̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - criminal justice

Brits still associate working-class accents with criminal behaviour – study warns of bias in the criminal justice system

ta385 — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Research led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent ̽��ֱ��, raises serious concerns about bias in the UK criminal justice system due to negative stereotyping of accents.

These stereotypes, the researchers argue, can affect all parts of the system from arrest to sentencing, and undermine not only suspects and defendants, but also the testimony of witnesses. ̽��ֱ��study is particularly concerned about accented speakers being incorrectly selected from voice identification parades.

̽��ֱ��findings, published in Frontiers in Communication, suggest that despite progress in equality and diversity in some parts of British life, including ‘working-class’ and regional accents becoming more prominent on television and radio, harmful stereotypes remain.

“Our findings bring into sharp focus the disadvantage that speakers of some accents may still face in the criminal justice system,” said lead author, Alice Paver, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Phonetics Laboratory and Jesus College, Cambridge.

“Voices play a powerful role in the criminal justice system and police officers, lawyers and juries are all susceptible to judging voices based on stereotypes, whether they're aware of it or not. As things stand, listeners think some accents sound guiltier than others and we should all be concerned about that.”

̽��ֱ��test

̽��ֱ��researchers, from Cambridge and Nottingham Trent ̽��ֱ��, asked 180 participants (~50:50 gender split) from across the UK to listen to recordings of ten regionally-accented male voices: Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Newcastle and Standard Southern British English (SSBE), also referred to as RP.

Participants were then asked to rate the voices on 10 social traits – ‘Educated’, ‘Intelligent’, ‘Rich’, ‘Working class’, ‘Friendly’, ‘Honest’, ‘Kind’, ‘Trustworthy’, ‘Aggressive’ and ‘Confident’; as well as on 10 morally ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘ambiguous behaviours’, which included a range of crime types.

These behaviours included: ‘Return a lost wallet to its owner’, ‘Stand up for someone who is being harassed’, ‘Cheat on a romantic partner’, ‘Report a relative to the police for a minor offence’, ‘Drive dangerously’, ‘Physically assault someone’, ‘Shoplift’, ‘Touch someone sexually without consent’, ‘Vandalize a shop front.’

̽��ֱ��study used a wider range of recorded accents, behaviours and criminal offences than previous research which has tended to focus on criminal behaviour in general or the binary of white versus blue-collar crime. This study included crimes which are not class stratified, such as a driving offence and a sexual offence, and is the first to identify links between listener perceptions of morality, criminality, and social traits.

To ensure their results would be valid in a criminal justice context, the researchers created voice samples in a similar way to how they are constructed for voice ID parades. ̽��ֱ��aim was to mimic, as closely as possible, how a juror or earwitness would experience them.

Findings: Status, class and regions

̽��ֱ��results show that people with non-standard accents are more likely to be associated with criminal behaviour but that there is significant variation in perceptions between accents.

̽��ֱ��RP-like accent was perceived as the least likely to behave in criminal ways, while the Liverpool and Bradford accents were the most likely.

Alice Paver said: “ ̽��ֱ��strongest connection we found was between people's perceptions of class or status, negative traits such as aggression, and how they think someone is going to behave, particularly when it comes to crime. This is the first time that a concrete link between traits and behaviours has been made in the context of accent judgements.”

Unlike previous findings, the researchers did not observe a relationship between ‘solidarity traits’ (such as kindness and trustworthiness) and any behaviours. Status proved a much more important predictor of behaviours, re-enforcing the link between social class and expectations of behaviour in the UK.

However, non-English accents, in particular Belfast’s and Glasgow’s, were rated significantly less likely to behave in criminal ways than almost all other accents. They were also thought most likely to ‘stand up for someone being harassed’ (‘honourable behaviour’) and least likely to exhibit ‘morally bad’ behaviours.

Alice Paver said: “Our findings show that perceptions of speakers of regional accents and how status, social attractiveness and morality interact are much more complex than previously assumed. We need a much more nuanced understanding of how accents are evaluated when it comes to different crime types.”

