By William D. Phillips, Jessica Dawney, Emily Hutton, Avery Adams, Lucy Strang, Katherine I. Morley, Nicola Kalk, Jennifer Bostock, Andrew Jones, Tom Ling, Tim Millar, Joanne Neale, John Strang, Jon Sussex, Jennifer Newbould

This study examined how treatment and recovery services are integrated with physical and mental health services following additional funding from England's drug strategy. Findings show wide variation in the extent and type of integration across local areas. While some progress has been made, more needs to be done to strengthen collaboration and achieve effective, person-centred care.

Key Findings

There is substantial variation in what services are offering across different local areas

• While certain activities - such as embedding treatment and recovery staff in broader health services to encourage inward referrals - are relatively consistent across local areas, other initiatives are more localised. This is driven by variations in the stage of development of different services, differences in resourcing and local context, and the varying strength of existing relationships and connections.

We identify five models of integration for treatment and recovery services and an optimal example of an integrated care pathway.

• We conceptualise the following models to help policymakers think about how to monitor, evaluate and communicate about service integration going forward:

• Model 1 - single point of access

• Model 2 - embedded workers

• Model 3 - joint planned care

• Model 4 - leveraging external support

• Model 5 - building in-house expertise

• .

• Many treatment and recovery services are struggling to meet even basic needs due to high caseloads. Limited, short-term and inconsistent funding compounds these problems, making long-term planning and integration very difficult. Stigma, especially within mental health services, also remains a major barrier.

Recommendations

Central government should:

• Facilitate the dissemination and implementation of the co-occurring mental health and substance use delivery framework

• Identify priority interventions for service integration

• Explore ring fenced, longer-term funding for integrating services

• Examine ways in which integration efforts could be measured and monitored.

ICPs should:

• Consider establishing a dedicated role for treatment and recovery services.

Treatment and recovery services should:

• Provide basic mental health training to screen for and deliver mental health interventions

• Strengthen relationships with other health services.

ICPs and treatment and recovery services should:

• Ensure training on substance use is implemented across all healthcare settings, prioritising mental health services.

By Sarah Parkinson, Jessica Dawney, Fifi Olumogba, Fin Oades, Jennifer Newbould, Katherine I. Morley, Jennifer Bostock, Andrew Jones, Nicola Kalk, Tom Ling, Tim Millar, Joanne Neale, John Strang, Jon Sussex, Lucy Strang

We conducted a mixed-methods process evaluation of the first three years of implementation of the Treatment and Recovery Portfolio of the UK government's 10-year drug strategy, From Harm to Hope. We found that the Portfolio brought welcomed funding into the treatment and recovery sector after an extended period of disinvestment. The Portfolio has largely been implemented as planned, despite challenges related to funding uncertainty and some delays. Stakeholders involved in local implementation agreed with the Portfolio's priorities, highlighting the positive focus on boosting capacity within the sector, supporting collaboration between treatment and recovery and other parts of the system, and incorporating lived experience and recovery into treatment. However, the Portfolio has not yet achieved its aim of creating a world-class treatment system or a whole-system approach to alcohol and/or other drugs. The treatment and recovery sector has been negatively impacted by years of disinvestment, which has diminished the workforce's and the system's capacity and capabilities. These long-standing challenges cannot be quickly reversed with funding injections alone, and were under-estimated by the UK government when initially implementing the Portfolio. Addressing these issues requires long-term investment, improved training and professional development standards, and action within the health and social care system that makes it easier to collaborate with treatment and recovery services. Increasing the number of people in treatment without addressing these fundamental challenges.

Key Findings

• Ring-fenced funding provided through the Portfolio was welcomed. However, uncertainty regarding long-term funding and restrictions on carrying funding from one year to the next were reported to impede long-term planning.

• Central government departments largely implemented the Portfolio as planned. However, there were several significant delays, including the plans to integrate with physical and mental health services.

