Investigation, community and vulnerability

Below you will find our most recent research projects from 2020 onwards.

Live projects

• The impacts of legislation and policing on football crowd violence: A longitudinal cross national comparative study [Ref 1.47]. This project uses a comparative, multi-method design in the UK and Switzerland to examine how policing practices, fan behaviour, and legal frameworks interact in domestic football settings.
• Review of evidence on indicators associated with violence and its underlying causes [Ref 1.46]. This study is being undertaken in 2 parts, both involving different forms of literature review.
• Policing safeguarding [Ref 1.45]. This project aims to identify what constitutes best practice in policing responses to vulnerable children - particularly in stop and search, missing children investigations, and incidents involving weapons.
• Exploring and developing effective strategies for police officers when interacting with neurodivergent members of the public [Ref 1.44]. This project aims to explore and develop effective strategies for police officers when interacting with neurodivergent members of the public, whether they are victims, witnesses, or offenders. 

Completed projects

• Addressing police-perpetrated domestic violence: A process evaluation [Ref 1.42]. This project aims to inform the evidence-base relating to interventions in the domestic abuse area, while also enabling shared learning within the featured police forces and beyond.
• Staffordshire research project (commission) [Ref 1.41]. This project aims to provide an evidence base which will inform, and challenge, the force's improvement plans.
• Examining the use of Evidence Led Prosecutions (ELPs) in domestic abuse cases [Ref 1.40]. This project aims to build the evidence base on ELPs by extending the research to a further three forces and improve the use of ELPs to disseminate the findings.
• Addressing domestic abuse in the police service in Wales [Ref 1.39]. This project will evaluate a test of change designed to reduce unnecessary police contact and criminalisation of children and young people in care homes in the Greater Glasgow region of Scotland.
• Reducing criminalisation of children and young adults in residential care: Evaluation of a test of change [Ref 1.38]. The project aim is to evaluate a test of change designed to reduce unnecessary police contact and criminalisation of children and young people in care homes in the Greater Glasgow region of Scotland.
• Reducing demand from U18 missing persons [Ref 1.37]. The aim of this project is to protect children from the long-term harms of going missing and prevent repeat demand on public agencies.
• Police diversion and drugs: Collaborative evaluation of the effects and cost-effectiveness of police-led diversion of people who use drugs [Ref 1.36]. This project aims to carry out process evaluations, using interviews and focus groups with the people who work with these schemes, including police officers, drug treatment providers, service users and their families to facilitate the work.
• COVID-19 pandemic and the cyber-victimisation of disabled people in Scotland [Ref 1.35]. This project aims to explore the influence of COVID-19 on the cyber-victimisation of disabled people in Scotland and utilise findings to inform policy and practice.
• Proportionality and use of force [Ref 1.34]. The goal of the current project is to explore interactions that involve use of force between West Midlands Police officers and citizens, by analysing body-worn camera footage.
• Evaluation of 'We Move': A Manchester mentoring programme for young people at risk of involvement in organised crime [Ref 1.33]. This project is aimed at preventing children and young people towards serious organised criminal activity and violence, both as perpetrators and victims.
• Safeguarding victims of domestic abuse during COVID-19: Challenges and opportunities [Ref 1.32]. The study explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on domestic abuse (DA) safeguarding arrangements at a strategic and practice level from both professional and survivor perspectives.
• Investigating the emergence of expertise in forensic face matching over time [Ref 1.31]. Forensic face-matching examiners provide vital identification evidence in criminal investigations.
• Victim (dis)engagement in domestic abuse and rape cases [Ref 1.30]. This project aims to investigate the profile, reasons for, and implications of victim non-engagement with police and criminal justice processes in domestic abuse and rape cases.

Archived projects

Below you will find our archived projects that were conducted from 2014-2019.

• Community perception of threat [Ref 1.29]. This project is designed to assess how to predict the UK public's fear of a terrorist attack.
• The impact of police forces and football clubs working together to provide a platform for coaching and mentoring for young people who have received a Threat to Life notice [Ref 1.28]. Building on the original pilot to expand the cohort of young people who have received a Threat to Life notice.
• Mobile phone use while driving: Enforcement and education [Ref 1.27]. Identifying and informing the creation of educational resources on mobile phone use whilst driving.
• Community generated victim satisfaction surveys [Ref 1.26]. Collaboratively developing a new User Insight survey which incorporates feelings and thoughts of the local community.
• Virtual inclusion: Tackling hate and extremism in the UK using Virtual Reality technology [Ref 1.25]. Developing virtual reality technology educational resources for schools and the wider public to tackle hate and extremism.
• Super recognisers [Ref 1.24]. This project explores how super recogniser individuals process faces differently from the general population.
• A warm welcome? Unaccompanied migrant children in networks of care and asylum [Ref 1.12]. This pilot project sought to gather the views of a range of professionals (healthcare, social work, police, border agencies) about the care of unaccompanied minors.
• Collaborative problem solving for community safety [Ref 1.08]. This project involved PSNI working with the Centre for Policing Research and Learning on the design, delivery and evaluation of a new learning intervention which aims to improve community engagement in target neighbourhood areas.
• Improving investigations through utilising technology, community and psychology [Ref 1.06]. A multi-methodological project that analysed police use of social media, and what impact citizen enquiry using social media might have on a police investigation.
• Forensic markets [Ref 1.04]. An investigation of forensic markets through a systematic review and a series of interviews with the police, the regulatory bodies and forensic science companies.
• Threat, risk and harm: scoring of OCGs (Organised Crime Groups) [Ref 1.03]. This project compares existing methods for assessing the risk posed by an OCG and formulating recommendations for how OCG risk assessments could be carried out.
• Visual identification – what works [Ref 1.02]. This project examined to what extent current eyewitness identification practice is evidence based, and which procedures.
• Policing practice, citizen enquiry and solving crime with social media [Ref 1.01]. An exploration of how witnesses are investigating crimes through social media and how this might impact policing practice.
• Putting research evidence into practice using the mystery face procedure [Ref 0.01]. Are current visual identification procedures in the UK evidence based, and what is preventing research findings being translated into practice?