Findings: Sexual offences

̽��ֱ��London and Liverpool accents were rated most likely to touch someone sexually without consent, but they were very closely followed by the RP accent. Participants thought the RP accent was more likely to commit a sexual assault than any of the other offences tested.

“This finding simultaneously undermines certain traditional stereotypes about both higher status and working-class men,” Alice Paver said. “This may indicate shifting perceptions of the ‘type’ of man who can and does commit sexual offences.”

̽��ֱ��Glasgow and Belfast speakers were thought the least likely to commit this sexual offence.

̽��ֱ��study found that participants perceived this sexual offence as distinct from other criminal behaviours. Poor ratings for it clustered with those for non-criminal ‘morally bad’ behaviours, namely ‘being unfaithful to a romantic partner’ and ‘lying on a CV’.

Findings: Newcastle and Birmingham

Previous studies have found that the Newcastle accent rates highly for traits such as friendliness, but this study recorded less positive ratings for kindness, honesty, friendliness and trustworthiness.

By contrast, the Birmingham accent, which has rated poorly in previous research across these measures, performed better than Bradford, Bristol, Liverpool, London and Newcastle in this study.

“Although relatively stable over time, language attitudes can change,” Alice Paver said. “This might be the case for the Birmingham and Newcastle accents. But previous studies have often asked people what they think of an accent label whereas we played them an actual voice. That’s a very different stimulus so we’re not surprised people reacted differently.”

Bringing about change

̽��ֱ��study contributes to the Improving Voice Identification Procedures project. Its team of researchers is currently drafting revised guidelines for voice identification parades aimed at police officers and legal professionals.

They support the use of pre-tests to screen for bias against foil or suspect voices to make sure that they don't stand out as sounding unduly guilty or untrustworthy.

“Jurors are not currently made aware of or warned against letting voice- or accent-based prejudice sway their decisions,” Paver said. “If we're asked to judge whether someone is guilty or not, and they've got a particular accent, we need to be sure we're not making that judgment because we think they sound like a bad guy.”

̽��ֱ��researchers hope that future studies will examine even more offence types; further explore the relationships between perceptions of criminality and other, non-criminal, behaviours; and make use of a broader range of voices for each accent to tease apart the effect of individual voices and the strength of regional accents.

̽��ֱ��research was carried out in collaboration with Professor Natalie Braber and Dr David Wright of Nottingham Trent ̽��ֱ��’s School of Arts and Humanities, and Dr Nikolas Pautz, of NTU's Dept. of Psychology.

Funding

This research was supported by the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council as part of the project Improving Voice Identification Procedures (IVIP), reference ES/S015965/1. Additional funding was provided by the Isaac Newton Trust.

Reference

A. Paver, D. Wright, N. Braber and N. Pautz, ‘Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviour’, Frontiers in Communication (2025). DOI: 10.3389/fcomm.2024.1462013

People who speak with accents perceived as ‘working-class’ including those from Liverpool, Newcastle, Bradford and London risk being stereotyped as more likely to have committed a crime, and becoming victims of injustice, a new study suggests.

Listeners think some accents sound guiltier than others and we should all be concerned about that

Alice Paver

Art De Cade via Flikr under a CC license

̽��ֱ��Old Bailey in London. Photo: Art De Cade via Flikr under a CC license

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Attribution

'Threatening' faces and beefy bodies do not bias criminal suspect identification, study finds

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 14:15:46 +0000

We’re all familiar with the classic “look” of a movie bad guy: peering through narrowing eyes with a sinister sneer (like countless James Bond villains, including Christopher Walken’s memorable Max Zorin in A View to a Kill) or pumped up to cartoon-like dimensions (like the Soviet boxer Drago who growls “I must break you” to Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV).

Yet a detailed new study of identifying criminal suspects finds, to the authors’ surprise, no bias toward selecting people with threatening facial characteristics or muscular bodies. ̽��ֱ��study does find, however, that suspects with highly muscled, “threatening” bodies are most accurately identified by eyewitnesses in line-ups.

