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The number of sex offences committed by strangers decreased significantly in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic, new research shows. According to researchers at the University of Birmingham, the amount of offending in night-time economy and outdoor settings dropped significantly, but so too did offences taking place at home.

Police services across Britain are failing to meet the public's minimum standards of service delivery, according to a new report from researchers at UCL and the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, which measures this sentiment for the first time. For the report , the research team sought the views of members of the public across Britain to establish the minimum standards of service that the public should be able to expect from the police.

Rising numbers of houses and flats listed as short-term lets on Airbnb are associated with higher rates of crimes such as burglaries and street robberies right across London, according to the most detailed study of its kind. There may be social consequences to turning large swathes of city neighbourhoods into hotels with little regulation Charles Lanfear Latest research has revealed a "positive association" between the number of properties listed as Airbnb rentals and police-reported robberies and violent crimes in thousands of London neighbourhoods between 2015 and 2018.

The University of Glasgow has contributed to research that finds only 40% of people in England trust their police force. The study, commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council (ERSC), spotlights London's Metropolitan Police as the area where women trust the least - and Conservative voters have higher levels of trust in the force.

Bath researchers have helped produce a safer, more sustainable fingerprint detection spray that could be used on multiple types of surface. Published on Monday 26 February 2024 Last updated on Monday 26 February 2024 Scientists have developed a water soluble, non-toxic fluorescent spray that makes fingerprints visible in just a few seconds, making forensic investigations safer, easier and quicker.

The potential causes of racial and ethnic disparities in the use of Taser by police officers in England and Wales have been analysed by researchers from UCL, Keele University, the University of Exeter and Staffordshire University. The independent report , published today, suggests that a complex interplay of factors increases the likelihood of Taser being deployed against people from Black and other ethnic minority communities.

Parks in West Yorkshire should be better designed and managed so that women and girls feel safe throughout the day and after dark, according to a new study. A team of researchers at the University of Leeds interviewed more than a hundred women and girls from across the county and found that most of them believed their local parks were unsafe.

Roger Grimshaw on the implications of a new study highlighting the long-term reduction in young adult prosecutions. New findings from the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield and have highlighted long term trends in court appearances for young adults. ' Young adults in court: shrinking numbers and increasing disparities' , as the title suggests, shows young adults have become far less likely to appear in court over the previous decade.

Outcome of initial phase of investigation We have completed the initial phase of investigation into the recent publication of the work of a student, who had registered for a PhD, which has raised widespread and significant concerns and complaints, all of which we take extremely seriously. We are examining all aspects of the student's work and academic supervision, the origin of the article, his prior background, the associated University processes for admission to our PGR programme and research conduct, and other questions that have been raised.

Vulnerable students are turning to online 'essay mills' to purchase written work that they then pass off as their own, threatening academic integrity and exploitation, a new study has found. Researchers based at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research found hundreds of examples of online adverts targeting students in what is known as 'contract cheating'.

Research shows that there is no bias toward selecting people with muscular bodies or facial characteristics perceived as threatening when identifying criminal suspects in line-ups.

Fewer cars are broken into at night on roads with part-night lighting (PNL), where street lights are switched off between midnight and 5am, finds researchers from UCL and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The rate of thefts from cars at night was halved on roads with PNL, compared to the same roads before PNL was introduced.

The gender of a young father's firstborn child affects the likelihood of both him and his friends committing crime, a UCL-led study has found. For the first time, researchers established that young fathers who have a firstborn son rather than a daughter are convicted of fewer crimes in subsequent years, and crucially that this reduction also leads to a drop in criminal convictions among peers living in the same neighbourhood.

Researchers based at the University of Glasgow have launched a new study which will look at how South Asian women in Scotland get help for domestic abuse, and their experiences of the criminal justice system. The study will fill a vital gap in our understanding of how race, culture, social, education and community factors play into victim/survivors' decision-making on which services to access and when, as well as their perceptions of justice, and the justice system.

Eyewitnesses can identify perpetrators more accurately when they are able to manipulate 3D images of suspects, according to a new study. A team of researchers in the University of Birmingham's School of Psychology developed and tested new interactive lineup software which enables witnesses to rotate and view lineup faces from different angles.

Over-reliance on Police, and centralised communication and decision making are lessons to learn in wake of Manchester Arena bombing Last updated on Wednesday 26 May 2021 The Manchester Arena terrorist bomb attack in 2017 exposed flaws in the response of emergency services that could be addressed with a new three-phase approach, research by the University of Bath School of Management shows.

New research from international academics challenges a myth that progressive policies towards asylum seekers pose a threat to domestic security. Last updated on Tuesday 4 May 2021 Ahead of US President Joe Biden's plan later this month to lift the country's historically low cap on asylum seekers, a new political study finds that liberal, progressive refugee policies do not pose domestic security challenges for states.

A Cardiff University professor has uncovered a drastic increase in online anti-Asian hate crime triggered by a tweet sent by former President Donald Trump that included the phrase 'Chinese virus' to describe COVID-19. At the beginning of the pandemic, President Donald Trump used the phrase in a tweet which he then went on to defend in a White House press briefing days later.

Experts have devised a novel approach to selecting photos for police line-ups that helps witnesses identify culprits more reliably. In a paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , researchers - from the University of California San Diego and Duke University in the United States and the University of Birmingham in the U.K. show for the first time that selecting fillers who match a basic description of the suspect but whose faces are less similar, rather than more, leads to better outcomes than traditional approaches in the field.