Policing research

The CJP Policing strand aims to:

• To drive a new policing agenda, by pushing forward debates on policing internationally and being a conduit for positive change in policing, police culture, and police practices.
• To respond to the current and future needs of constabularies and policing nationally, focusing on high priority areas (such as domestic abuse, vulnerabilities, CSE, cybercrime, Counter Terrorism, racial relations, ACE and trauma).
• To demonstrate the importance of taking an evidenced-based policing approach through our empirical research and secondment contracts with Lancashire and Norfolk Constabularies.
• To raise awareness of the importance of lived experience and professional practice.
• To be a sector lead on the curriculum development and training of police officers under the Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF).
• To establish our reputation as a Centre for excellence in research and teaching in policing studies.
• To explore the meaning of policing, evaluating the role of traditional and non-traditional forms of policing and relationships with agencies in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

How we meet our aims:

We run regular seminars and workshops based on the cutting-edge research carried out by members of the team. We also attend sessions conducted by research colleagues outside of UCLan who specialise in policing.

We conduct collaborative and inclusive research with constabularies and other criminal justice agencies. These collaborations start at the very beginning of the research process, so that our research is led by the priorities identified by those people and organisations that will benefit from our research.

Our expertise, research experience and practitioner experience allow us to identify skills and knowledge gaps around policing. We provide a series of training events to fill these gaps.

We regularly consult our members about our activities to ensure that our activities address our aims

The practice of policing is diverse and so is the research that we engage in. However, the Policing strand of the CJP is distinctive in terms of its particular areas of interest. These include the policing of:

• Domestic abuse and coercive control
• Sexual offences and offending
• Violence
• Hate crime
• Cybercrime
• Human trafficking
• Serious and organised crime
• Counter-terrorism
• Child sexual exploitation
• Sex work
• Emergency planning
• Police decision-making
• Police education

• Dr Charlotte Barlow (Lead for the Strand)
• Dr Leslie Humphreys (Deputy Lead for the Strand)

The activities of the policing strand have impact. They influence and effect operational policing, as well as the individuals and groups that are affected by policing. This influence is in terms of policing policy, practice, and the social and cultural lives of those affected by policing.

Dr Charlotte Barlow, School of Law and Policing and Lead for the CJP Policing Strand

Dr Charlotte Barlow has a Visiting Scholar position at the University Fraser Valley, Canada for the academic year 2023-2024. As part of this role, she was invited to be a keynote speaker at a conference exploring how and if a Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme should be introduced in the state of British Columbia, Canada. Charlotte presented on her research exploring victim-survivors experiences of using Clare’s Law/ DVDS in England and Wales in September 2023.

Whilst in Canada, she was also invited to contribute to various workshops and roundtable discussions regarding the implementation of DVDS. She provided consultation and guidance on this process. Charlotte has continued to work with this group since then, informing the implementation process.

Charlotte has also been a keynote speaker at the ‘Inspiring Domestic Violence Policies and Practices Conference’. This was organised by the Justice Department in Nova Scotia Canada in March 2024. She presented her research exploring police responses to coercive control, providing an overview and ‘lessons learned’ from the three research projects she has led in this area.

Professor Tom Cockcroft, Director of the Criminal Justice Research and Partnerships

Tom has been on secondment to the Open University’s Centre for Policing Research and Learning. As part of this work, he submitted two products for Operation Soteria Bluestone. This concerned how to evaluate formal and informal work-based knowledge amongst sexual crime investigators.

• OB9 Product 1 (delivered): Rapid evidence assessment summary report

• OB9 Product 2 (delivered): Guidance/protocol on how to test and evaluate

Find out more about Operation Soteria.

Professor Sarah Kingston, Co-Director of the Institute of Criminal, Social and Legal Justice

In February 2024, Sarah presented oral evidence to the Home Affairs Committee about non-contact sexual offences.

We publish high quality research in peer-reviewed international academic journals. We also publish commentaries, opinion pieces, and reports for industry and government bodies. Here are our most recent publications:

• Barlow, Charlotte. (2024). Policing Domestic Abuse: The onus on first responders. Policing and Society. ISSN 1043-9463.