• Many local stakeholders were satisfied with the level of flexibility they had in delivering the Portfolio, and commented positively on planning processes with OHID. However, they viewed reporting and reprofiling requirements of the Portfolio as onerous, and national targets set by DHSC as unrealistic.

• Local stakeholders largely agreed with the Portfolio's priorities of boosting capacity, supporting collaboration with other parts of the system, and incorporating lived experience and recovery into treatment. However, they also identified gaps, including a perceived lack of focus on alcohol and prescription drugs.

• The Portfolio's aims of creating a world-class treatment system and whole-system approach to alcohol and other drugs have not yet been achieved. The central government underestimated the scale of the challenges faced after years of disinvestment, which has diminished capacity and capabilities within the system. Long-standing challenges cannot be quickly reversed with funding injections alone.

• Study participants expressed concern that the quality of services may decrease due to the push to increase numbers in treatment without adequate improvements to maintain a minimum standard of care. Achieving a world-class system will require balancing numbers in treatment with the need to ensure that each person receives good-quality care..

By John Woodhouse

What is the law in England and Wales and Northern Ireland? It is an offence to possess an extreme pornographic image in England and Wales and Northern Ireland under section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. An “extreme pornographic image” is an image which is both pornographic and extreme.2 An image is “pornographic” if it is of “such a nature that it must reasonably be assumed to have been produced solely or principally for the purpose of sexual arousal.”3 An image is “extreme” if it is “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character” and depicts “in an explicit and realistic way” any of the following: • an act which threatens a person's life • an act which results, or is likely to result, in serious injury to a person's anus, breasts or genitals • an act which involves sexual interference with a human corpse • a person performing an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal (whether dead or alive)an act which involves the non-consensual penetration of a person's vagina, anus or mouth by another with the other person's penis, or • an act which involves the non-consensual sexual penetration of a person's vagina or anus by another with a part of the other person's body or anything else The latter two categories of prohibited material were added through section 37 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. This followed criticism from academics and women’s groups that the 2008 act originally failed to make it an offence to possess “rape pornography”.

by Jo Phoenix

Debates about prostitution law often pivot around two broad approaches. One favours full decriminalisation, arguing that removing all criminal penalties for selling and buying sex empowers women and improves safety. The other, sometimes called the “Nordic model,” criminalises the purchase of sex while decriminalising the seller, aiming to reduce demand and shift policing away from women. Ash Regan’s Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill, now defeated in the Scottish Parliament, followed the Nordic model. It proposed to decriminalise soliciting and loitering while criminalising the purchase of sex, alongside providing statutory support for women in prostitution. The Bill offered an opportunity to examine how this approach could function in Scotland and what it might mean in practice for women in prostitution. On 29 October 2025, I gave oral evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Criminal Justice Committee in support of Ash Regan’s Bill. For nearly two decades, I opposed the Nordic model of criminalising the purchase of sex. My opposition was not based on fixed political slogans like “sex work is work” or “prostitution is all male violence”. In my research, I have always held both truths in view, because women describe prostitution as a way to make money while also recognising it as sex-based violence and victimisation. I avoid abstract debates about consent. These debates skim past poverty, tend towards a facile interpretation of constraint and choice, and are not capable of holding in view the relentless realities of male violence and how this shapes women’s and girl’s ‘choices’. I initially opposed criminalising buyers because more urgent problems demanded action. Having studied Ash Regan’s Bill and the evidence base, my view has changed. Despite major legal and policing reforms over the last 15 years, some of the most intractable harms of prostitution and male violence remain unaddressed. While no law can remove all risks, the Nordic model, as reflected in this Bill, represents a realistic policy approach whose implementation could make things a little better for women caught up in prostitution.

