News & Events
NEW BLOG - Gendering Police Custody: Learning about, and from, women’s experiences of police custody
A gap in our knowledge: women’s experiences of police custody
Police custody is arguably the most important phase of the criminal process. It involves the deprivation of a person’s liberty and evidence gathered during their detention and questioning is often determinative of whether the case will proceed to prosecution, to other less formal modes of case disposition, or indeed whether the police will take no further action in the matter. The fair and appropriate treatment of those detained is therefore crucial.
Findings and Animation published from Gendering Police Custody Research
Gendering police custody is a collaborative project between the Universities of Warwick (Prof Jackie Hodgson & Prof Vanessa Munro), Sheffield (Prof Layla Skinns) and Cardiff (Dr Roxanna Dehaghani), together with West Yorkshire Police.
Building on the urgent concerns around gendered police custody highlighted in The Baird Report, as well as a previous scoping study, this Police STAR-funded research investigates women’s lived experiences of police custody in West Yorkshire, identifying challenges and best practice solutions.
Reducing the impact of AI-Generated Misinformation on Memory and perception of a Police Incident
Professor Kim Wade, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Western Australia and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, has published a study exploring how AI report-writing tools that convert audio into police reports might distort memory and perceptions of criminal incidents and the people involved.
Join us for an IN-PERSON celebration and launch of Dr. Hannah Marshall’s book Conceptualising the Victim (Routledge).
WHEN: Wednesday 30th of September 2026 at 3.00-5.00pm
WHERE: S0.10, Ground Floor. Social Sciences Building, University of Warwick CV4 7AL
Discussants:
- Dr. Jack Spicer(University of Bath)
- Dr. Marian Duggan(University of Kent)
- Prof. Henrique Carvalho(University of Warwick)
The event will include an introduction of the book by Hannah Marshall and will be followed by 3 short interventions by the discussants. The event will close with a drinks and snacks reception.
“New Podcast on creative methods & research on policing & courts
In a new podcast “Out of the comfort zone: creative methods across law and the humanities”, Professor Jacqueline Hodgson discusses her research on arts-led approaches to police training as part of West Midlands Police's implementation of the Police Race Action Plan. The podcast is created by the Mapping the Arts and Humanities team, and she is joined by Dr Nicole Bögelein (University of Cologne) and Sophie Marois (University of Toronto).
NEW BLOG: Wrongful Cold Case Homicide: When Convictions become Cold Cases
Cold case homicides are cases in which the homicide remains unresolved for an extended period of time, usually two years, typically due to insufficient evidence, lack of viable leads, or limitations in forensic technology at the time of the original inquiry. A growing body of academic research on cold case homicide has highlighted the issues of wrongful homicide convictions and miscarriages of justice in the global context. Building on this work...
Highlights from the COPR Early Career Researcher Symposium 2026
On Friday 8 May, 2026, COPR hosted its third Early-career Researcher Symposium, bringing together 35 researchers from 15 universities across the UK. Twelve exceptional presentations highlighted how early-career colleagues are addressing key priorities in policing in the UK and beyond.Topics ranged from the custody experiences of female offenders, attitudes and views of elite police officers and teams, microaggressions of police staff, sexual misconduct in policing, domestic-violence related suicides, incel violence (VAWG), perspectives and uses of body-worn video/footage and VR, police ethics, and the consequences of police contact for individuals
Fully funded PhD Studentship on "Understanding Homicide Data"
We welcome Dr Emily Gray, Assistant Professor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology, to COPR.
Dr Gray is partnering with the London's Violence Reduction Unit, alongside the Mayor's Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) and the Metropolitan Police to host a collaborative PhD studentship generously funded by the Midlands Graduate School ESRC DTP focusing on "Understanding Homicide Data: Institutional Practices, Analytical Innovation, and the Prevention of Serious Violence in London...
Upcoming talk: “Professional Liars and Unreliable Sources”: documenting and narrating the “multi-storied” #spycops scandal
- Talk on January 28th at 1pm, S2.12
- A joint COPR/ Warwick Law School seminar.
- Speaker: Chris Brian from the Undercover Research Group.
This project documents and analyses the “multi-storied” Undercover Policing Inquiry by addressing the fundamental problem of the unreliability of police sources and the sheer volume of material.
Upcoming Seminar: Arts-led approaches to anti-racism in policing
Wednesday 14 January at 1pm in room s2.12.
In the context of a widespread, and decades-long, crisis in police legitimacy in England and Wales, punctuated by inquiries and reports repeatedly demonstrating entrenched racism, homophobia and misogyny within the police, our work positions arts-based approaches as both a methodology for scholarly engagement with policing, and as a tool for supporting change in police culture and practice.