'To the end of the world':Space, place and missing persons investigations

Police investigations of major crimes are typically conducted in contexts where there is contested or ambiguous knowledge about what occurred and such challenges are also routinely faced in the investigation of missing persons. This article examines ways in which attempts to ‘manufacture certainty’ in missing persons cases are strongly informed by geographical notions of space and place. The article is structured around the key phases of police investigations, each of which involves the mobilization of different forms of geographical knowledge. In the first stage of ‘identifying and acquiring’ information, the process of search is structured by knowledge about the possible spatial behaviours of missing people often generated using spatial profiling techniques. In the second phase of ‘interpreting and understanding’, more nuanced accounts of what may have happened to a missing person are constructed as the police attempt to ‘place’ a person’s disappearance within a particular narrative based on their reading of the intelligence picture that emerges during the investigation. In the concluding phase of ‘ordering and representing’, the case to internal (senior police management) and external (relatives of the missing person and wider public) audiences investigators will often invoke a notion of ‘the end of the world’ referring not just to how they have defined the geographical limits of the police search if the person is still unaccounted for but also the boundaries of reputational risk and the proportionality of the police response

Police liaison officers at football: Challenging orthodoxy through communication and engagement

AbstractThis paper expands upon research on the use of Police Liaison Teams’ (PLTs) within public order policing operations surrounding football fixtures. Using a Participant Action Research approach, the paper reports on PLT use across multiple events and locations with different police forces, different personnel and fans and divergent command perspectives as well as comparative data from PLT and non - PLT events. It identifies how accountability dynamics associated with the classification and management of risk in the policing of football may explain the continued reliance on more coercive policing tactics, as well as a number of other barriers that hinder the development of PLT use at football. Despite this, the paper provides evidence that PLTs can offer similar benefits to the policing of football as they do to the policing of protest. In particular we argue that developing such approaches will make the policing of football more human rights complaint. Key words: Police Liaison Teams, Public Order, Risk Classification, Human Rights, Football

Homicide detectives' intuition

Little is known about the decision-making processes of homicide detectives; this study is a first step towards understanding the inferential processes they engage in during the initial stages of an investigation. A card sorting exercise consisting of 20 crime scene photographs showing homicide victims in situ was designed to examine how detectives categorise and conceptualise homicide crime scenes. Forty homicide detectives were asked to 'think aloud' whilst categorising the crime scenes. Qualitative content analysis of the 'think aloud' accounts revealed detectives' intuitive ability to automatically make detailed inferences regarding the circumstances surrounding each homicide on the basis of available crime scene information (victim's sex, location, and method of death). A cycle of cognition was evident whereby detectives drew upon the contextual information available to generate hypotheses regarding homicide type (domestic, male brawl, and crime-related) and derive inferences about victim-offender relationship, offender behaviour, motive, and whether the offence was spontaneous or planned. The detectives made 594 inferences of which 67% (N=398) were accurate. The sorting exercise proved to be ecologically valid, with detectives reporting that they assessed and interpreted the homicide crime scenes, as they would in an actual investigation. The implications for police training and 'offender profiling' research are discussed. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

A review of the changing culture and social context relating to forensic facial depiction of the dead

The recognition of a decedent by a family member is commonplace in forensic investigation and is often employed as identity confirmation. However, it is recognised that misidentification from facial recognition is also common and faces of the dead may be extremely difficult to recognise due to decomposition or external damage, and even immediate post-mortem changes may be significant enough to confuse an observer. The depiction of faces of the dead can be a useful tool for promoting recognition leading to identification and post-mortem facial depiction is described as the interpretation of human remains in order to suggest the living appearance of an individual. This paper provides an historical context relating to the changing view of society to the presentation and publication of post-mortem facial depictions and discusses the current ethical, practical and academic challenges associated with these images

Revisiting the Yorkshire Ripper Murders: Interrogating Gender Violence, Sex Work, and Justice

Between 1975 and 1980, 13 women, 7 of whom were sex workers, were murdered in the North of England. Aside from the femicide itself, the case was infamous for police failings, misogyny, and victim blaming. The article begins with a discussion of the serial murder of women as a gendered structural phenomenon within the wider context of violence, gender, and arbitrary justice. In support of this, the article revisits the above case to interrogate police reform in England and Wales in the wake of the murders, arguing that despite procedural reform, gendered cultural practices continue to shape justice outcomes for victims of gender violence. In addition, changes to prostitution policy are assessed to highlight how the historical and ongoing Othering and criminalization of street sex workers perpetuates the victimization of this marginalized group of women

Identifying potential terrorists: visuality, security and the channel project

This article analyses how British counter-radicalization policy in general, and the Channel project in particular, constitute individuals who are vulnerable to radicalization as visible, producing them as subjects of intervention. It thus asks, how can potential terrorists be identified and made knowable? The article first argues that to understand Channel, it is crucial to develop a conceptual account of the security politics of (in)visibilization that draws attention to the ways in which security regimes can, at times, function primarily through the production of regimes of (in)visibility. Using this approach, the article focusses on the role of ‘indicators’ as a technology of (in)visibilization. This role is central to the functioning of Channel, visibilizing certain subjects as threatening. Yet such a production is political. In bringing together a politics of care and a politics of identity, it is a regime of (in)visibility that produces new sites of intervention, contains significant potential consequences for the expression of certain identities, and raises new and troubling possibilities for how contemporary life may be secured

The Role of Return Home Welfare Interviews in Responding to the Needs of Young Runaways

When children and young people run away from home or care it is most often indicative of problems in their lives. Reporting on the findings of a recent evaluation, this study considers the role, delivery and impact of ‘return home welfare interviews' (RHWIs) in identifying children and young people in need. It concludes that RHWIs function as an effective screening mechanism and can be facilitative in creating multiple pathways for referral to appropriate services. It challenges assumptions about the unsuitability of the police in undertaking RHWIs and highlights the importance of context, training and appropriate resourcing to the success of police delivery