‘No systematic bias’

“These findings suggest that while no systematic bias exists in the recall of criminal bodies, the nature of the body itself and the context in which it is presented can significantly impact identification accuracy,” says the research published in the journal Memory & Cognition. “Participant identification accuracy was highest for the most threatening body stimuli high in musculature.”

Eyewitness testimony and the identification of suspects lies at the heart of the criminal justice system. In the absence of incriminating physical evidence, an eyewitness can be crucial in convincing a court of the defendant’s guilt. Previous studies have revealed identification errors may be due to people finding it hard to recognise unfamiliar faces, as well as height and weight frequently being underestimated.

Computer-generated images varying in levels of threat

“Misidentification of innocent defendants plays a significant role in most cases of prisoners later exonerated through DNA evidence,” says study co-author Magda Osman, Head of Research and Analysis at the Centre for Science and Policy, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, which is affiliated with Cambridge Judge Business School.

“Having a stereotypically ‘criminal’ or threatening appearance has long been established to be a disadvantage in the judicial system, both in terms of the likelihood of initially being arrested and in terms of courtroom sentencing,” adds co-author Terence J. McElvaney of the Department of Biological and Experimental sychology, Queen Mary ̽��ֱ�� of London. “What we wanted to establish through this new research was whether some people are also more likely to be falsely identified as a criminal because they naturally have a more threatening appearance – and, contrary to our expectations, we found that this was not the case.

In three separate experiments, participants were first presented with either the outline of a violent crime, neutral information, or no background information. They were then shown a realistic computer-generated image of the male suspect (target) and asked to identify him from a selection of images (foils) that varied in facial threat or body muscle.

“Although this does not match the procedural experience of real eyewitnesses, this allowed us to explore the potential biasing effects of criminal context while maintaining tight control over the stimuli,” the study explains. In some experiments a delay between witnessing the crime and trying to identify the suspect was simulated. All faces in the dataset were Caucasian and converted to greyscale.

Three experiments form basis of study

Around 200 hundred adults living in the UK took part in each of the three experiments:

Experiment 1

Participants were divided into two teams, with one group told the person they were about to see was involved in an armed robbery. ̽��ֱ��other group was told the aim of the experiment was to see how accurately they could identify unfamiliar people. ̽��ֱ��groups completed 20 trials in total, identifying a different suspect each time from a selection of faces and body shapes with blurred heads. In each case, the target image was shown for one second, followed by a blank screen for one second, followed by the line-up.

Experiment 2

This experiment introduced a distractor task adding a five-minute delay between participants seeing the target image for 30 seconds and trying to identify it. Contributors were divided into three categories. In the crime and neutral groups, they were presented with background information such as a shop robbery resulting in a murder, or someone purchasing a winning lottery ticket. ̽��ֱ��final group was told to study the person for later identification. Fixation dots and a random noise mark were also added to the start of each trial to break concentration. This time, faces or bodies were shown individually with those taking part responding Yes or No to the question: “Did that face/body EXACTLY match the one you previously studied?”

Experiment 3

Participants were again provided with a criminal context, neutral context, or no additional information. They were given 30 seconds to study the target, then following a distractor task lasting ten minutes, were asked to identify him from a line-up of bodies only, from which the perpetrator was missing.

Impact of stereotypes on memory

̽��ֱ��authors expected that if no background context was provided, participants would not show any bias in recalling a body or a face. They hypothesised that more threatening faces and larger bodies would be selected when the perpetrator was presented in a criminal context, rather than in a neutral context, but this did not turn up in the findings.

Previous research suggests associating someone with a crime can distort their appearance in memory by automatically activating racial stereotypes linked to the crime being committed, such as a Caucasian stereotype being activated for crimes such as identity theft or embezzlement.

This new research found giving criminal background information about the suspects did not significantly influence participants’ memory. “Participants viewing images of alleged violent criminals were no more likely to overestimate the facial threat or musculature of the target stimuli than those who studied the targets in empty or neutral contexts,” the study says.