• Barlow, Charlotte, Walklate, Sandra, and Renehan, Nicole. (2024). Criminal Justice Policy and Victim-Survivor Empowerment: A Case Study of Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes in England and Wales. Feminists@Law, 13(1). ISSN 2046-9551.

• Barter, Christine Anne, Bracewell, Kelly, Farrelly, Nicola, Clelland, Allyson K., and Chantler, Khatidja. (2024). Prevention of sexual violence and domestic abuse through a university bystander intervention programme: Learning from a UK feasibility study. Journal of Gender-Based Violence, pp. 1–18. ISSN 2398-6808.

• Davies, Pamela, Barlow, Charlotte, and Fish, Rebecca. (2024). ‘It was a challenge to look at things from a perpetrator perspective’: The Problem of Holding domestically abusive men to account in Multi-agency Partnership work. Criminology & Criminal Justice. ISSN 1748-8958.

• Duggan, Marian, and Barlow, Charlotte. (2024). Introduction to the Special Section: Can Criminal Justice Responses Empower Women? A Case Study of Domestic Abuse Disclosure Schemes. Feminists@Law, 13(1). ISSN 2046-9551.

• Hale, Hannah, Bracewell, Kelly, Bellussi, Laura, Jenkins, Ruth, Alexander, Joanne, Devaney, John, and Callaghan, Jane E. M. (2024). The Child Protection Response to Domestic Violence and Abuse: A Scoping Review of Interagency Interventions, Models, and Collaboration. Journal of Family Violence. ISSN 0885-7482.

• Hewitt, Martin, and Cockcroft, Tom. (2024). Leading with Political Awareness. Leadership Behaviours for Effective Policing. Critical Publishing. ISBN 9781915080530.

• Turner, I. (2024). Resistance to Tyranny versus the Public Good: John Locke and Counter-Terror Law in the United Kingdom. Democracy and Security, 1–26.

• Barlow, Charlotte. (2023). Understanding and responding to coercive control: Lessons learned from England and Wales. Criminalising Coercive Control: Challenges for the Implementation of Northern Ireland’s Domestic Abuse Offence. Routledge. ISBN 9781032384870.

• Barlow, Charlotte. (2023). ‘They just didn’t want to help me’: The criminalisation of coerced women co-offenders. Gendered Justice: Working with Women in Social and Criminal Justice. Edited by Lucy Baldwin, Routledge.

• Barlow, Charlotte, Walklate, Sandra, and Renehan, Nicole. (2023). Rendering them responsible: Victim-survivors' experiences of Clare's Law and Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes. Journal of Gender-Based Violence, pp. 1–15. ISSN 2398-6808.

• Cook, Elizabeth A., Rowlands, James, Bracewell, Kelly, Jones, Cassandra, and Boughton, Grace. (2023). Parallels in Practice: Applying Principles of Research Integrity and Ethics in Domestic Violence Fatality Review (DVFR). Journal of Family Violence. ISSN 0885-7482.

• Davies, Pam, Barlow, Charlotte, and Fish, Rebecca. (2023). The hard and complex work of implementing new multi-agency risk assessment approaches to policing domestic abuse. Crime Prevention and Community Safety. ISSN 1460-3780.

• Kingston, S. (2023). Audio research methods, attitudes and accessibility theory: Using audio vignettes to elicit attitudes towards sex work. Qualitative Research.

• Mydlowski, Leona, and Rhys Turner-Moore. (2023). Tensions between police training and practice for the risk assessment of registered sex offenders in England and Wales. Journal of Sexual Aggression.

• Pemberton, S., Kewley, S., and Mydlowski, L. (2023). The Police as Formal Agents of Change: Assisting Desistance in Individuals Convicted of Sexual Offences. Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being. ISSN 2371-4298.

• Phythian, R., Birdsall, N., Kirby, S., Cooper, E., Posner, Z., and Boulton, L. (2023). Organisational and individual perspectives of police wellbeing in England and Wales. The Police Journal, 96(1), 128–152.

• Turner, Ian. (2023). The routine arming of the police in Britain, the right to life and the security theory of John Locke and Benedict de Spinoza. Policing and Firearms: New Perspectives and Insights. Springer.

