By Sat Kartar Kaur Chandan, PhD Researcher, University of Leeds. Published: 19 November 2024.
Society is rapidly changing, with the concept of vulnerability taking on new complexities that demand greater attention. Whether arising from experiences of inequalities, deprivation, or hidden challenges, vulnerable groups often face additional barriers when engaging with traditional justice systems. These repercussions can influence their willingness and ability to access support and services.
This was a central focus of the recent inaugural Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre conference that I attended. This “Reshaping the relationship between vulnerability and policing” conference considered how policing practices can be reshaped to better meet the needs of vulnerable populations. During the event, I had the opportunity to attend three insightful sessions where speakers shared their research and initiatives related to vulnerability and policing. Each session offered diverse perspectives and contributed to a broader understanding of how vulnerability is understood, with a particular focus on reshaping the future of policing. In this blog, I will share key takeaways from these sessions and reflect on the unifying themes that emerged.
Session 1: Children and Young People
The relationship between policing and vulnerable children and young people is complex. While policing practices intend to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of individuals and communities, interactions with children and young people can result in unintended negative outcomes. The session revealed that traditional enforcement approaches are increasingly being challenged, with complex scenarios arising. They require a wider perspective that considers the underlying factors that influence the actions of vulnerable children and young people. We need to bear in mind the entire context of a vulnerable individual’s life story, not just isolated incidents or periods.
For instance, children and young people involved in county lines or exploited via social media are considered criminals for their involvement in illegal activities. However, their vulnerabilities have placed them in positions where they are first victims with unmet needs. Questioning whether a vulnerable individual is a victim or perpetrator can be challenging to determine and is often not addressed by the justice system, resulting in repercussions that influence perceptions of policing practices among children and young people. It was particularly interesting to hear about insights from the photovoice project, where young people were given cameras to take pictures of their community. These images captured unique perspectives of their lives, further enriched by explanations of why they wanted to capture the images and what they portrayed. Photos depicting the police evoked strong negative emotions, reflecting the strained relationships between law enforcement and vulnerable young people, with feelings of mistrust, hatred, and frustration towards the police being prominent.
Within this session, discussions revolved around the challenges associated with police culture and structure. Participants identified notable gaps in police confidence, training, and practices regarding vulnerable children and young people. There was a clear consensus that current policing strategies require re-evaluation, and attendees advocated for specialised training for police forces to better recognise and respond to the complex scenarios around youth vulnerability. Researchers advocated for policing strategies that engage children and young people with care, offer appropriate support in critical moments, and have an awareness of the wider challenges associated with lived experiences. With this in mind, the second session delved deeper into how amplifying the voices of vulnerable groups can further reshape policing practices.
Session 2: Learning from Less Heard Voices
This second session emphasised the importance of using the experiences of vulnerable groups to inform policy, practices, and interventions that intend to support them. These vulnerable groups, including children and parents, are the experts and are keen to work collaboratively with police and services to transform traditional systems that often lead to a cascade of challenges for society. For example, researchers shared concerns about police interventions, which typically occur at crisis, rather than in response to earlier calls for help and support in cases of child and adolescent-to-parent violence. When situations have been left to escalate, so will the severity of consequences for the vulnerable groups involved, leading to further distrust in services. As echoed in research from the SHaRE IT! Project, negative perceptions and experiences of the police can lead to subsequent barriers in reporting. These are influenced by challenges with police neutrality, respect, and trust. Unfortunately, where voices go unheard and reporting is hindered, the risks to vulnerable groups are only multiplied.
One of the most impactful aspects of the session was including personal narratives from the Revolving Doors lived experience members. Hearing directly from these vulnerable individuals, who had been involved in criminal activity, on challenges they have faced with the police, criminal justice systems, and other services amplified the real-world consequences of failing to consider and support vulnerable groups. These members reinforced the need to address the unmet needs of vulnerable groups, provide vulnerable groups with agency and advocacy, and avoid criminalising disadvantaged communities who can instead be provided with trauma-informed support and connections to appropriate services that can positively impact their life trajectories.
This session highlighted that changes to the future of policing are needed via a top-down approach as vulnerable populations are not uniform and their diverse experiences cannot be addressed by conventional policing practices, which are evidently damaging perceptions of the law enforcement who intend to serve and protect them. This focus on systemic change links to the final session on vulnerability and the law, which addresses the logistical challenges of policing and vulnerabilities.
Session 3: Vulnerability and Law
In the final session, discussions shifted to the legal frameworks that shape how vulnerability is legally understood and addressed. While previous sessions focused on the practical applications of legislation and policies at the ground level, this session addressed systemic challenges higher up. Although references toward vulnerability have increased in public law since 2005, the concept itself remains contested due to its complex and varied nature, posing challenges in how it is defined and assessed.
Researchers argued that the legal system’s approach to vulnerability is structurally limited, with attempts to standardise it that fail to reflect inherently individualised experiences. Vulnerability is also often further complicated by social structures that exacerbate situations; therefore, a standardised approach to addressing it is arguably inadequate. A notable example of the challenges surrounding vulnerability and the law are the disproportionate arrests of women following domestic abuse incidents, even when they are the victims. Often, by the time police intervene, women may have retaliated or acted in self-defence, leading them to be treated as perpetrators, despite having endured abuse leading up to that moment. The session also explored the idea of vulnerability being assessed on a sliding scale, where those deemed to be ‘more vulnerable’ can receive more support, leaving those who do not fit the criteria in challenging positions. The session highlighted clear misalignment between legal and moral obligations, prompting the need for reform proposals that provide more effective training, legislation, and practices for services, in addition to collaborative interventions. By integrating insights from vulnerable populations and working closely with support services and organisations, the law can better address issues of vulnerability.
Connecting Themes
A broad theme that emerged from the day’s sessions was the multi-faceted nature of vulnerability. Whether discussing contextual and individual experiences of vulnerable groups or exploring the expansive catalogue of guidance on vulnerability across and within fields, the breadth of perspectives highlighted how complex vulnerability is. It was clear that vulnerability cannot be defined or addressed by a single approach, making single-agency interventions insufficient. Reform, crime prevention, safety prioritisation, and meaningful changes to society require more involvement than from policing alone. Instead, there is a clear need for multi-agency working with integrated services that have co-produced shared actions and resources, which are supported by evidenced recommendations and solutions, that can be realistically implemented. One key insight shared referred to the need for models of an integrated system that view vulnerable groups as ‘whole people’ in a ‘whole population’, rather than just marginalised communities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the conference offered an insightful exploration of vulnerability and policing. Each session, whether focused on children, marginalised voices, or legal perspectives, made it clear that reshaping policing practices to better address vulnerability is not just a task for law enforcement but for society as a whole. One memorable view from the event was the need to ‘make it human’. Vulnerabilities affect real people, with real lives and real consequences; therefore, we need to think about the person that is affected by the legislation, policies, practices, recommendations, and solutions. By better understanding vulnerability and continuing to seek improvements, effective change in policing and service provisions for vulnerable groups is possible.