“These results suggest that, although errors of eyewitness identification can or do occur, they may not be driven by systematic biases related to how threatening a criminal is later recalled.”

̽��ֱ��authors identified several limitations in their study. These included the use of computer-generated still images rather than video footage. Although a delay was introduced in the process, it does not reflect the days or weeks experienced by real eyewitnesses, or difficulties presented by lighting or distance.

Crucially, due to the images used, all the conclusions are restricted to Caucasian defendants.

“Although it’s possible participants didn’t perceive the images to be of a particular race because they’re computer generated, further research could use morphing software to produce photo-realistic facial images of different races that vary in perceived threat”, says co-author Isabelle Mareschal, also of the Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, Queen Mary ̽��ֱ�� of London.

̽��ֱ��study in Memory & Cognition – entitled “Identifying criminals: No biasing effect of criminal context on recalled threat” – is co-authored by Terence J. McElvaney and Isabelle Mareschal, both of the Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, Queen Mary ̽��ֱ�� of London; and Magda Osman of the Centre of Science and Policy, Cambridge Judge Business School.

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.

Misidentification of innocent defendants plays a significant role in most cases of prisoners later exonerated through DNA evidence

Magda Osman

Various levels of musculature in Experiment 1. Left-to-right: 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%. Target stimulus (e.g., 50% musculature) shown in the centre.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Autistic defendants are being failed by the criminal justice system

cjb250 — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 01:01:03 +0000

This comes on the back of an Equality and Human Rights Commission report in June 2020 that warned that the CJS is failing those with learning disabilities and autistic people. However, there is almost no research investigating how autistic defendants are being treated within the CJS.

̽��ֱ��team set out to fill this gap by conducting a survey of 93 defence lawyers about autistic people they have represented in the last five years to find out about their defendants’ experiences of navigating the CJS. In their study, published today in Autism Research, the researchers found the CJS is failing autistic people.

̽��ֱ��study found that only half of autistic people (52%) were considered by the police to be vulnerable adults, even though the law recognises all autistic people as vulnerable.

Over a third (35%) of autistic defendants were not given an ‘appropriate adult’ during police investigations, even though their diagnosis was known to police, and despite all autistic people being entitled under the law to have an appropriate adult present when being interviewed by the police. A further 18% did not have an ‘appropriate adult’ present because their diagnosis was not known to the police.

Appropriate adults act to safeguard the interests and rights of vulnerable defendants by ensuring that they are treated in a just manner and are able to participate effectively during an investigation.

Only a quarter (25%) of autistic people were given ‘reasonable adjustments’, with 38% not given any even though lawyers stated that this would have been beneficial. This is despite all autistic people being entitled to reasonable adjustments under the law. A further 33% did not receive any adjustments because their autism diagnosis was unknown at the time. Of the autistic people whose case went to trial, more than one in five (22%) were not given any reasonable adjustments even though their lawyers stated that this would have been helpful.

Reasonable adjustments, such as using visual aids to assist with communication and allowing extra time to process information, can be made by the police to assist the detainee.

Dr Rachel Slavny-Cross, who led the study, said: “Our research shows quite clearly that autistic adults are not receiving fair treatment within the criminal justice system. Without reasonable adjustments or support, this could place them at a significant disadvantage.”

In just under half of the cases that included a trial by jury (47%), the jury was not informed that the defendant was autistic. 59% of prosecution barristers and 46% of judges or magistrates said or did something during the trial that made them concerned that they did not have an adequate understanding of autism.

Dr Carrie Allison, a member of the research team, said: “It’s vital that jurors are provided with information about a defendant’s autism and its implications, otherwise they are likely to misinterpret atypical behaviour exhibited by the defendant in court. Similarly, judges may fail to take into consideration mitigating factors that might otherwise influence sentencing.”

̽��ֱ��study found that lawyers were more likely to be concerned that their autistic clients would engage in self-harm behaviours, compared with their non-autistic clients, and were more likely to report that their autistic clients experienced ‘meltdowns’ as a result of their involvement in the CJS.

