New research at The University of Manchester has found that over two-thirds of women runners across Greater Manchester and Merseyside have experienced abuse. This has taken the form of physical and sexual assaults, verbal abuse, being followed, flashing, and harassment, with only 5% reporting it to the police. This briefing highlights key findings, along with […]
Locked up like adults – COVID-19 experiences for children in custodial settings
During the early period of the pandemic, there was a lack of detailed guidance for many groups, including the secure estate. For children in custodial settings, this meant staff often applied measures intended for adult prisons, in lieu of any other information. Here, Dr Charlotte Lennox shares her research showing children in such settings were an invisible group […]
Targeting the ‘(professional) enablers’ of economic crime
The UK government has published its second Economic Crime Plan (ECP2), which aims to reinforce the government’s priorities in relation to economic crime in (or affecting) the UK. ECP2 arrives at a time of considerable political attention on economic crime, with the global focus on kleptocracy and increased use of financial sanctions following Russia’s invasion […]
Online safety: Child abuse and exploitation in eXtended Reality
In 2020 a team led by Professor Emma Barrett and Professor Steve Pettifer was commissioned by GCHQ to examine how child exploitation and abuse may evolve in light of the latest emerging technology trend: the widespread adoption of immersive ‘eXtended Reality’ (XR) technologies, including Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. Their report synthesises research on online […]
Smart (and Safe) Homes – public-private partnerships to mitigate the digital harms of smart home devices
In recent years smart devices have become a feature of people’s, increasingly complex, home ecosystems. This brings new opportunities for users and may improve energy efficiency, but it also poses new threats to the privacy and security of end users. While there is emerging evidence of attacks against home devices and data misuse, there is […]
No quick fix: the long-term needs of sexual assault survivors
Around 1 in 5 women will experience sexual assault at some point in their life. The results can be devastating for victims and survivors. They not only have to deal with the psychological trauma of the assault, but often suffer physical harm and social consequences, including financial ones, as a result. The impact of these […]
The Pandora Papers: A Pandora’s box for the offshore industry, or a case of ‘as you were’?
The Pandora Papers are the latest data leak offering a glimpse into the ways in which powerful individuals and corporate entities manage their finances with the assistance and direction of third party, professional intermediaries such as company formation agents and trust and company service providers. The data leak consists of just under 12 million files […]
The Sex Buyer Law: what can policymakers learn from Northern Ireland?
In 2015, Northern Ireland criminalised the purchasing, but not the selling, of sex. A proposal that has become increasingly popular with policymakers across Europe in recent decades. The adoption of this law is a policy of the Scottish National Party and it is currently up for debate in the British Parliament. This new law was […]
Dark figure of crime: do police-recorded crime statistics serve all areas of Greater Manchester equally?
Unrecorded crime is one of the greatest challenges facing policing today. Ineffective police-recording of crimes can break trust between the Police and public, and lead to failing crime prevention strategies. After facing criticism about crime-data management, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) recently implemented measures aimed at improving its crime-recording system. In this blog, Yongyu Zeng, Angelo […]
Why victims of cyber crime deserve ‘Cyber CPR’
COVID-19 has seen an increased vulnerability to cyber crime. In this blog, originally from our On Digital Trust publication, Professor Emma Barrett, Professor Danny Dresner, and Dr David Buil-Gil outline why victims of cyber crime need greater protection, including a raft of ‘CPR’ measures designed to help them recover quickly. Cyber crimes cost billions of […]