By STATE OF RHODE ISLAND, Attorney General

The sordid and shameful history of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church spans generations and has affected communities across the globe.  Despite its small size, our state is home to one of the largest Catholic populations per capita in the country, with over 39% of Rhode Islanders—more than any other state—self-identifying as Catholic. Victims of clergy sexual abuse in Rhode Island have come from every community, every ethnic group, and from all economic and social backgrounds. They are our neighbors, friends, and family members.  Generations of Rhode Island victims, their families, and others who have suffered the impacts of this trauma deserve to know the truth of what occurred. 

By Maria Laura Di Tommaso, Silvia Mendolia, Silvia Palmaccio, Giulia Savio

A comprehensive understanding of the determinants of sexual violence constitutes a crucial step toward effective prevention. While there is much research on the role of socio-economic circumstances of both victims acund perpetrators, little is known about whether an individual’s physical attractiveness influences the likelihood of perpetrating sexual violence. Using U.S. data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we examine the relationship between attractiveness and sexual violence perpetration against one’s partner. Physical attractiveness is measured using interviewer-assigned scores for respondents aged 12 to 17. While no correlation is documented for women, among men, a one-point increase in attractiveness (on a 1–5 scale) reduces the likelihood of perpetrating sexual violence in adulthood by 13 percent. We also find that contextual factors, such as parental education and neighborhood cohesion, mitigate this association.

By His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary 

This spotlight report highlights how police forces and national bodies must work together to make sure forces can meet the demand faced by online child sexual abuse and exploitation teams and management of sexual offenders and violent offenders teams.

We have reviewed the findings related to the work done by these teams from our 2021/22 and 2023–25 police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy inspections, and identified where police forces could further improve, as well as examples of good practice and innovation.

We have identified where police forces could further improve, as well as examples of good practice and innovation. And we have identified opportunities for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, College of Policing and the Home Office to work with forces to improve the system. Our report makes 16 recommendations to support this aim.

By CECILIA FARFÁN-MÉNDEZ

Nearshoring offers an opportunity to improve security conditions in Mexico. The historic trend of de-risking by U.S. manufacturers leaving China will produce a generational shift that will bring some manufacturing closer to the United States. This creates opportunities for new investment and economic growth that could potentially benefit Mexico. Yet, nearshoring investment to Mexico is not guaranteed and will depend on a variety of factors including but not limited to the security situation in the country. The American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico (AMCHAM) reports that 13% of its member companies are now spend- ing more than 8% of their entire operational budgets on security. Official data also shows that in 2021 the cost of crime for firms was equal to 0.67% of Mexico’s GDP. Most of this cost is from expenses incurred on preventive measures ranging from changing locks to hiring private security. In 2011 the percentage spent in preventive measures, as a measure of cost of crime, was 41.4%.

By 2021 that percentage increased to 58.1%. This means that most of the cost of crime in Mexico for the private sector derives from trying to protect their businesses from violence and insecurity in the country. Notably, Baja California was the state with the highest costs incurred due to crime in 2021 with an average cost of $5,180 compared to the national average of $3,246. The private sector has an important role to play in improving security, including: • Recognizing the crime-corruption nexus that feeds illicit activities beyond the alluring but incomplete narco-narratives (i.e. a small group of violent drug traffickers are solely responsible for violence and criminality in the country) • Rethinking security not only as the protection of physical infrastructure but also of personnel and in relation to the broader environments in which they operate. Five key ideas should be at the center of corporate decision making for future nearshoring investment in Mexico: • Too often, there are links between criminal actors and corrupt government officials, which undermines citizen security and the rule of law. Companies, whether national or international, cannot buy themselves out of this problem through private security companies.

Companies can improve security conditions in the communities where they currently operate or are considering relocating to through partnerships that help to fund and sustain evidence-based programs effective in mitigating violence and preventing recruitment into criminal groups and recidivism. • While it is an understandable decision to hire private security companies, it should be clear that doing so is not free of negative outcomes. Firearms and ammunition trafficking, particularly from the United States to Mexico, feeds the cycle of violence in Mexico and erodes business-friendly environments. • In order to promote citizen security and successful nearshoring, the private sector should advocate for public policies aimed at stemming the flow of illicit firearms and ammunition trafficking, particularly from the United States to Mexico, including supporting the Stop Arming Cartels Act that will prevent military-grade weapons from being sold and trafficked to illicit actors. • States with high levels of business victimization are also states with some of the main highways in the country critical for cross-border trade and commerce. • Latin America is the world’s most vulnerable.

