‘A wicked problem’? risk assessment and decision-making when licensing possession and use of firearms in Greater London

This paper analyses the risk assessment and decision-making used by a police force to assess the suitability of a person to own a firearm. The decision to grant a firearms licence has many characteristics of a ‘wicked problem’. Firearms Enquiries Officers (FEOs) in the police force concerned primarily use professional judgement to solve this problem, employing various forms of reasoning and heuristics, but potentially also prone to cognitive bias. We conclude with some observations on how training of FEOs and their supervisors in risk assessment and decision-making might be further developed

Neighbourhood policing in the Metropolitan Police Service – 8 April 2022

This report provides a summary of the outcomes of a research project conducted in the Summer / Autumn 2021 which aimed to evaluate the level of understanding of neighbourhood policing within the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and compare this to the service delivery offered by the force. A number of recommendations were made, all of which have been accepted by the MPS

Assessing the threat posed by registered firearms dealers in the UK

This paper examines the threat posed by Registered Firearms Dealers (RFDs) in the UK, based on an analysis of 12 case-studies of dealers found to have committed serious criminal acts and 29 semi-structured interviews with law enforcement agencies and representatives of ‘shooting’ organisations. The analysis reveals a number of concerns with the regulatory and enforcement regimes surrounding RFDs. Our research demonstrates that RFDs have the capability and opportunity to pose a threat to public security but a key challenge remains to identify and assess the likelihood of RFD criminal intent. At the time of writing there were no standardised structured methodologies to identify intent during the RFD licencing process. However, via a novel ‘Indicators and Warnings’ analysis, we provide a basis for how this might be undertaken

Reflexivity in correctional research: Researcher perspectives on parenthood in a study with incarcerated parents

© The Author(s) 2018. As incarceration rates rise worldwide, increasing numbers of parents are separated from their children. Researchers have studied the psychosocial impact on inmates and their families extensively. However, few researchers have examined how their own perspectives affect the collection and interpretation of data, specifically about parenting in correctional settings. This paper consider methodological implications of conducting research with incarcerated mothers and fathers, employing critical reflexivity to explore researchers’ individual and collective experiences in a study in Australian correctional facilities. Using ourselves as informants, we examine how the context and life experiences of ‘researcher’ and ‘researched’ interact during interviews in a unique and emotionally charged environment. Correctional research requires careful adaptations to collect meaningful data from inmates and recognise their vulnerability as parents. The emotional content of interviews also has implications for analysing and interpreting research data. Our focus on interviewees as mothers and fathers, rather than as offenders, generated greater understanding of the needs of parents in custody. Recognising researchers’ feelings, experiences and perspectives on parenthood can enrich research with families affected by the criminal justice and child protection systems. These insights can also inform the understanding and practice of social workers, health practitioners, educators and students who work with marginalised parents and children

Practicing convict criminology: lessons learned from British academic activism

Joanne Belknap’s recent ASC presidential address included a critique of Convict Criminology’s activism. A number of concerns were provided, although of particular importance here are, first, Belknap’s concerns regarding the absence of ‘marginalized voices’ in the Convict Criminology network. Second, the issue of defining how non-con academics function as Convict Criminology group members. This paper responds to these criticisms. Specifically, we discuss the question of ‘representation’ in BCC and our attempts to remedy this issue. We also draw attention to the academic activism that British Convict Criminology is conducting in Europe. This includes a detailed discussion of the collaborative research-activist activities that involve non-con as well as ex-con academic network members. We demonstrate how these collaborations explain the vital group membership role that non-con academics assume in the activism of Convict Criminology

Parental bonding and identity style as correlates of self-esteem among adult adoptees and nonadoptees

Adult adoptees (n equals 100) and non-adoptees (n equals 100) were compared with regard to selfesteem, identity processing style, and parental bonding. While some differences were found with regard to self-esteem, maternal care, and maternal overprotection, these differences were qualified by reunion status such that only reunited adoptees differed significantly from nonadoptees. Moreover, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that parental bonding and identity processing style were more important than adoptive status per se in predicting self esteem. Implications for practitioners who work with adoptees are discussed

The Affective Impact of Financial Skewness on Neural Activity and Choice

Few finance theories consider the influence of “skewness” (or large and asymmetric but unlikely outcomes) on financial choice. We investigated the impact of skewed gambles on subjects' neural activity, self-reported affective responses, and subsequent preferences using functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI). Neurally, skewed gambles elicited more anterior insula activation than symmetric gambles equated for expected value and variance, and positively skewed gambles also specifically elicited more nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activation than negatively skewed gambles. Affectively, positively skewed gambles elicited more positive arousal and negatively skewed gambles elicited more negative arousal than symmetric gambles equated for expected value and variance. Subjects also preferred positively skewed gambles more, but negatively skewed gambles less than symmetric gambles of equal expected value. Individual differences in both NAcc activity and positive arousal predicted preferences for positively skewed gambles. These findings support an anticipatory affect account in which statistical properties of gambles—including skewness—can influence neural activity, affective responses, and ultimately, choice

Prisoners’ Families’ Research: Developments, Debates and Directions

After many years of relative obscurity, research on prisoners’ families has gained significant momentum. It has expanded from case-oriented descriptive analyses of family experiences to longitudinal studies of child and family development and even macro analyses of the effects on communities in societies of mass incarceration. Now the field engages multi-disciplinary and international interest although it arguably still remains on the periphery of mainstream criminological, psychological and sociological research agendas. This chapter discusses developments in prisoners’ families’ research and its positioning in academia and practice. It does not aim to provide an all-encompassing review of the literature rather it will offer some reflections on how and why the field has developed as it has and on its future directions. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first discusses reasons for the historically small body of research on prisoners’ families and for the growth in research interest over the past two decades. The second analyses patterns and shifts in the focus of research studies and considers how the field has been shaped by intersecting disciplinary interests of psychology, sociology, criminology and socio-legal studies. The final part reflects on substantive and ethical issues that are likely to shape the direction of prisoners’ families’ research in the future

Explaining disappearances as a tool of political terror

Despite the widespread use of disappearances as a central tool of terror in recent decades, little is known about the emergence of the phenomenon or its underlying rationale. We argue that growing international accountability norms, coupled with the improved quality of reporting human rights abuses, paradoxically reshaped the repressive strategies of certain regimes and pushed them to deploy more clandestine and extrajudicial forms of repression, predominantly disappearances. We also explore the timing of disappearances: when a state decides to deploy a particular instrument of terror can greatly benefit our understanding of why it was used. We show that repressive regimes tend to use disappearances in the first period after a coup, taking advantage of the general confusion and opacity to secure strategic benefits and protect the regime from external scrutiny and future accountability. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on human rights and political repression by highlighting an ‘unintended consequence’ of international accountability norms: repressive regimes turn to clandestine crimes