• Barlow, Charlotte. (2022). How can you capture what is hidden? Police body-worn cameras and coercive control. Journal of Gender-Based Violence.

• Haines‐Delmont, A., Bracewell, K., and Chantler, K. (2022). Negotiating organisational blame to foster learning: Professionals’ perspectives about Domestic Homicide Reviews. Health & Social Care in the Community.

• Jones, C., Bracewell, K., Clegg, A., Stanley, N., and Chantler, K. (2022). Domestic Homicide Review Committees’ Recommendations and Impacts: A Systematic Review. Homicide Studies.

• Rowlands, J., and Bracewell, K. (2022). Inside the black box: domestic homicide reviews as a source of data. Journal of Gender-Based Violence.

• Barlow, Charlotte, and Walklate, Sandra. (2021). Gender, risk assessment and coercive control: Contradictions in terms?. The British Journal of Criminology, 61(4).

• Barlow, Charlotte, Walklate, Sandra, and Johnson, K. (2021). Risk Refraction: Thoughts on the victim-survivor’s risk journey through the criminal justice process. International Journal for Crime and Social Democracy, 10(3).

• Bracewell, K., Jones, C., Haines-Delmont, A., Craig, E., Duxbury, J., and Chantler, K. (2021). Beyond intimate partner relationships: Utilising domestic homicide reviews to prevent adult family domestic homicide. Journal of Gender-Based Violence.

• Bracewell, K., Larkins, C., and Stanley, N. (2021). Teenagers’ access to digital technologies and refuge life: Balancing safety, risk and protectionism. Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 5(3).

• Dempsey, J. P., Sim, G. R., Cassidy, B., and Ta, Vinh-Thong. (2021). Children designing privacy warnings: Informing a set of design guidelines. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 31(March).

• Harding, N., and Cooper, E. (2021). A ‘rapid response’ to fraud and financial crime. Public Sector Counter Fraud Journal (8).

• Hashem Eiza, M., Okeke, R. I., Dempsey, J. P., and Ta, V. T. (2021). Keep Calm and Carry on with Cybersecurity@Home: A Framework for Securing Homeworking IT Environment. International Journal On Cyber Situational Awareness, 5(1).

• Herbert, A., Heron, J., Barter, C. A., Szilassy, E., Barnes, M., Howe, L., Feder, G., and Fraser, A. (2021). Risk factors for intimate partner violence and abuse among adolescents and young adults: Findings from a UK population-based cohort. Wellcome Open Research, 5(176).

• Kirby, S., and Birdsall, N. (2021). Kicking off: Is the association between the FIFA world cup and domestic abuse an international phenomenon?. The Police Journal.

• Phythian, R., Birdsall, N., Kirby, S., Cooper, E., Posner, Z., and Boulton, L. (2021). Organisational and individual perspectives of police wellbeing in England and Wales. The Police Journal.

We run seminars, workshops, and short courses all based on our activities and expertise.

Sexual Offending, Vulnerabilities and Policing Conference, 19 June 2024

Over 150 practitioners and academics registered to attend the Sexual Offending, Vulnerabilities and Policing Conference. This was organised by the University of Central Lancashire’s Criminal Justice Partnership and School of Law and Policing’s Dr Leona Mydlowski and Dr Vicky Mooney.

The impacts of sexual offending are vast and diverse, and it is important that current research and practices protect the public from sexual perpetrators, and the effects of the different types of sexual offending are understood.

At this conference there was a range of presentations from renowned academics and professionals from relevant agencies. This includes the National Crime Agency (NCA), police forces, National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), College of Policing, and Vulnerability Knowledge & Practice Programme (VKPP). Speakers presented research findings and current practices on areas such as:

• Management of sexual offenders to include active and reactive management
• Multi-agency public protection
• Child sexual abuse and exploitation
• The effects of families after ‘the knock’
• Investigating sexual offences, including online sexual offending
• Internet offending
• Neurodiverse individuals who sexually offend
• Rape myths
• RASSO

Keynote speakers included:

• Ian Critchley, National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC),
• Tony Cook, National Crime Agency
• Prof Rachel Armitage, Dr Theresa Redmond and Lucy

Society of Legal Scholars Seminar, 11-12 June 2024

The School of Law and Policing at the University of Central Lancashire hosted the 2024 Annual Seminar of the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS). This focused on the topics of free speech, tolerance and responsibility. This seminar took place over two days on 11 –12 June 2024.

