Join us for an in-person public lecture by Dr Tom McNeil (JABBS Foundation CEO), which will explore what the evidence says around public opinion on crime.
This in-person lecture will discuss what the evidence says around public opinion on crime, and how we might address the degraded civic discourse in an era where punitive political rhetoric is alive and kicking.
Covering the topics in Dr Tom McNeil’s newly-published book “Public Opinion on Crime”, the event will examine the interrelationship between political rhetoric, reactionary governments and discriminatory ideologies, and offer a fuller account of how our views on crime are formed.
The event will be chaired by Professor Adam Crawford, Co-Director of the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre (University of York & University of Leeds). Professor Ben Bradford (UCL and Centre Co-Investigator) will act as discussant.
This lecture will take place in Room CL/A/002 Business Lounge, Church Lane Building on the University of York campus.
Overview
From media headlines to community groups on social media, fear of crime permeates society.
At its worst, societal anxiety manifests in public demands for ever harsher approaches to punishment or the weaponising of crime by exploitative political leaders. In either case, societies are often distracted from the real factors behind crime: poverty, hardship, abuse and lack of opportunity.
Many researchers and policymakers recognise this harmful spiral but struggle to answer the question: How do we create the conditions for better public debates on crime?
Tom’s lecture will explore public opinion theories highlighting a degraded civic and media debate on crime. As an antidote, Tom will present evidence on how to hold better public conversations, using facts, emotion and message framing capable of shifting punitive attitudes towards a progressive consensus.
This offers a unique perspective on the kinds of democratic changes needed, as well as new insight into the arguments people need to hear when discussing crime and justice. With major international elections being preoccupied with the fear of crime, this contemporary analysis comes at a very important time and presents a roadmap to a fairer society and justice system.
About the speakers
Tom is The JABBS Foundation’s CEO, and has been appointed to the Ministry of Justice Women’s Justice Board.
Starting as a commercial lawyer, he later became a charity & social enterprise specialist. Previously, as the West Midlands’ Assistant Police & Crime Commissioner, he initiated and supported innovative projects including one of the UK’s first women’s problem-solving courts, technology ethics in law enforcement and new models of early intervention for families in crisis.
Ben Bradford is Professor of Global City Policing at the Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science, University College London, where he is also Director of the Centre for Global City Policing.
Ben’s research interests include public trust, police legitimacy, cooperation and compliance in justice settings, and social identity as a factor in all these processes. He has also published on organisational justice within police agencies, ethnic and other disparities in policing, and elements of public-facing police work such as neighbourhood patrol, community engagement and stop and search.
Ben’s contribution to the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre focuses on questions of trust, legitimacy and public attitudes towards policing priorities and potential changes to the focus of police. He leads the Centre’s “Towards a minimum policing standard” project, which explores what the public think the core functions of the police are, what they think policing is for, what they want from the police and what they think police should do.
Adam is Professor of Policing and Social Justice at the University of York and Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Leeds. In 2013, he established and was the inaugural Director of the N8 Policing Research Partnership (N8 PRP, 2013-20); a collaboration between eight universities and policing partners across the north of England.
He is Co-Director of the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, which aims to reshape how the police and other organisations work together in order to reduce harm among vulnerable people in society.
Adam is also Deputy Associate Dean for Research (Impact & Knowledge Exchange) in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of York, where he manages the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) and Yorkshire Policy Collaboration. From 2015-21, he was Director of the Leeds Social Sciences Institute.
He is a member of the Police Science Council, which provides independent advice to the National Police Chiefs’ Council in the UK on science, technology, analysis and research matters relevant to policing policy and operations. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an Honorary Lifetime member of the British Society of Criminology.