Dr Sarah Griffiths. another member of the research team, said: “Autistic adults are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems, such as stress and heightened anxiety, with many autistic people experiencing meltdown and shutdown as a result. This is likely to have shaped their interactions with the criminal justice system and their ability to cope with the stress of being subject to criminal proceedings.”

̽��ֱ��study also found that those working within the CJS may be unaware that an individual is autistic, or of the implications of an autism diagnosis. They found that many autistic people do not disclose their diagnosis at the point of police contact or are themselves unaware they are autistic. However, as the study shows, even autistic defendants who disclose their diagnosis are failing to receive reasonable adjustments.

However, a positive finding was that, in cases where their client was found to have committed a crime, 60% of judges saw the defendant’s autism as a mitigating factor, and in these cases the majority of autistic people were given a suspended or reduced sentence.

Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge and a member of the research team, added: “There’s an urgent need across the criminal justice system for increased awareness about autism. ̽��ֱ��police, lawyers, judges and jurors should be given mandatory training to be aware of how autism affects an individual’s behaviour, so that autistic defendants are treated fairly within the criminal justice system.”

Funding for this project was provided by the Autism Centre of Excellence.

Reference
Slavny-Cross, R et al. Autism and the criminal justice system: An analysis of 93 cases. Autism Research; 15 March 2022; DOI: 10.1002/aur.2690

̽��ֱ��criminal justice system (CJS) is failing autistic people, argue researchers at the Autism Research Centre, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, after a survey of lawyers found that an overwhelming majority of their clients were not provided with adequate support or adjustments.

Our research shows quite clearly that autistic adults are not receiving fair treatment within the criminal justice system. Without reasonable adjustments or support, this could place them at a significant disadvantage

Rachel Slavny-Cross

feedough (Getty Images)

Law books and justice statue

Yes

‘I bottle it up’: the emotions of solitary confinement

fpjl2 — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 10:27:22 +0000

In my previous research on emotions in prison, I have been struck by the prevalence of suppression among prisoners. I distinctly recall one participant saying:

"I bottle it up, bottle it up, bottle it up until it spills over and then I talk about what’s on the surface but never actually get in too deep. And then you skim the top away and then you go again. And then when it runs over, you do the same thing, but you never actually empty that bottle."

Prisoners find limited channels for releasing such pent-up emotions: some of which are ‘prosocial’ (such as engaging with arts programmes and finding mentors), but some are far more destructive (e.g. self-harm and fighting with other prisoners).

Because the process of suppressing and releasing emotions seems closely tied to the social world of the prison, I want to find out what happens to prisoners’ emotions in more extreme forms isolation.

̽��ֱ��use of segregation units in England and Wales – where prisoners spend 23 hours a day in solitude – is increasingly being scrutinized by policy makers and academics. However, we know surprisingly little about the affective dimensions of these closed spaces, and how they affect prisoners over time.

Is solitary confinement just bad practice?

Interestingly, while there is a spate of research on the oppressive effects of segregation – which some have described as a form of punishment close to torture – the experience of solitary confinement is not uniform.

In fact, some prisoners have quite transformative experiences, even if they are in the minority. Others seek out isolation as an escape from retributive violence and accrued debts. ̽��ֱ��importance of this fact is not to advocate for isolation, but rather to highlight that we don’t exactly understand how segregation plays a role in the individual change process.

Looking for emotions

There’s been a rejuvenation of interest in researching emotions, and increasing recognition that emotions are essential to human behaviour. It’s surprising that emotions have typically been left out of studies of imprisonment and segregation because they are such ‘charged’ environments, where intense feelings are often on display. Importantly, intense does not always translate to unanimously ‘negative’ emotions either. In fact, my previous research has alerted me to the importance of expressions of joy, care and serenity in the prisoner experience.

This study will try to understand the specific ways prisoners manage their emotions and the prevalence of different ‘feeling states’. Looking for emotions can help us learn more about how prisoners locate avenues for change. While change is hardly a linear process, recent strands of research show that emotions play an essential role in shaping social life and the dynamics of why offenders desist from crime.