By CECILIA FARFÁN-MÉNDEZ

Gender mainstreaming in the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime offers the opportunity to explore some biases and stereotypes with respect to gender roles in organized crime and explore some promising practices in gender mainstreaming in the implementation of the Convention. There are several implications of not mainstreaming gender into legislation, policies and practices to combat organized crime. These implications include jeopardizing the effective implementation of the Organized Crime Convention and implementing ineffective or even counterproductive practices to prevent and combat organized crime. Not mainstreaming gender into policies, legislation and practices can lead to a continuation of differential treatment in society and within criminal justice systems, including secondary victimization and revictimization. This can lead to higher levels of violence and perpetuate the cycle of organized criminal activity. In policies, legislation and practices into which gender has not been mainstreamed, men are seen predominantly as perpetrators and rarely as victims, which can lead to them being denied the assistance and protection they would need in order to be able to collaborate with criminal justice systems to help bring to justice those who lead and direct organized criminal groups. Women are seen predominantly as victims and rarely as perpetrators.

Moreover, such policies, legislation and practices do not recognize that the categories of perpetrator and victim in organized crime are not mutually exclusive and that the roles of perpetrators and victims can be fluid and, at times, overlap. This can lead to impunity or unjust treatment by criminal justice systems. The composition of the workforce of the criminal justice system has an impact on the treatment of individuals within the system, as accused persons, prisoners, witnesses or victims. Criminal justice institutions cannot provide equal and equitable responses if the composition of the workforce is not representative of the broader population, or if discriminatory human resources policies persist. If victims and witnesses do not feel comfortable coming forward and collaborating with the justice system, the quality of investigations, prosecutions and adjudications is compromised. In terms of legislation and policy development, there are fundamental questions to ask to address the gender dimensions in policies to prevent and combat organized crime.

Who makes law and policy (representativeness)? What evidence do they draw on? Are gender-disaggregated data available and used? Whose voices do legislators and policymakers hear in consultations? What is the gender composition of the criminal justice workforce? Can gender bias be identified in pretrial detention and sentencing? In terms of looking at investigation, prosecution and adjudication through a gender-sensitive lens, some key points should be addressed. What is the gender selectivity, or assumptions as to who is a perpetrator and who is a victim, in investigations and prosecutions? Who benefits in reality from the proceeds of organized crime? Is the distinction between perpetrator and victim clear cut?

Are gender-sensitive victim assistance and witness protection provided to victims and witnesses, to encourage and enable them to collaborate with the criminal justice system? Is such protection extended, in appropriate cases, to their relatives and other persons close to them to take into account the caregiver roles? Are victims and witnesses protected from intimidation and retaliation in a gender-sensitive manner? Are vulnerable individuals protected from revictimization and secondary victimization?The present issue paper concludes that gender mainstreaming is not a parallel effort or a “women’s issue” separate from the implementation of the Organized Crime Convention but that it is an integral part of full implementation of the Convention. Significant data challenges still exist: gender statistics, including sexdisaggregated data, need to be collected, disseminated and used to inform policy, legislation and practices in order to improve understanding of gender and organized crime and to prevent and combat organized crime more efficiently

bby Bernard Hollander (Author), Graeme Newman (Introduction)

Why do people do what they know is wrong—and how much responsibility should they bear for their actions?

First published in 1922, Bernard Hollander’s The Psychology of Misconduct, Vice, and Crime: A Study of Conduct, Responsibility, and Moral Failing is a fascinating early attempt to understand wrongdoing through psychology rather than through moral condemnation alone. Drawing on twenty-five years of medical practice with patients suffering from nervous and mental disorders, Hollander examines the impulses, habits, emotions, circumstances, and failures of self-control that can lead ordinary people toward destructive or criminal behavior.

