Research project
ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre
- Start date: 1 May 2022
- End date: 30 April 2027
- Funder: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
- Primary investigator: Professor Adam Crawford, Professor Charlie Lloyd
- Co-investigators: Dr Daniel Birks (Law), Dr Laura Bainbridge (Law), Professor Mark Mon-Williams (Psychology)
- External co-investigators: Professor Ben Bradford (UCL); Dr Joanne Bretherton (York); Dr Rose Broad (Manchester); Dr Kate Brown (York); Professor Ross Coomber (Liverpool); Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon (Monash); Professor David Gadd (Manchester); Sharon Grace (York); Professor Stephen Holland (York); Professor Liz Hughes (Edinburgh Napier); Professor Corinne May-Chahal (Lancaster); Dr Rick Muir (Police Foundation); Professor Kate Pickett (York); Dr Katy Sian (York); Professor Iyiola Solanke (Oxford); Professor Kiran Trehan (York); Professor Sandra Walklate (Liverpool); Professor Martin Webber (York); Professor Nicole Westmarland (Durham); Dr Adam White (Sheffield); Professor Jennifer Wood (Temple University)
This research centre, jointly led by the University of Leeds and University of York, is dedicated to understanding how policing can better service the needs of vulnerable groups.
The centre is one of six Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) centres of excellence announced in late 2021, all of which tackle critical social and economic challenges. The Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre is the first of its kind to study how vulnerabilities – such as exploitation by county lines drug networks, online child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse, modern slavery, mental illness and homelessness – interact with, and are shaped by, policing.
The centre will tackle the questions of:
- How are vulnerabilities produced, compounded and mitigated by policing?
- How can the police and other services – such as health, social care and housing – work to prevent and reduce vulnerabilities?
Co-directed by the Professor Adam Crawford in the School of Law at University of Leeds and by Professor Charlie Lloyd at the University of York, the centre is also supported by deputy directors Dr Kate Brown (York) and Dr Dan Birks (Leeds), with a team of 25 co-investigators drawn from eight other universities around the world.
The centre is also supported by 38 regional, national and international project partners from across policing, government and non-governmental organisations.