I want to explore emotions among both male and female prisoners. Though women only make up a small part of the penal estate (around 5 per cent) their experiences of segregation are rarely spotlighted. By directly exploring two segregation units I can not only learn more about gender differences, but also about the more ‘universal’ experiences of isolation.

Changes over time

Much of the research on segregation has failed to measure changes over time. But there may be a high rate of variability over time and first impressions are not always enduring. For example: initial experiences of shock can, in some cases, morph into constructive processes of reflection and clarity of thought.

Through repeated discussions with, and observations of prisoners, I hope to examine how prisoners develop (or get ‘stuck’). This will include understanding how cycles of infractions in segregation can amplify violence and cycles of despair. But will also attempt to explain triumphs as well as tragedies, and the possibilities for transformation, healing and locating hope.

Ben is an Economic & Social Research Council New Investigator at the Prisons Research Centre, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. He can be found on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ben_Laws

New research will set out to examine the emotional world of solitary confinement. Dr Ben Laws from the Institute of Criminology discusses his project, and how the experience of ‘deep confinement’ might shape the lives of prisoners.

We know surprisingly little about the affective dimensions of these closed spaces

Ben Laws

Emily Shullaw

Illustration of solitary confinement

Yes

Carrying Tasers increases police use of force, study finds

fpjl2 — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 00:01:49 +0000

A new study has found that London police officers visibly armed with electroshock ‘Taser’ weapons used force 48% more often, and were more likely to be assaulted, than those on unarmed shifts.

However, while use of force can include everything from restraint and handcuffing to CS spray, the Tasers themselves were only fired twice during the year-long study period.

Criminologists from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge say the findings suggest that Tasers can trigger the ‘weapons effect’: a psychological phenomenon in which sight of a weapon increases aggressive behaviour.

While the ‘weapons effect’ has been repeatedly demonstrated in simulated conditions over the last forty years, this is one of the largest studies to show it “in the field” and the first to reveal the effect in law enforcement.

Researchers say their findings, published today in the journal Criminal Justice and Behaviour, may well apply to policing situations in which other forms of weaponry – including the lethal variety – are involved.

“We found that officers are more likely to be assaulted when carrying electroshock weaponry, and more likely to apply force,” said lead researcher Dr Barak Ariel from Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology.

“It is well established that the visual cue of a weapon can stimulate aggression. While our research does not pierce the ‘black box’ of decision-making, the only difference between our two study conditions was the presence of a Taser device.”

“There was no increase in injury of suspects or complaints, suggesting it was not the police instigating hostilities. ̽��ֱ��presence of Tasers appears to provoke a pattern where suspects become more aggressive toward officers, who in turn respond more forcefully,” he said.

̽��ֱ��City of London force is responsible for policing the ‘Square Mile’ business district in the centre of London. It also holds national responsibility for economic crime and prioritises counter-terrorism, violent crime and public order due to its central location.

̽��ֱ��force was the first in England and Wales to test “extended deployment” of Tasers – described as “conducted energy devices” in UK policing – to frontline officers. During the rollout, police chiefs allowed Ariel and colleagues to conduct a major experiment.

Between June 2016 and June 2017 the researchers randomly allocated 400 frontline shifts a Taser-carrying officer and compared the results to an equal number of unarmed shifts over the same period. A total of 5,981 incidents occurred during the study.

Use of force by police carrying Tasers was 48% higher than the officers on unarmed shifts. In what researchers call a “contagion effect”, even those unarmed officers accompanying Taser carriers on ‘treatment’ shifts used force 19% more often than those on Taser-free ‘control’ shifts.

Six physical assaults against police were recorded during shifts with Taser-carrying officers, compared to just three on the unarmed ‘control’ shifts. While the numbers are small, assaults against officers are rare, and researchers argue that this doubling is significant.

Despite the increased hostility uncovered by the study, actual use of electroshock weapons was minimal over the study period, with just nine “deholsterings” – only two of which resulted in electric shocks applied to a suspect.

