Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Books: Research
Addressing a lack of high-quality sentencing information in Ireland, this important book explores the factors that influence judges to impose a sentence of long-term imprisonment in sexual offence cases.
Judges have made it clear that sentences of 15 years to life imprisonment are to be reserved for offending that is ‘truly egregious’. Griffin, using over 100 serious sexual offence cases, examines what this means in practice. The book is designed to be used in the classroom and the court, as well as providing a solid evidence base to inform the public and policy discourse on sentencing.
All too often, human systems are criticised for failing those they are meant to serve. One example is the growing awareness of the overlooked needs of adolescents facing harm in their communities. This has highlighted a need for new systems that enable practice that is ethical, effective and grounded in supportive relationships. But how can this be achieved?
Appealing to those interested in Contextual Safeguarding and beyond, this book shares ‘real-life’ lessons from research, covering:
• Practical guidance and tools for changing systems using embedded methods;
• Navigating complex relationships and emotions in organisational change; and
• Using theory and concepts to support change.
The book’s lively and creative style makes it accessible for researchers, students, professionals and anyone committed to system change in children’s social care.
In today’s world, there are interwoven crises affecting us at every level. This book explores the impact of these crises on applied social research. It shows how using a complexity framework in research is key to tackling global challenges effectively.
By featuring illustrative examples from the UK, China, Brazil, South Africa and the US, the authors demonstrate how an action research programme based around the use of existing social research methods embedded in processes of co-production and participation can drive real-time social change.
In doing so, the book highlights the transformative role of action-oriented research in addressing today's complex global challenges.
Why have so many radical thinkers advocated for the abolition of prisons and punishment? And why have their ideas been so difficult to popularise or garner the political will for change? This book outlines several different approaches to penal abolitionism and showcases their calls for the ending of legal coercion, domination, and repression.
This exciting and innovative edited collection shows how abolitionist ideas have continued topicality and relevance in the present day and how they can collectively help with devising new ways of thinking about social problems as well as suggesting alternatives to existing penal policies, practices and institutions.
Abolitionist thought visualizes a world without prisons – or a radical reduction or transformation of prisons and punishment. This fascinating book explores the abolitionist ideas of key early socialists and anarchists, writing from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries. It considers how these radical thinkers can provide insights into our present condition, both by highlighting the harms of punishment and by pointing to inspiring alternatives to current policy and practice. By examining their calls for the ending of legal coercion, domination and repression, the book shows how the ideas of early socialists and anarchists can assist those engaging in emancipatory struggles against penal and social injustice today.
“Banal warfare” describes the ways in which the vision of the city perpetually ridden with conflicts, terrorist attacks, and disease infuses everyday urban life to the point of becoming invisible or taken for granted. The book is situated within decolonial urbanism as, to understand the urban geopolitical struggles in western Europe, it employs the conceptual framework developed in relation to cities conventionally considered war cities in the global east and south. In “reversing the gaze” on urban warfare, the focus is on the impact of framing different public emergencies and incidents of violence in Paris and Brussels as acts of war and how this contributes to the normalization of militarism within urban contexts traditionally viewed as “non-war zones.” From lockdowns to states of emergency, the book addresses how this process shapes urban governance agendas, constructs the notion of the “enemy within,” and conditions the everyday affective atmospheres of urban dwellers in Paris and Brussels. These citizens are not presented as passive victims of military urbanism, but as active subjects in the doing and undoing of notions of cities at war. The book highlights the politics of affective atmospheres in an effort to “make feminist sense” of urban warfare, drawing attention to the processes that sustain social inequalities and deepen urban geographies of exclusion while, at the same time, rethinking notions of urban peace.
This timely collection crosses international boundaries to highlight criminological issues with a rural focus. Using a variety of different perspectives, the contributors offer lessons from research on rural crime, justice and security from the seven continents with a macroscopic perspective on issues of international concern.
The book identifies the global context in which rural crime takes place, presenting insights on crime prevention, safety and security to students, researchers, policymakers and practitioners.
Child Protection systems across the globe are developing at pace, each reflecting their unique economic, social and cultural contexts.
This book provides an overview of 11 child protection systems from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and discusses the formal and informal responses countries are making to the shared problem of child abuse and maltreatment. Within each chapter, vignettes give readers a window into how each country’s child protection system operates in practice.
This is essential reading for academics, social work professionals and anybody working within child and family welfare.
Tensions between police and diverse communities in both the US and UK require innovation about ways to improve relations. While police diversity is often discussed as a potential solution, these discussions lack theoretical and empirical support.
This volume presents an original discussion of race, gender, sexual orientation and class diversity and shows that police diversity can have meaningful impacts on the decision-making, outcomes and legitimacy of police forces.
Drawing on theoretical and empirical research including interviews with diverse police leaders, this book examines how police diversity can help shift traditional policing cultures. It also considers obstacles to police reform, revealing how championing meaningful diversity can positively impact the lives of policed communities.
EPUB and EPDF available open access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
How can we use evidence to improve deradicalisation and violence prevention outcomes?
Based on work developed during the implementation of the cross-European INDEED project, this is an essential reference book for practitioners, researchers and policy makers. It sets out the three pillars of best evidence-based practice – scientific evidence, professional judgement and consideration of clients’ preferences, values and beliefs. Demonstrating both successful and unsuccessful approaches with case studies from the field, the book offers practical strategies for prevention teams designing and evaluating their programmes.
