Adam Crawford

• BA Law and Sociology, Warwick University
• Professor at University of York

Research Summary Report

Police in England and Wales are under growing pressure to respond to multiple demands, with budgets and capabilities failing to keep pace. Alongside this, public scandals and wrongdoing in policing is regularly revealed, debated and fed into reform programmes. Recognising these issues, we ask what members of the public really want from policing. In...

Police are increasingly called upon to manage a host of social ills and vulnerable people, often filling gaps left by the withdrawal of other public and third sector services. Yet, there remains a distinct lack of critical assessment of what problems the police are expected to solve and whether they are the most appropriate agency to do so. This ar...

Background The academic impact agenda and evidence-informed policy movement have formed dynamic incentives for engagement between universities and local authorities. Yet, in the competitive higher education landscape, research-intensive universities frequently gravitate towards global rather than local impacts, while local government resources are...

This chapter identifies and revisits some of the fundamental challenges associated with working in partnerships across organizational boundaries, cultures, and established practices. It considers some of the vexed issues that often stymie good intentions as well as their implications for police leadership. This critical starting point is deliberate...

A review of research-policy engagement between the University of Leeds and Leeds City Council: Summary of findings

A review of research-policy engagement between the University of Leeds and Leeds City Council

From victimisation to restorative justice: developing the offer of restorative justice Restorative justice services have expanded in England and Wales since the Victim’s Code 2015. Yet evidence from the Crime Survey for England and Wales shows that in 2016-2017 only 4.1 per cent of victims recall being offered such a service. This article presents...

While the Victorian ideal of the public park is well understood, we know less of how local governors sought to realize this ideal in practice. This article is concerned with park-making as a process – contingent, unstable, open – rather than with parks as outcomes – determined, settled, closed. It details how local governors bounded, designed and r...

In a context of hyper-diversity and social polarisation, it has been suggested that public parks constitute crucial arenas in which to safeguard deliberative democracy and foster social relations that bind loosely connected strangers. Drawing on empirical research, we offer a more circumspect and nuanced understanding of the – nonetheless vital – r...

Thinking about and operationalizing societal impacts have become defining characteristics of university-based research, especially in the United Kingdom. This paper reflects on this unfolding shift in the conceptualization and practice of research with particular regard to criminology. It traces the development of new regulatory regimes that seek t...

British urban parks are a creation of the 19th century and a central feature in the Victorian image of the city. In the UK, parks are at a critical juncture as to their future role, prospects and sustainability. This article contributes to renewed interest in ‘social futures’ by thinking forward through the past about the trajectory of Victorian pu...

This chapter explores and assesses some of the possibilities and challenges in fostering police organisational change through police/academic partnerships that aspire to a model of ‘co-production’. It advances the case for knowledge generation that is socially distributed, application-oriented, trans-disciplinary and subject to multiple accountabil...

For many people, visiting parks is an integral part of everyday life, reflecting the vital role parks play within the social fabric of cities. Parks are places where history is made, both in terms of major public events - political rallies, mass meetings, demonstrations and civic celebrations — and in terms of people’s intimate lives; their romance...

The project ‘Developing Restorative Policing’ has been researched by scholars from the Universities of Sheffield and Leeds, together with Humberside Police and the PCC for Humberside, South Yorkshire Police and the PCC for South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire Police and the PCC for West Yorkshire, and Remedy. It was funded by the Police Knowledge Fund (...

Public parks are long-standing and familiar features of the urban environment. For many people, visiting parks is an integral part of everyday life in the contemporary city. Yet parks in the UK are at a possible ‘tipping point’, prompting important concerns about their sustainability. Parks face essential challenges over funding and management, as...

On Thursday 13th July 2017, the University of Leeds hosted a major one-day national conference entitled ‘The Future of Public Parks’ at The British Academy in London. The conference was generously sponsored by the Leeds Social Sciences Institute and idverde, with support from The Parks Alliance, Historic England and Groundwork. Some 79 delegates pa...

Child safeguarding has come to the forefront of public debate in the UK in the aftermath of a series of highly publicised incidents of child sexual exploitation and abuse. These have exposed the inadequacies and failings of inter-organisational relations between police and key partners. While the discourse of policing partnerships is now accepted w...

Supplementing familiar linear and chronological accounts of history, we delineate a novel approach that explores connections between past, present and future. Drawing on Koselleck, we outline a framework for analysing the interconnected categories of ‘spaces of experience’ and ‘horizons of expectation’ across times. We consider the visions and anxi...

The Anthropocene demands a re-evaluation of how we think about historical time across various disciplines and fields of analysis. It challenges scholars to connect understandings of the past with those of the emerging present and (long-term) future. Recognising that many of the future global challenges of insecurity and conflict will be products of...

This paper provides an analysis of the introduction and implementation of hybrid powers to regulate anti-social behaviour, during a period of regulatory ‘hyperactivity’ in the UK. It explores the role of procedural justice by drawing on findings from a study conducted in England which investigated the implementation practices and experiences of you...

This article presents findings from a study of the use of anti-social behaviour (ASB) warning letters, Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs) and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) with 3,481 young people from four large metropolitan areas in England which challenge dominant narratives about their use and impact. The findings unsettle prevailing b...

This article develops a conceptual framework that prompts new lines of enquiry and questions for security researchers. We advance the notion of ‘everyday security’ which encompasses both the lived experiences of security processes and the related practices that people engage in to govern their own safety. Our analysis proceeds from a critical appra...

Crime and policing-related problems – be they violence, abuse or child sexual exploitation - do not respect organisational boundaries but demand coordinated responses and joined-up solutions. In short, they necessitate policing partnerships. Nevertheless, the challenges associated with partnership working across organisational boundaries, cultures...