“ ̽��ֱ��City of London police rarely discharged Tasers during the study. Yet the very presence of the weapon led to increased hostility between the police and public,” said Ariel.

̽��ֱ��weapons effect was first shown by psychologist Leonard Berkowitz in 1967, in a laboratory experiment involving the administering of electric shocks in the presence of a rifle – an experiment that Ariel points out has been replicated 78 times.

“For many, a weapon is a deterrence. However, some individuals interpret the sight of a weapon as an aggressive cue – a threat that creates a hostile environment,” Ariel said.

“ ̽��ֱ��response is consequently a ‘fight or flight’ dilemma that can result in a behavioural manifestation of aggression and assault. This is what we think we are seeing in our Taser experiment.”

“It would not be surprising to find that serious or violent offenders fit this criteria, especially young males – the very type of suspect that is regularly in direct contact with frontline police.”

Half a million police officers in the United States regularly carry Tasers, and electroshock weapons are now becoming part of frontline policing across the UK.

̽��ֱ��study author’s offer a simple solution to bypass the weapons effect: conceal the Tasers. “ ̽��ֱ��relatively inexpensive policy change of keeping Tasers hidden from sight should not limit efficacy, but could reduce the weapons effect we see in the study,” said Ariel.

“This conclusion could be generalised to all types of police armoury, including the lethal firearms carried by police officers. If the presence of weapons can lead to aggression by suspects, so its concealment should be able to reduce aggression and increase officer safety,” he said.

Study co-author Chief Superintendent David Lawes, from the City of London Police, said: “Following the findings of the study, we are exploring whether a simple holster change or weapon position move will nullify the weapons effect issue shown in the experiment. We have also updated our training package for officers carrying Tasers to make them aware of the findings.”

“ ̽��ֱ��use of Tasers have been a proportionate and sensible introduction to policing against a backdrop of unsophisticated terror attacks and an increase in violent crime across London.

“ ̽��ֱ��City of London Police seeks to ensure that any major changes to policy are supported by an evidence base and we wanted to be confident that an extension of Taser deployments to our frontline responders was the right thing to do for both our officers and the public they serve.

“A number of other forces are interested in replicating the study to add to the evidence base and see whether the experiment produces the same results outside of London.

“Across our force, we will continue to use evidence to define how we target problems, which tactics we should use and how we can ensure policing is efficient and safer for both the general public and our officers.”

Cambridge experiment with City of London police found that, while rarely deployed, just the presence of electroshock devices led to greater overall hostility in police-public interactions – an example of what researchers call the ‘weapons effect’.

̽��ֱ��presence of Tasers appears to provoke a pattern where suspects become more aggressive toward officers, who in turn respond more forcefully

Barak Ariel

City of London Police

A City of London police officer armed with a Taser

Yes

History shows abuse of children in custody will remain an ‘inherent risk’ – report

fpjl2 — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 00:54:38 +0000

A new report on the history of safeguarding children detained for criminal offences in the UK has concluded that it is impossible to remove the potential for abuse in secure institutions, and that the use of custody for children should only be a “last resort”.

A team of criminologists and historians from the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh were asked by HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) to build a “collective memory” of the abuse cases and preventative policies that emerged in the youth wing of the UK’s secure estate between 1960 and 2016.

̽��ֱ��research was commissioned to help prepare HMPPS to give evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. It covers physical and sexual abuse in secure children’s homes and training centres, young offender institutions such as Deerbolt and Feltham, and their predecessors: detention centres and borstals.

Drawing on often limited archival records – as well as inspection reports and previous findings – the research reveals how past safeguards broke down, failing to recognise children in custody as vulnerable.

Researchers found abuse was especially likely at times of overcrowding and budgetary constraint, and occurred despite contemporary beliefs that protective policies were working.

̽��ֱ��historical overview goes beyond individual misconduct to show how whole institutions become “detached from their purpose”, with undertrained staff collectively drifting into “morally compromised” cultures where abusive acts appear acceptable even as procedure is followed.