Moving across the emerging fields of psychology, psychiatry, and criminology, Hollander asks questions that remain strikingly familiar today. How do heredity and environment shape conduct? Why can one person resist temptation while another cannot? What roles do opportunity, habit, intoxication, anger, fear, acquisitiveness, and sexual desire play in misconduct? And at what point should psychological impairment affect our judgment of moral and legal responsibility?

Across twelve wide-ranging chapters, Hollander investigates the psychological foundations and causes of misconduct before turning to alcohol and drug habits, aggression and violence, suspicion and deceit, theft and crimes for gain, fear of consequences, sexual conduct, egotism and domination, moral weakness, responsibility, and treatment.

Of particular interest to readers of criminology is Hollander’s rejection of simplistic explanations based entirely upon free will. He sees behavior as emerging from the interaction of predisposition, upbringing, social environment, opportunity, competing motives, and the individual’s capacity for inhibition and self-control. His treatment of professional offenders also distinguishes calculated criminality from impulsive or psychologically troubled misconduct—an early recognition that there is no single psychological type called “the criminal.”

Hollander’s science is unmistakably that of his era. Some of his terminology, assumptions about heredity and mental deficiency, views of sexuality, and continuing interest in phrenology have long since been rejected or superseded. Yet this is precisely what makes the book valuable as a historical document: it captures a formative period when psychology, psychiatry, medicine, and criminology were struggling to replace simple categories of vice and wickedness with explanations based on individual differences and the causes of human behavior.

At the same time, Hollander frequently argues against indiscriminate punishment. He considers upbringing, poverty, physical and mental condition, temptation, and circumstance; questions whether fear and punishment genuinely reform offenders; and advocates individualized treatment rather than a single remedy for every form of misconduct.

This 2026 Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint, designed and edited with a new introduction by Graeme R. Newman, preserves Hollander’s historical arguments and period terminology while correcting obvious OCR and typographical defects, regularizing punctuation, and converting spelling to contemporary American English.

More than a century after its first appearance, The Psychology of Misconduct, Vice, and Crime offers historians, criminologists, psychologists, criminal-justice students, and general readers a provocative window into the origins of modern thinking about crime, deviance, self-control, treatment, and human responsibility.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 153p.

by Col. V. M. Masten (Author), Graeme Newman (Introduction)

What did Americans believe caused crime a century ago—and what did they think should be done about it?

First published in 1921, Stop Thief is a forceful and revealing examination of crime, punishment, policing, prisons, and social disorder in Progressive-Era America. Written by Col. V. M. Masten, the book captures a nation deeply concerned about rising crime and fiercely debating whether criminals should be deterred, punished, rehabilitated, or reformed.

Across eight wide-ranging chapters, Masten addresses immigration and crime, criminal influence and “crime by suggestion,” the courts and judges, prison reform, correctional regimes, professional sport and gambling, and proposals for improving probation, sentencing, and prison administration.

Masten is an uncompromising writer. He challenges the growing rehabilitative philosophy of his period and argues instead for discipline, deterrence, personal responsibility, and the vigorous enforcement of law. Yet some of his observations—particularly his concern with gambling, criminal association, and the ways people learn criminal behavior from others—anticipate debates that remain remarkably current.

At the same time, Stop Thief is very much a document of 1921 America. Its discussions of immigration, race, heredity, and social fitness contain prejudices and pseudo-scientific assumptions characteristic of parts of Progressive-Era criminological writing. This edition preserves that language rather than disguising or rewriting it, allowing the book to be read critically as an important historical source.

This new Read-Me.Org edition reproduces the complete original text, corrected for scanning and transcription errors, and includes a new introduction by criminologist Graeme R. Newman, placing Masten and his arguments within the history of American crime, criminal justice, immigration, and penal reform.