Restorative justice has been the subject of much theoretical criminological debate and policy innovation. However, little consideration has been given explicitly to issues of temporality and the challenges they raise. Yet, at its heart, restorative justice provides a rearticulated understanding of the relationship between the past and future; one t...

In this paper, I want to explore and assess a number of interconnected trends and their implications for our understanding of security and justice in contemporary societies. In so doing, I will draw most evidently on developments in the UK but also delineate and evoke broader trans-European comparisons, where these seem appropriate. My argument wil...

In keeping with the theme of this book, the chapter will seek to contribute to a positive notion of security. It will do so by endeavouring to reclaim a reflexive conception of security from the growing and somewhat dystopian (and utopian) ‘anti-security’ critique (Neocleous and Rigakos, 2011), whilst acknowledging the dangers and malign societal i...

The Summer School in Ghent included a combination of courses, given by Joanna Shapland (SheffieldUniversity), Adam Crawford (Leeds University), Jacques de Maillard (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines/CESDIP) and Paul Ponsaers (Ghent University). Lecturers were asked to develop themes during their lectures that were of common interes...

This book contains a selection of papers, which were presented and discussed at the first GERN Summer School for PhD students held in September 2012 at Ghent University, Belgium. The essays in the book coalesce around four overarching themes: the use and meaning of violence; policing the informal economy and tackling social disorder; methodological...

Preventing crime possibly consists of a wide array of techniques and practices inspired by various underlying theories of crime and crime reduction. Situational crime prevention (aiming at opportunity reduction) is probably the most widespread model of crime prevention across late modern Europe but also a highly debated one. How about alternative m...

Criminal justice has traditionally been associated with the nation state, its legitimacy and its authority. The growing internationalisation of crime control raises crucial and complex questions about the future shape of justice and urban governance as these are experienced at local, national and international realms. The emergence of new internati...

Criminal justice has traditionally been associated with the nation state, its legitimacy and its authority. The growing internationalisation of crime control raises crucial and complex questions about the future shape of justice and urban governance as these are experienced at local, national and international realms. The emergence of new internati...

Introduction The power to define acts as crimes and the institutionalisation of processes of criminalisation are intimately bound up with the law-making power and identity of the nation state. Similarly, the ability to enforce criminal norms through coercion is equally entwined with the state's claim to sovereignty and its monopoly over the use of...

Against a background of increased public debate about insecurity and research interest in fear of crime, this article explores and reflects upon recent developments within Anglo-American literature and research. It explores what public perceptions of insecurity and fear of crime are taken to mean, how we measure insecurity and interpret research fi...

Against a background of increased public debate about insecurity and research interest in fear of crime, this article explores and reflects upon recent developments within Anglo-American literature and research. It explores what public perceptions of insecurity and fear of crime are taken to mean, how we measure insecurity and interpret research fi...

The ‘anti-social behaviour’ agenda in Britain and the introduction of diverse new powers and regulatory tools represent a major challenge to traditional conceptions of criminal justice. This article argues that the language of regulation has been appropriated and deployed to cloak and legitimize ambitious (yet ambiguous) bouts of hyper-active state...

The contemporary city is a contested space and its governance is the subject of complex global economic forces, local interests and political struggles as well as a response to the changing face of governing alliances in residential and commercial areas, forms of consumption, commercially-generated crime and disorder and cultural expressions of lei...

This article explores the impact of dispersal powers introduced as part of the British government's drive to tackle anti-social behaviour. It focuses especially on the experiences and views of young people affected by dispersal orders. It highlights the importance of experiences of respect and procedural justice for the manner in which they respond...

This article considers the development and use of dispersal powers, introduced by the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, and situates these within the context of wider legislation and policy initiatives. It explores the ways in which the powers have been interpreted by the courts and implemented by police and local authorities. The article critically...

The Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003) gives police powers to designate areas as ‘dispersal zones’ for up to six months, where there is evidence of persistent antisocial behaviour. Findings from research into the use and impact of dispersal orders are presented and comparisons are drawn with the Scottish experience. A central message from the researc...

This article engages with insights from the ‘(post-) regulatory state’ literature in critically exploring the changing face of policing and security. It subjects notions of ‘networked governance’ and ‘responsive regulation’ to empirical examination in the British context. The article illustrates the manner in which state anchoring constitutes a dis...

This chapter tries to connect housing to an increasingly mixed economy of policing where the demand for security patrols in residential areas is delivered through different forms of neighbourhood wardens, police officers, and private security firms. It critiques the effectiveness of this mixed economy in improving the communities' fears of ASB and...

Introduction A recurring theme of this book is that the control of tenants’ conduct and the policing of social behaviour have been ever-present features of social landlordism from the late Victorian era onwards. Since the 1990s, however, there has been a renewed preoccupation in social housing management with responding to tenants’ anxieties about...

This article presents an overview of an emerging market in residential security patrols in England and Wales. Drawing on recent empirical research, it outlines the fragmented and uneven nature of current developments and highlights coordination deficits and the absence of regulatory oversight. The research illustrates how the growth in competitive...

This article explores the growing emphasis upon the policing of incivilities and anti-social behaviour, situating this within debates about the role of social capital in the construction and maintenance of social order. It outlines a critique of certain dominant assumptions within debates about social capital, notably with regard to crime and secur...

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It has become generally accepted that governments alone no longer determine (if they ever fully did) what sort of security is needed by, nor are they the sole providers of policing on behalf of, the populations they govern. Groups other than governments or police, including businesses, landlords, housing providers and citizens, increasingly take co...