The war in Ukraine and associated risks of human trafficking and exploitation: Insights from an evidence-gathering roundtable

On 24 February 2022 the Russian Federation launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It marked a major escalation in the conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas region that has been ongoing since Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014. Many millions of people have been displaced both within Ukraine and beyond its borders. Faced with one of the fastest growing refugee situations in recent history, countries across Europe and beyond have taken decisive action to support people fleeing this conflict. In addition to foreign policy responses, such as coordinated international sanctions on Russia, military support and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, both state and non-state actors are increasingly turning their minds to how to prevent this clear humanitarian crisis from turning into a human trafficking crisis

War, Displacement, and Human Trafficking and Exploitation: Findings from an evidence-gathering Roundtable in Response to the War in Ukraine

Millions of people have been displaced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Despite increasing concerns about the associated risks of human trafficking and exploitation, evidence remains sparse. To address this gap, and explore relevant experiences and perspectives, we co-convened an international online roundtable together with the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The roundtable addressed emergent issues, key concerns and recommendations, with a particular focus on the UK’s response to people fleeing Ukraine. Over one hundred people from various professional backgrounds including healthcare, lawyers, charities, law enforcement, policy makers and academics participated. Qualitative thematic analysis identified five major themes: 1) conflict can create and compound opportunities for trafficking and exploitation; 2) the UK’s visa-based response to Ukrainian refugees lacks clarity, resourcing and accountability; 3) information gaps and overloads, both for people seeking sanctuary and those supporting them, can exacerbate risks of trafficking and exploitation; 4) insecurity, fear and the broader political climate around immigration and asylum create challenging conditions to respond; and 5) longer-term strategic planning around displaced Ukrainians is vital but appears lacking. Here, we discuss the key findings from the roundtable, situating them within the broader literature and reflecting critically on their implications for evidence-gathering, research, policy and practice

Corruption and control: A corruption reduction approach

Purpose - Corruption is a significant financial crime which is estimated by the World Economic Forum to cost about 5 per cent of global GDP or $2.6 trillion dollars. Explanations of corruption, like explanations of crime, tend to focus on the individual

Police education and democratic policing in Taiwan: a longitudinal quasi-experimental study of the effects of selection and police socialisation on human rights, moral reasoning and prejudice

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of selection and group socialisation on support of human rights, moral reasoning and prejudice in police officers in Taiwan. METHODS: We used a longitudinal quasi-experimental design to track three cohorts of police officers (n = 585) and a comparison group of criminology undergraduates (n = 43). RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences in measures of human rights, moral reasoning and prejudice between new police recruits and the control group. However, time in police education was associated with a statistically significant reduction in police officer support of human rights, moral reasoning and an increase in prejudice. In the control group, the reverse was true. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to police education in Taiwan resulted in police officers being significantly more prejudiced and significantly less adherent to the principles of human rights and moral reasoning. These results appear to be attributable to police socialisation rather than selection effects

Repeat and Near Repeat Burglary Victimization in Taiwan

Extensive evidence shows that repeat victimization is common and widespread, but studies on the prevalence of repeat victimization in Asia are limited. This study examines the extent and patterns of repeat and near-repeat burglary victimization in Taiwan using both 2015 Taiwan Area Victimization Survey data and police recorded burglary data. Results indicated that: (1) burglaries against the same household in Taiwan are highly concentrated (with the top 10% most burgled households making up around 30% of reported victimizations), more so than is often found in many Western countries; (2) the risk of (repeat) burglary is not consistently spread over space and time, particularly within the 100-m range of an initial burglary incident; and (3) the levels of near repeat burglaries identified in this study are notably lower than was observed in prior studies both in China and in many western countries. The findings highlight the value of developing prevention strategies specifically targeting repeat burglary victimization

Evolutionary Psychological Influences on the Contemporary Causes of Terrorist Events

