al carácter excesivo de la participación en la política social y proporciona espacio para una práctica transformadora donde las geografías de los jóvenes pueden ‘aumentar de escala’ para conectarse con los dominios de la política y la práctica social.

In recent years ‘community safety’ has received renewed levels of interest and investment from national governments and local authorities. This has culminated in the proliferation of a diverse range of in/formal policing strategies incorporating crime reduction and/or crime prevention. The policies and programmes developed to deliver ‘community safety’ reflect local concerns as much as national commitment. One such programme is Scotland's Community Warden Scheme, which provides the focus of this article. Community Wardens are characterised as a ‘uniformed, semi-official presence’ within an extended policing team, focusing on the improvement of community safety measures. Drawing on innovative empirical data generated in Dundee, this article critically evaluates the positive and negative attributes of the Community Warden Scheme from the perspective of the Wardens. It highlights the key themes of developing relationships with the local community; establishing and addressing local policing priorities; multi-stakeholder working; and, the tensions between Community Warden management and practice, to make suggestions about how the strengths of the programme can be maintained and the weaknesses addressed. The article aims to make an important contribution to debates about current approaches to ‘community safety’ while engaging with the policy and practitioner aspects of its delivery.

Following Douglas and Kristeva, Sibley theorizes in Geographies of Exclusion that socio-spatial boundaries necessarily activate discourses of purity and impurity. Yet there is also a second, more sophisticated theory present in the text. Sibley offers three qualifications to Douglas and Kristeva, emphasizing the culturally specific nature of purity and impurity classifications, their status as contested and metaphorical discourses, and their irreducibly spatial organization and operation. Furthermore, beyond these qualifications, a close reading of the grain of Sibley’s argument suggests an account in which (a) temporal closeness to the origin and (b) spatial homogeneity are the standard against which “purity” is measured. Purity and impurity, then, would not attend any “matter out of place” but operate within particular cultural contexts as assessments of whether a phenomenon or space corresponds, in its relative homogeneity, to its impure origin and essence. This perspective offers support for addressing the materiality of purity and impurity discourses.