This event was organised by Dr Ian Turner, Reader in Human Rights and Security. It was attended by a distinguished international speaker; Professor Alexander Tsesis, from the College of Law at Florida State University. We also had some very esteemed academics from the Universities of Oxford, Newcastle, Lancaster, Queen Mary and Westfield, University College London, Leicester, Middlesex, Leeds, Bristol, Birkbeck, and Swansea. There were also other international visitors from New York University, and Vanderbilt University.

The Society of Legal Scholars is a prestigious UK scholarly body. It is the oldest and largest learned society for law academics, representing some 2,700 legal academics and lawyers engaged in legal scholarship. It’s also one of the largest bodies of its type in the arts, humanities, and social science.

How can we prevent gender-based violence? A 10 year vision, 19-20 March 2024

In recent years, there has been an increase in criminal justice and policy activity related to gender-based violence. However, most of these interventions have focussed on reactive criminalisation processes. With this conference, we aimed to create a manifesto for change. We asked each contributor to tell us where they want to be in 10 years time in preventing gender-based violence.

The conference took place at the studio in Leeds across two days, comprising three themed sessions:

• Systems change through policy and practice
• Challenging beliefs and engaging men
• What is the role of criminal justice in prevention?

There were also PhD student poster presentations and theatre performance, led by Certain Curtain Theatre Company. Survivors also attended and spoke at the event.

The conference was jointly organised by the Connect Centre and Criminal Justice Partnership at the University of Central Lancashire, CRIVA at Durham University and supported by the N8 Policing Research Partnership and the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre. A manifesto will be published next month and circulated widely.

It was also funded by the British Academy/Wellcome.

Families of people arrested for Child Sexual Offence Materials: Secondary Victims, 1 November 2023

Over 250 people attended a free webinar on Families of those arrested for Child Sexual Abuse Material Offences: Secondary Victims which took place on the 1 November.

The webinar was hosted by Dr Emily Cooper. There were presentations by Professor Rachel Armitage and Lucy, who has lived experience as a family member.

Professor Rachel Armitage teaches Criminology at the University of Huddersfield. Rachel is the Deputy Chair of Trustees for the Marie Collins Foundation, a Trustee for Acts Fast, and a founder and trustee for the charity Talking Forward. She is a founding member of the Indirect Victims of Indecent Images of Children Investigations (IVIIC) National Strategic Group. She works closely with key agencies to explore policy and practice responses to non-offending partners (NOPs) and children of CSAM offender.

Feedback from attendees praised the seminar for raising awareness of the topic. Many said they would implement the learning into their practice.

British Society of Criminology Conference, June 2023

We hosted the British Society of Criminology Conference in June 2023. The conference welcomed around 400 delegates over 28-30 June. There was an earlier postgraduate day held on the 27 June.

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Sustainable future: remaking criminology in an age of global injustice’. The conference organisers embedded sustainability into every element of the gathering. This included minimising plastic, going paperless, and using locally sourced produce for meals.

Delegates attended the conference from all over the world. Several keynote and panel speakers hailed from Virginia and Florida in the USA, and Aotearoa in New Zealand. Panel keynotes looked at ‘Systems of oppression and abolitionist perspectives’ and ‘Reflections on the sustainability of Criminology.’ Delegates were also treated to a performance by Certain Curtain Company. This is a professional theatre company that is renowned for tackling sensitive and controversial subjects with dynamic originality. They have been at the forefront of domestic abuse drama since 1995. 

Hosting the conference at the University of Central Lancashire was especially significant, because our own Dr Charlotte Barlow was formally welcomed as the Vice President of the Society.