In this chapter we integrate the concept of ultimate causation derived from evolutionary psychology (i.e., why have human behavioural tendencies evolved the way they did?) with the proximal situational perspective of causal mechanisms and goals (i.e. immediate causes of behaviour and events), with the view to better understand, predict and prevent terrorist behaviour and events. The developmental perspective, while important, is not central to our current analysis. Those working in crime science, and more especially situational crime prevention, have only recently begun to show an interest in terrorism, while to the best of our knowledge there appears to be little research linking situational theories, EP and crime or terrorist behaviour. It is our contention that EP has something useful to say about how we respond to and act on information in the immediate environment, and that a better appreciation of evolutionary influences on person-situation interactions might helpfully inform efforts to reduce the proximal causes of crime and terrorist behaviour or disrupt criminals'/terrorists' proximally-active, tactical goals. The chapter is structured as follows. We begin by setting out some prevalent misconceptions about EP that we argue account for the lack of interest in the approach among terrorist researchers, and that need to be dispelled before we can proceed with our proposed analysis. Next, we set out the parameters of our analysis, and describe terrorism in a manner that is amenable to an evolutionary perspective. Given the difficulties in defining terrorism, we select the concept of tribalism as a significant exemplar of a terrorism-supporting mechanism and our focus for analysis. We move then to the main goal of this chapter: integrating the proposed causes of terrorist behaviour, from ultimate causes rooted in our evolutionary past to proximal causes and goals in the immediate environment. This analysis is conducted within the framework of the Conjunction of Terrorist Opportunity, a conceptual model that seeks to link a range of situational and offender-based, proximal causes of terrorist events. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of our exercise for research and prevention

Police practitioner views on the challenges of analysing and responding to knife crime

Knife crime remains a major concern in England and Wales. Problem-oriented and public health approaches to tackling knife crime have been widely advocated, but little is known about how these approaches are understood and implemented by police practitioners. To address this knowledge gap, this article draws on semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 44 police personnel to consider the processes and challenges of applying problem-oriented and public health approaches to knife crime. Findings show that knife crime was seen as a complex social problem which would not be solved by ‘silver bullets’; prevention was prioritised and the limitations of enforcement were widely acknowledged; there was an emphasis on understanding and responding to vulnerability and risk; discussion of ‘holistic’ and ‘whole systems’ approaches was evident (but these concepts were rarely defined); and the problem of serious violence was viewed as a shared, multi-agency issue that the police could not tackle alone. Various challenges were also evident, most notably around analysis of the drivers and patterns of knife crime and the evaluation of knife crime interventions. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for knife crime prevention and the implementation and advancement of problem-oriented and public health approaches to policing

Police perceptions of problem-oriented policing and evidence-based policing: evidence from England and Wales

The history of policing is littered with reform programmes, which aim to improve effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy. Problem-oriented policing (POP) and evidence-based policing (EBP) are two popular and enduring reform efforts, both of which have generated significant researcher and practitioner attention. There are important similarities between POP and EBP: both approaches provide a framework intended to improve the outcomes of policing. There are also key differences, however, in terms of their main objectives, standards of evidence and units of analysis. Despite both approaches being widely advocated and implemented, presently little is known about police practitioner understanding of the relationship between POP and EBP, both in principle and in practice. To address this gap, this paper draws on survey (n = 4,141) and interview (n = 86) data collected from 19 police forces in England and Wales in 2019 to explore police practitioners’ views on the relationship between POP and EBP, and the extent to which these two approaches inform contemporary police practices. Our findings indicate that respondents generally viewed the two approaches as complementary and important frameworks for orienting police work. However, respondents also drew attention to how the two approaches are not always connected organisationally nor in the minds of police personnel. In addition, challenges were identified in the application of both approaches in practice. Our results suggest that more needs to be done to maximise the potential of POP and EBP, both separately and synergistically. The article concludes by suggesting some ways in which this might be achieved

Missing children: risks, repeats and responses

Investigating reports of missing children is a major source of demand for the police in the UK. Repeat disappearances are common, can indicate underlying vulnerabilities and have been linked with various forms of exploitation and abuse. Inspired by research on repeat victimisation, this paper examines the prevalence and temporal patterns of repeat missing episodes by children, as well as the characteristics of those involved. Using data on all missing children incidents recorded by one UK police service in 2015 (n = 3,352), we find that: (a) 75% of missing incidents involving children were repeats, i.e. attributed to children who had already been reported missing in 2015; (b) a small proportion of repeatedly missing children (n = 59; 4%) accounted for almost a third of all missing children incidents (n = 952, 28%); (c) over half of all first repeat disappearances occurred within four weeks of an initial police recorded missing episode; and (d) children recorded as missing ten times or more over the one year study period were significantly more likely than those recorded missing once to be teenagers, in the care system or to have drug and/or alcohol dependencies. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future research and the prevention of repeat disappearances by children