Essential reading for students and readers interested in criminology, criminal justice, American social history, policing, prisons, immigration history, and the Progressive Era, Stop Thief offers something more valuable than a modernized account of the past: it allows us to encounter the American debate over crime as it was actually being conducted more than a century ago.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 189p.

by Graeme R. Newman

In 1862, Henry Mayhew and John Binny walked into eleven of London's most notorious institutions — Newgate, Millbank, Pentonville, Brixton, the prison hulks at Woolwich, Coldbath Fields, Tothill Fields, Wandsworth, Holloway, the House of Detention at Clerkenwell, and Horsemonger Lane — and wrote down exactly what they saw: the governors, the warders, the chaplains, and the prisoners themselves, in their own words.

This edition brings that record back to life. Each chapter has been fully rewritten in modern prose while preserving every fact, every interview, and every argument the original authors made — from their case against purposeless hard labour to their unflinching accounts of the convict nursery, the condemned cell, and the boy discharged from prison with no one waiting at the gate.

A new introduction and retrospective, written for this edition, follows these institutions into the present: which ones were demolished, which became galleries, cathedrals, and post offices — and which are still open today, cited in current inspection reports for the very same overcrowding and neglect that Victorian reformers were fighting a century and a half ago.

What you'll find inside: • Eleven Victorian prisons, reconstructed room by room, cell by cell • Real testimony from governors, chaplains, and prisoners — first offenders and lifelong professionals alike • A frank, often moving record of Victorian London's poorest and most desperate • A new historical retrospective connecting each institution to its fate today

Part social history, part true crime, part uncomfortable mirror — London Prisons: A Retrospective is a door-by-door tour of a city's conscience, then and now.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. p.339.

by Nettly Lucas (Author), Graeme Newman (Introduction)

Step into the hidden London of the 1920s—a city of fashionable hotels and crowded streets, respectable suburbs and shadowy back rooms, Scotland Yard detectives and professional criminals who made deception, burglary, fraud and blackmail their trade.

First published in 1926, London and Its Criminals is Netley Lucas’s remarkable journey through the criminal underworld of interwar London. Rather than simply recounting celebrated crimes, Lucas sets out to describe criminals themselves: how they lived, where they gathered, the methods they used, the slang they spoke, and the elaborate machinery of policing that pursued them.

The result is an extraordinary period portrait of crime and criminal justice.

Lucas takes his readers inside Scotland Yard and its Criminal Record Office, explaining the growing importance of fingerprints, criminal records and systematic detection. From there he ventures into a very different London—the world of professional burglars, pickpockets, confidence tricksters, jewel thieves, forgers, blackmailers and criminal gangs. He introduces his readers to figures he describes as the “Kings” and “Queens” of the Underworld: men and women who move between cheap public houses, prosperous suburban homes, exclusive restaurants and fashionable hotels while living secret criminal lives.

Among the book’s most striking chapters are Lucas’s accounts of “master criminals” and “crooked women.” His characters include expert burglars, ingenious forgers, sophisticated jewel thieves and accomplished confidence tricksters. Some are frightening, some ingenious, some surprisingly ordinary. Again and again Lucas emphasizes the unsettling proximity of the criminal world to respectable society.

Yet London and Its Criminals is more than a gallery of rogues. Lucas was writing at a moment when attitudes toward crime and punishment were beginning to change. He opens the book by discussing the emerging scientific study of crime, criminal psychology, rehabilitation and the limitations of imprisonment—questions that remain central to debates about criminal justice a century later.

Lucas is also an unusually provocative guide. He claims familiarity with criminals themselves and repeatedly describes conversations, meals and encounters with people operating on the wrong side of the law. His London is consequently not the London of official police reports alone. It is a city observed from its restaurants, streets, clubs, pubs, courtrooms and criminal meeting places.