Commenting on the conference, Charlotte said: “Hosting this prestigious conference is a fantastic opportunity for UCLan. It’s amazing to have so many experts in the criminology field here, to discuss the latest research and new developments in the field; particularly through the lens of injustice, which is a key part our theme this year... Another thing we’ve really focused on this year is bringing practitioners in and encouraging their involvement in the conference. Real-world learning is such a big part of what UCLan is all about for our students, and so it’s great to have those with lived experience here and contributing to the discussions.

The British Society of Criminology has members based both in the UK and around the world. It aims to further the interests and knowledge of both academic and professional people who are engaged in any aspect of work or teaching, research or public education about crime, criminal behaviour and the criminal justice system.

The Political Economy of Poor Crime in Britain, 9 May 2023

We were delighted to welcome Professor Colin Webster to present at our first CJP hybrid seminar. Colin is Emeritus Professor of Criminology at Leeds Beckett University, UK. He is winner of The Peter Townsend Prize awarded for outstanding work with policy relevance for poverty.

Colin did a presentation based on his book Rich Crime, Poor Crime. He showed how seemingly unrelated, myriad government policies such as housing, social security, school exclusion and labour market, directly or indirectly worsen the problems of poverty, criminality, and inequality they aim at tackling. This ultimately leads to dramatic increases in crime.

Colin's book ‘Rich Crime, Poor Crime: Inequality and the Rule of Law’ (Emerald, 2023) is available to purchase.

Improving Responses to Child Sexual Exploitation, 9 March 2022

We took part in a networking symposium organised by the University of Central Lancashire, Criminal Justice Partnership and School of Justice. This focused on improving responses to child sexual exploitation.

The symposium benefitted from participation by practitioners in child safeguarding roles. It featured presentations from law enforcement, child protection charities, lived experience experts and the (DRAGON-S) team.

Rosie Flatman shared her lived experience. Professor Lorenzo-Dus shared the Dragon-S Project artificial intelligence developments for protecting against online harms. Child Abuse Lawyer, Kim Harrison, presented on the IICSA recommendations. Catherine Smith presented on ways to improve our responses to CSE via support from Trust House.

Despite some COVID setbacks this was a great face-to-face event and everyone benefitted form the networking opportunities provided.

Book Launch: Dr Charlotte Barlow and Professor Sandra Walklate’s Coercive Control, 8 March 2022

Coercive Control, by Charlotte Barlow and Sandra Walklate, was recently published as part of the Routledge Focus series. This book offers a critical appreciation of the nature and impact of coercive control in interpersonal relationships. It examines what this concept means, who is impacted by the behaviours it captures, and how academics, policy-makers and policy advocates have responded to the increasing recognition of the deleterious effects that coercive control has on women’s lives.

Charlotte and Sandra were joined by academics from across the world for an online book launch to discuss this book, including Professor Walter DeKeseredy, Anna Deane Carlson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences, West Virginia University U.S.A, Professor Leigh Goodmark, Professor of Law, Maryland Carey University and Dr Molly Dragiewicz, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University.

Recourse: Early intervention and diversion of women from the criminal justice system, 28 February 2022

Over 80 delegates attended an event hosted with Lancashire Women and CJP  to discuss diversion and early intervention of women from the criminal justice system. The event included presentations by Therese Sanders and Janine Boyarin from Lancashire Women, Supt. Justin Srivastava and Siobhan Collingwood from Lancashire Violence Reduction Network and Helena Cryer from Lancashire Constabulary. This event was part of a wider programme aimed at improving outcomes for women in Lancashire who may be facing multiple and complex issues.

This event looked at the outcomes and impact of the Lancashire Women pilot project and considered the effect that becoming involved in the criminal justice system has on women.

• Professor Sarah Kingston
• Professor Tom Cockcroft
• Dr Emily Cooper
• Dr Vicky Mooney
• Dr Ian Turner
• Denise Hanson
• Jody Faro
• Dr Leona Mydlowski
• Dr Nathan Birdsall
• Dr Paul Hargreaves
• Dr Clare Scollay
• Dr Lis Bates
• Dr Kelly Bracewell
• Ian Palmer
• Dr Simon Retford

For further information, contact criminaljustice@uclan.ac.uk