What are the current and future challenges in criminal investigation carried out by the police in the UK? How has the role of the detective changed over time and is there a real journey towards professionalism?
Written by an author with extensive practical and training experience, this book provides a comprehensive overview and critical analysis of the development and practice of criminal investigation. It examines decision-making within criminal investigations, from volume crime through to major and serious crime investigations and links investigative influences on policing with the evidence-based agenda. The book:
• discusses the move from the art and craft of detective work to a new science-based professionalism;
• contextualises the current position of investigation within the context of government austerity measures and the College of Policing and Government agendas;
• critically examines models of investigation such as the Core Investigative Doctrine and the Murder Investigation Manual;
• explores the legal framework for modern critical investigations and the role of the IPCC.
Part of Key themes in policing, a textbook series of evidence-based policing books for use within Higher Education curriculums and in practice, this book is suitable for policing and criminal justice programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Based on unprecedented empirical research conducted with lower levels of the Afghan police, this unique study assesses how institutional legacy and external intervention, from countries including the UK and the US, have shaped the structural conditions of corruption in the police force and the state.
Taking a social constructivist approach, the book combines an in-depth analysis of internal political, cultural and economic drivers with references to several regime changes affecting policing and security, from the Soviet occupation and Mujahidin militias to Taliban religious police.
Crossing disciplinary boundaries, Singh offers an invaluable contribution to the literature and to anti-corruption policy in developing and conflict-affected societies.
The death of Michael Brown at the hands of a white Ferguson police officer has uncovered an apparent legitimacy crisis at the heart of American policing. Some have claimed that de-policing may have led officers to become less proactive.
How exactly has the policing of gangs and violence changed in the post-Ferguson era? This book explores this question, drawing on participant observation field notes and in-depth interviews with officers, offenders, practitioners, and community members in a Southern American state.
As demands for police reform have once again come into focus following George Floyd’s death, this crucial book informs future policing practice to promote effective crime prevention and gain public trust.
This timely and important report draws together the findings of an extensive two-year study of developments in the provision of visible policing in England and Wales. Exploring the dynamic relations between different public and private providers, it combines an overview of national developments with a detailed analysis of six focused case studies, including two city centres, one out-of-town shopping centre, an industrial park and two residential areas.
The report considers the role of community support officers, neighbourhood wardens and private security guards, amongst other plural policing personnel and outlines the policy implications of the research findings, particularly with regard to the Government’s current police reform agenda. It also provides important insights and recommendations regarding the organisation, co-ordination and regulation of the future mixed economy of visible security patrols.
Plural policing will be of special interest to academics, researchers, policy makers, police and security managers and students of criminology and policing, as well as all those interested in community safety and the changing face of modern policing.
Taking an evidence-based approach to understanding police culture, this thorough and accessible book critically reviews existing research and offers new insights on theories and definitions. Tom Cockcroft, an authority on the subject, addresses a range of contemporary issues including diversity, police reform and police professionalisation.
This invaluable review:
- Identifies and discusses differing conceptions of police culture;
- Explores the contribution of different disciplinary and methodological approaches to our understanding of police culture;
- Assesses how culture relates to many different operational aspects of policing;
- Contextualises our understanding of police culture in relation to both contemporary police agendas and wider social change.
For students, researchers and police officers alike, this is an accessible and timely appraisal of police culture.
In western liberal democracies the police are viewed as guardians of public safety and enforcers of the law. How accurate is this? Given police violence and the failure of many attempts at reform, attention has turned to other models of managing criminality, including defunding the police and instead funding alternatives to criminalization and incarceration.
This book is the first comprehensive overview of police divestment, using international examples and case studies to reimagine community safety beyond policing and imprisonment.
Showcasing a range of practical examples, this topical book will be relevant for academics, policy makers, activists and all those interested in the Black Lives Matter movement, protest movements and the renewed interest in policing and abolitionism more generally.
The police increasingly need to work with other government agencies, the third sector, community organisations and the private sector, an approach known as “Plural Policing”. This book critically analyses the rise of this approach in England and Wales over the past decade, giving examples of national and international practice. Written by an author with experience in both practice and academia, it discusses the consequences of this approach for the historical model of policing provision and challenges views on how policing should be delivered in the future.
Part of Key themes in policing, a textbook series designed to fill a growing need for research-informed policing within Higher Education curriculums and in practice, edited by Megan O’Neill, Marisa Silvestri & Stephen Tong, this accessible text, aimed primarily at undergraduate students, will appeal widely across different modules and tie into important issues covered on all policing courses.
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
Drawing on decolonial perspectives on peace, statehood and development, this illuminating book examines post-liberal statebuilding in Central Asia. It argues that, despite its emancipatory appearance, post-liberal statebuilding is best understood as a set of social ordering mechanisms that lead to new forms of exclusion, marginalization and violence.
Using ethnographic fieldwork in Southern Kyrgyzstan, the volume offers a detailed examination of community security and peacebuilding discourses and practices. Through its analysis, the book highlights the problem with assumptions about liberal democracy, modern statehood and capitalist development as the standard template for post-conflict countries, which is widespread and rarely reflected upon.
When suspects are arrested, they spend their time in police custody largely in isolation and out of public view. These custody blocks are police territory, and public controversies about what happens there often only arise when a detainee dies.
Custody visitors are volunteers who make what are supposed to be random and unannounced visits to police custody blocks to check on the welfare of detainees. However, there is a fundamental power imbalance between the police and these visitors, which calls the independence and effectiveness of custody visiting into question.
Investigating this largely unexplored part of the criminal justice system, this timely book includes the voices of the detainees who have a unique insight into the scheme. It offers detailed proposals for radically reforming custody visiting to make it an effective regulator of police behaviour, with an explanation of the political context that could make that a reality.
What is policing about and who defines it? This book examines these key issues by exploring the notion of zero tolerance and its application in different settings. Following its introduction in New York, and the seemingly dramatic reduction in crime, zero tolerance policing was taken up in a number of other countries, including the UK and the Netherlands. This book examines that process. It argues that this policy was, in fact, nothing more than a return to old-style, crime control policing. While it did foster the swift analysis of crime patterns and more assertive policing of public places, it could lean towards repression and demonising of certain groups. Examining the EEE Examining the EEEExamining the negative response of leading police officers and the policy’s debatable impact on crime, the author concludes that zero tolerance in the UK and Netherlands was more of a populist political and media creation than a coherent policy. This book is far more than an authoritative analysis of zero tolerance. It is a valuable source for entering the debate about the big picture in policing which many stakeholders now wish to see. The approachable style of this book makes it ideal for students, academics, police practitioners and the lay reader to enter that debate.