Modern readers should approach some of Lucas’s language, assumptions and sweeping judgments as products of their time. That is also part of the historical importance of the book. It provides a vivid primary-source window into how crime, policing, punishment, class and the urban underworld were represented during the 1920s.

This new Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint presents Lucas’s fascinating account to a new generation of readers, accompanied by a detailed new Introduction by Graeme Newman that places the work in its historical and criminological context.

For readers interested in true crime, criminology, Scotland Yard, policing, criminal history, London history, organized crime and the social history of the 1920s, London and Its Criminals offers a fascinating journey into a vanished—but sometimes surprisingly familiar—criminal world

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. p.194.

By Jeff Shantz

Over the last few years there has been growing attention to and discussion of the so-called militarization of policing. Unfortunately, much of this discussion poses the militarization of policing as a recent phenomenon. This paper examines policing in Canada within the context of an ongoing military practice. It shows that policing was founded on a military basis and continues to be carried out on a military basis as exemplified in the more recent developments that have raised alarm about militarization. It raises the need for a retheorization of policing within the context of capitalist social struggles and highlights some instructive recent theoretical developments toward that end. Properly understanding the police in Canada can help to contextualize and challenge current responses that are limited to reforms for police (de-militarization, de-escalation, improved training, non-lethal weaponry, etc.) or which even allow for the expansion of policing (community policing, drones,

Theory in Action, Vol. 17, No. 3, July (©2024) DOI:10.3798/tia.1937-0237.2410

by Miriam Driessen '

Major new research on the way police in London use Stop and Search has highlighted significant levels of disproportionality in the way the power is used throughout the capital and presented solutions for how it can be addressed.

More than 150,000 Stop and Search interactions were analysed by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and King’s College London who worked with community representatives and independent community voices to produce the largest-ever body of research on police use of Stop and Search.

Using new technology and innovative data science techniques, the research analysed every single stop and search conducted by the Met in 2023.

Our aim is to provide clear, practical insights to support evidence-based oversight and scrutiny in this important area.

Existing data and analytics from the report show:

The use of Stop and Search peaked in 2008/09 and has fallen significantly since then. The volume of stops conducted in March 2025 was 84.5% below the peak in year ending March 2009.

Disproportionality within Stop and Search is a long-standing concern in London and nationally. In England and Wales, Black individuals are four times more likely to be stopped and searched than White individuals - a comparable figure to London.

Public Voice data reveals 71% of Londoners believe the police should conduct Stop and Search - but that percentage has declined since 2020/21.

Black and disabled Londoners are more likely to report negative impacts of the encounter.

The overall quality of the Stop encounter is paramount, with wider links to trust and confidence.

London: The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), 2026.

By Michael R. Smith, Rob Tillyer, & John MacDonald

In January 2019, the City of Chicago entered into a policing Consent Decree in State ofIllinois v. City of Chicago, N.D. III. 17-cv-06260. The Consent Decree sets forth numerous requirements for the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to reform training, policies, and practices to ensure constitutional, effective, and transparent policing. The Consent Decree also requires data collection, analysis, and reporting to provide for ongoing, sustainable self-assessment and datadriven, evidence-based decision making by CPD leadership. In partial fulfillment of the requirements ofthe consent decree, researchers from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Pennsylvania (Research Team) was engaged by the CPD and tasked with developing a best practice methodology for analyzing CPD Tactical Response Report (TRR) and related data for patterns and trends in force used against specific demographic groups in Chicago. The Proposed Methodology Report went through several drafts and was accepted by CPD and the Independent Monitoring Team (IMT) in its final form on August 15, 2024. The current report serves as the main analytic work product outlined in the Proposed Methodology Report and details the results from the Research Team's analysis of CPD use of force and related data spanning a four year period - January 2020 through December 2023. The analyses contained herein are designed to identify potential patterns of disparity in how force was used by CPD against identifiable racial, ethnic, and gender-based subpopulations in Chicago from 2020 - 2023. The report uses scientifically appropriate benchmarks and statistical modeling to investigate the nature and extent of those disparities, if any, and to examine relevant subject, officer, situational, and area-level factors that are associated with or predictive of observed disparities. This report is offered to CPD and the IMT to assist the parties in their ongoing efforts to monitor compliance with the terms of the Consent Decree.

