Journal articles, books and chapters

Read published peer-reviewed journal articles, books and book chapters from the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre’s research projects.

Agent-based modeling in criminology

  • Authors: Professor Dan Birks (University of Leeds), Professor Elizabeth Groff (Temple University), Professor Nick Malleson (University of Leeds).
  • Journal: Annual Review of Criminology
  • Year: 2025

Children’s access to child protection social work through mobile apps

  • Authors: Dr Sarah Carlick, Professor Corinne May-Chahal (Lancaster University).
  • Journal: The British Journal of Social Work
  • Year: 2025

County lines and exploitation in drug markets: historical and current developments


Developing quality standards for community-based online child sexual exploitation and abuse interventions

  • Authors: Dr Larissa Engelmann (University of Leeds), Dr Christine A Weirich (University of Leeds), Professor Corinne May-Chahal (Lancaster University).
  • Journal: Child Abuse & Neglect
  • Year: 2025

Enhancing children’s involvement in, and influence over, domestic abuse and family violence knowledge creation through trauma-informed approaches to research

  • Authors: Professor Helen Beckett (University of Lancashire), Dr Camille Warrington (University of Bedfordshire), Dr Kelly Bracewell (University of Lancashire).
  • Journal: Journal of Family Violence
  • Year: 2025

Learning about the binding nature of the law: police violence, criminal offending and adolescent legal socialization

  • Authors: Thiago R. Oliveira (University of Manchester), Jonathan Jackson (LSE).
  • Journal: Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology
  • Year: 2025

Mental health and routine police work: a systematic scoping review

  • Authors: Professor Martin Webber (University of York), Professor Elizabeth Hughes (University of Worcester), Dr Tobias Kammersgaard (University of York), Professor Charlie Lloyd (University of York), Dr Andrew Papworth (University of York), Dr Öznur Yardımcı (University of York).
  • Journal: Health & Justice
  • Year: 2026

Policing and drug market-related violence: competitive, internal and enforcement-related violence in UK County Lines

  • Authors: Dr Tobias Kammersgaard (Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University), Professor Charlie Lloyd (University of York), Dr Chris Devany (University of York), Dr Laura Bainbridge (University of Leeds), Professor Kate Brown (University of York), Professor Ross Coomber (University of Liverpool).
  • Journal: International Journal of Drug Policy
  • Year: 2026

Policing vulnerability: the care and control of sex workers through designated police officers

  • Authors: Professor Kate Brown (University of York), Professor Sharon Grace (University of York), Dr Scarlett Redman (Open University).
  • Journal: The British Journal of Criminology
  • Year: 2024

Public confidence in the police: using opinion survey data to explore the current ‘moment’ in British policing

  • Authors: Professor Ben Bradford (UCL), Dr Christine A Weirich (University of Leeds), Dr David Rowlands (University of Leeds), Professor Adam Crawford (University of York and University of Leeds).
  • Journal: Policing & Society
  • Year: 2025

Ready for school

  • Author: Evie Shore (University of Leeds).
  • Journal: Early Years Educator
  • Year: 2025


‘Should I call the police?’ Exploring public views on whether to invoke police in incidents involving people with vulnerabilities

  • Authors: Dr David Rowlands (University of Leeds), Dr Christine A Weirich (University of Leeds), Professor Ben Bradford (UCL), Professor Adam Crawford (University of York and University of Leeds).
  • Journal: The British Journal of Criminology
  • Year: 2025

The effect of police deployment strategy on emergency response times

  • Authors: Dr Tim Verlaan (University of Amsterdam), Professor Dan Birks (University of Leeds), Professor Rob van der Mei (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
  • Journal: The Journal of Quantitative Criminology
  • Year: 2025

The relationship between school characteristics and students becoming ‘Not in Education, Employment or Training’

  • Authors: Robin Evans, Matthew Warburton, Professor Dan Birks, Dr Patricia Ternes, Professor Mark Mon-Williams, Professor Nick Malleson (all University of Leeds).
  • Journal: Royal Society Open Science
  • Year: 2026

The risk of negative feedback loops in some weighted measures of crime harm

  • Authors: Dr Sam Lewis, Professor Jose Pina-Sánchez, Professor Dan Birks (all University of Leeds).
  • Journal: Crime Science
  • Year: 2024

Unintended consequences of early exposure to policing: assessing long-term effects of police stops during adolescence in England and Wales

  • Authors: Dr Arabella Kyprianides (UCL), Amal Ali (LSE), Pele Petnga-Wallace (College of Policing), Dr Paul Quinton (College of Policing), Dr Thiago R Oliveira (University of Manchester).
  • Journal: The British Journal of Criminology
  • Year: 2025

Using agent-based modelling to enrich and experiment with anti-trafficking intervention theory

  • Authors: Alys McAlpine (UCL), Professor Dan Birks (University of Leeds).
  • Chapter in Evaluating Anti-Trafficking Interventions, edited by Professor Ella Cockbain, Professor Aiden Sidebottom, Professor Sheldon X. Zhang.
  • Year: 2025

Using instruction-tuned Large Language Models to identify indicators of vulnerability in police incident narratives

  • Authors: Sam Relins (University of Leeds), Professor Dan Birks (University of Leeds), Professor Charlie Lloyd (University of York).
  • Journal: The Journal of Quantitative Criminology
  • Year: 2025

Vulnerability and policing: rethinking the role and limits of the police

  • Author: Professor Adam Crawford (University of York and University of Leeds).
  • Journal: Political Quarterly
  • Year: 2024

Vulnerability and policing: the views of service providers and users

  • Authors: Dr Öznur Yardımcı (University of York), Dr Chris Devany (University of York), Dr Tobias Kammersgaard (Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University), Professor Kate Brown (University of York), Professor Adam Crawford (University of York and University of Leeds).
  • Journal: The British Journal of Criminology
  • Year: 2026

Vulnerability and social control at the margins: a contribution to an interdisciplinary trialogue on vulnerability

  • Author: Professor Kate Brown (University of York).
  • Journal: Human Studies
  • Year: 2024

What service should police provide? Towards a Minimum Policing Standard

  • Authors: Professor Ben Bradford (UCL), Dr Christine A Weirich (University of Leeds), Dr David Rowlands (University of Leeds), Professor Adam Crawford (University of York and University of Leeds).
  • Journal: Policing & Society
  • Year: 2025