Understanding Concerns about Community Relations in Calderdale

•This study examined attitudes and dispositions towards greater ethnic and religious diversity, as well as community relations more generally, among residents of predominantly white British neighbourhoods. It also examined people’s attitudes and responses to anti-minority protest by groups like the English Defence League (EDL)and towards cohesion policy and practices. A mixed methods design was used combining a (non-representative) household survey (n=212) in three selected research sites (Illingworth, Sowerby Bridge and Todmorden) with eight key informant interviews (across key institutions) and nine focus group discussions (across age-ranges and localities) with local people

Understanding Concerns about Community Relations in Kirklees

This study examined attitudes and dispositions towards greater ethnic and religious diversity, as well as community relations more generally, among residents of predominantly white British neighbourhoods. It also examined people’s attitudes and responses to anti-minority protest by groups like the English Defence League (EDL) and towards cohesion policy and practices. A mixed methods design was used combining a (non-representative) household survey (n=434) in four selected research sites (three areas in north Kirklees, one area in south Kirklees) with six key informant interviews (across key institutions) and fifteen focus group discussions (across age-ranges and localities) with local peopl

The Utility of Applying Textual Analysis to Descriptions of Offender Modus Operandi for the Prevention of High Volume Crime

Police crime information systems contain modus operandi (MO) fields which provide brief text descriptions of the circumstances surrounding crime events and the actions taken by offenders to commit them. This Thesis aims to assess the feasibility of undertaking systematic analysis of these descriptions for high volume crimes. In particular, it seeks to ask the following three questions: 1) Are police recorded MO data a potential source of actionable intelligence to inform crime prevention? 2) Can techniques drawn from computer-aided text analysis be used to identify meaningful patterns in MO data for high volume crimes? 3) Do conceptual frameworks add value to the analysis and interpretation of patterns in MOs? The study focuses on a sample of theft from the person and robbery of personal property offences (n~30,000). Although existing studies have utilised similar data, they have tended to focus on crime detection and have been beset with problems of data quality. To explore these aims, it was first necessary to conduct a thorough review of MO fields to identify the challenges they present for analysis. Problems identified include various types of error but a more prominent challenge is the inherent flexibility found within natural language, i.e. human language as opposed to languages that are artificially constructed. Based on the data review, it was possible to select, and develop, appropriate techniques of computer-aided content analysis to process the data ready for further statistical investigation. In particular, a cluster analysis successfully identified and classified groups of offences based on similarities in their MO fields. The findings from the analysis were interpreted using two conceptual frameworks, the conjunction of criminal opportunity and crime scripts, both of which are informed by situational crime theories. The thesis identified that the benefits of these frameworks were twofold. As methods of analysis the frameworks ensure that the interpretation of results is systematic. As theoretical frameworks they provide an explicit link between patterns in the data, findings from previous literature, theories of crime causation and methods of prevention. Importantly, using the two frameworks together helps to build an improved understanding of offender's ability both to cope with and to exploit crime situations. The thesis successfully demonstrates that MO fields contain a potential source of intelligence relevant to both practical crime prevention and research, and that it is possible to extract this information using innovative computer-aided textual analysis techniques. The research undertaken served as a pathfinding exercise developing what amounts to a replicable technique applicable to datasets from other localities and other crime types. However, the analysis process is neither fully objective nor automated. The thesis concluded that criminological frameworks are a pre-requisite to the interpretation of this intelligence although the research questioned the strict categories and hierarchies imposed by the frameworks which do not entirely reflect the flexibilities of real-life crime commission

Factors Impacting Perceived Safety Among Staff Working on Mental Health Wards

Background: Safety at work is a core issue for mental health staff working on in-patient units. At present, there is a limited theoretical base regarding which factors may affect staff perceptions of safety. Aims: This study attempted to identify which factors affect perceived staff safety working on in-patient mental health wards. Method: A cross-sectional design was employed across 101 forensic and non-forensic mental health wards, over seven National Health Service trusts nationally. Measures included an online staff survey, Ward Features Checklist and recorded incident data. Data were analysed using categorical principal components analysis and ordinal regression. Results: Perceptions of staff safety were increased by ward brightness, higher number of patient beds, lower staff to patient ratios, less dayroom space and more urban views. Conclusions: The findings from this study do not represent common-sense assumptions. Results are discussed in the context of the literature and may have implications for current initiatives aimed at managing in-patient violence and aggression

Hate crime reporting: Improving the efficacy of third party reporting centres

Presentation at Policy Exchange Conference

Creative processes in co-designing a co-design hub: towards system change in health and social services in collaboration with structurally vulnerable populations.

Background: Co-design is an approach to engaging stakeholders in health and social system change that is rapidly gaining traction, yet there are also questions about the extent to which there is meaningful engagement of structurally vulnerable communities and whether co-design leads to lasting system change. The McMaster University Co-Design Hub with Vulnerable Populations Hub (‘the Hub’) is a three-year interdisciplinary project with the goal of facilitating partnerships, advancing methods of co-design with vulnerable populations, and mobilising knowledge. Aims and objectives: A developmental evaluation approach inspired by experience-based co-design was used to co-produce a theory of change to understand how the co-design process could be used to creatively co-design a co-design hub with structurally vulnerable populations. Methods: Twelve community stakeholders with experience participating in a co-design project were invited to participate in two online visioning events to co-develop the goals, priorities, and objectives of the Hub. Qualitative data were analysed using a thematic content analysis approach. Findings: A theory of change framework was co-developed that outlines a future vision for the Hub and strategies to achieve this, and a visual graphic is presented. Discussion and conclusions: Through critical reflection on the work of the Hub, we focus on the co-creative methods that were applied when co-designing the Hub’s theory of change. Moreover, we illustrate how co-creative processes can be applied to embrace the complexity and vulnerability of all stakeholders and plan for system change with structurally vulnerable populations

Hopes and Fears: Community cohesion and the ‘White working class’ in one of the ‘failed spaces’ of multiculturalism

Since 2001, community cohesion has been an English policy concern, with accompanying media discourse portraying a supposed failure by Muslims to integrate. Latterly, academia has foregrounded White majority attitudes towards ethnic diversity, particularly those of the ‘White working class’. Whilst questioning this categorisation, we present data on attitudes towards diversity from low income, mainly White areas within Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, a town portrayed in media discourse as one of the ‘failed spaces’ of multiculturalism. Drawing on mixed methods research, we present and discuss data that provide a complex message, seemingly confirming pessimistic analyses around ethnic diversity and predominantly White neighbourhoods but also highlighting an appetite within the same communities for greater and more productive inter-ethnic contact. Furthermore, anxieties about diversity and integration have largely failed to coalesce into broad support for organised anti-minority politics manifest in groups such as the English Defence League