San Antonio: The University of Texas at San Antonio UTSA Criminology & Criminal Justice, 2026. 84p.

By Kourtnie Rodgers and Thomas Strauss

In 2024, the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office received funding from the Idaho State Police’s Pass-Through Grants and Research Department, through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) Program, to purchase and install 38 in-car camera bundles for patrol vehicles. Installation was completed in January and February 2025. This report presents preliminary findings on the cameras’ impact, comparing data from January to August 2025 with the same period in 2024. After installation, the percentage of citizen complaints resolved increased from 75% to 90%, monthly traffic citations issued decreased by 10%, and overtime hours spent on traffic court cases fell by 27%. While these results indicate positive effects, significant limitations such as data quality and the short follow-up period limit the strength of the conclusions. The report recommends improving data collection and extending the study period to allow for more rigorous assessment and to support future research, with the potential to inform law enforcement practices statewide and nationally. daho

Meridian: Statistical Analysis Center Pass-Through Grants and Research, Idaho State Police, 2026. 15p.

By Kattie Hall

From June to August 2025, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation’s Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) surveyed Sheriff’s Offices in the state. A survey, accompanied by instructions, was sent to all Sheriff’s Offices via email attachment. This was the twenty-first time the SAC compiled statewide management data pertaining to South Dakota Sheriff’s Offices.

The results of this survey are intended to provide sheriffs with a valid means of comparing expenditures and resources of offices across the state. In addition, the results can provide the sheriffs with a substantial basis from which to justify future management decisions.

Platte: South Dakota Office of Attorney General, Division of Criminal Investigation, Statistical Analysis Center. 2025. 43p.

By Jedidiah L. Knode, Travis M. Carter & Scott E. Wolfe

There is debate over the latitude of discretion police officers have when conducting stops and searches. While necessary due to resource limitations and the need for individualized justice, discretion involves subjective characteristics of suspicion formation, such as race and ethnicity, which could perpetuate disparities in traffic enforcement. Research has yet to explore other marginalizing characteristics of suspicion formation, such as the social class of drivers. This study draws on over 550,000 stops conducted by a large state police agency in 2022 and 2023 to explore how vehicle values serve as class signals influencing officers’ discretion. We found disparities, whereby lower-value vehicles were more likely to be searched than higher-value vehicles after matching based on when, where, and under what circumstances stops occurred. However, searches of lower-value vehicles were less likely to result in the recovery of contraband. Our findings highlight potential avenues for officer training and research analyzing inequalities in policing.

Justice Quarterly, 42:3, 396-425, DOI: 10.1080/07418825.2024.2398543

By Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams, Kyle McLean, and Geoffrey P. Alpert

Police vehicle pursuits emphasize a central tension between law enforcement imperatives and public safety. While modern policies emphasize balancing apprehension needs against risks of continuation, little is known about whether public intuitions mirror this framework. We address this gap using a nationally representative conjoint experiment (N = 3,334) that varied eleven contextual factors across randomized pursuit scenarios. Respondents rated perceived risk, indicated whether pursuits should be terminated, and made forced-choice tradeoffs. Across all outcomes, high-risk situational factors (e.g., high speeds, adverse weather, heavy traffic, urban settings, etc.) increased perceived danger and termination support, while more serious underlying offenses, particularly violent felonies, reduced it. These patterns align with the proportional balancing logic embedded in contemporary policy and training. Findings suggest restrictive, risk-sensitive pursuit policies are broadly consistent with public expectations, though tolerance for risk in violent felony cases may limit support for outright prohibitions.

Police Quarterly 2026, Vol. 0(0) 1–25, 2026