̽��ֱ��researchers say this “acculturation” at times extended to inspectorates and monitors overfamiliar with failing systems. They argue that it is vital to ensure effective complaints processes and protect whistle-blowers.

̽��ֱ��report has been produced by Cambridge criminologists and Dr Lucy Delap and Professor Louise Jackson from the History and Policy network, and is published online today alongside a policy paper summarising the findings.

“History tells us that it is impossible to ‘manage out’ the risk of abuse through improved policies alone,” said report co-author Dr Caroline Lanskey, from Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology (IoC).

“ ̽��ֱ��steep power imbalance between staff and children means there is a need to focus on staff culture, rather than only on detailed policy, in order to establish greater trust between staff and young people in a secure institution,” she said.

Until the 1990s safeguards against abuse were weak, and ineffective in many institutions, say researchers. Children were often left to “fend for themselves” in detention centres such as Medomsley, where reports of sexual abuse during the 1970s and 1980s have since come to light.

̽��ֱ��research reveals major rifts in the mid-1970s between the external Board of Visitors – Medomsley’s main monitoring body – and the centre’s management over disciplinary approaches. Inspections of the time recorded that neither staff nor children “seem to know what the purpose of the centre really is…”

Inspectors were concerned with basic functions such as kitchen cleanliness. That the kitchen manager worked unsupervised, and hand-picked his team of children and young people, was not perceived as risky. This Medomsley manager was subsequently convicted of sexual offences.

“Inspectors and Boards of Visitors checked procedure, but they lacked the concepts and language to recognise that certain situations were potentially abusive. These blind spots persisted until at least the 1990s,” said Ben Jarman, a researcher at Cambridge’s IoC, who carried out the archival research.

̽��ֱ��turn of the millennium saw a “new orthodoxy” in protective policies, combined with a spike in custodial sentences for children that wouldn’t decline again until 2010.

Part of this policy shift included the questioning of long-standing practices such as strip-searching and forms of restraint, and whether they amounted to abuse.

“Strip-searching before the 1990s seems to have been so routine and unremarkable that it’s hardly mentioned in the documentary record,” said Jarman. “As late as 1995, inspectors at Deerbolt reported without comment that staff believed more routine strip searches were required.”

However, by 2002 inspectors were expressing serious concerns about untargeted strip-searching. A 2005 inspection of Feltham described strip-searches as “degrading”, and an independent inquiry the following year argued that, in any other circumstances, such practices would “trigger a child protection investigation”.

̽��ֱ��use of pain-inducing restraint has also become the subject of fierce debate and some policy change, following the deaths of two children in secure training centres in 2004.

Strip-searching and restraint are still used but much more carefully regulated. New monitoring systems attempt to take account of the ‘voice’ of children, who the report suggests have been recast as ‘users’ of custodial ‘services’.

Yet improved safeguards can inspire false confidence and mask the “corruption of care”, say researchers. ̽��ֱ��exposure by the BBC of violence and bullying by staff in Medway Secure Training Centre in 2016 came shortly after an inspection declaring safety there to be “good”.

“Investigations at Medway concluded that child protection failed despite the apparent compliance with safeguarding policies,” said Jarman. “Inadequately trained and under pressure to achieve contractual targets, some of the staff did not appear to understand what they were doing was wrong.”

“We wouldn’t argue for fewer safeguards, but without a focus on staff culture, even the best policies can be circumvented when an abusive climate develops,” he added.

“ ̽��ֱ��ever-present potential for abuse means that custody should be used for children only as a last resort, where there is no alternative,” the report concludes.

̽��ֱ��full report, Safeguarding children in the secure estate: 1960 -2016, available here.

New research conducted for the current independent inquiry suggests that – despite recent policy improvements – cultures of child abuse are liable to emerge while youth custody exists, and keeping children in secure institutions should be limited as far as possible.

History tells us that it is impossible to ‘manage out’ the risk of abuse through improved policies alone

Caroline Lanskey

Catholic Church England

A room in a young offenders institute

Yes

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