This thesis examines the challenges and opportunities associated with embedding Evidence Based Policing (EBP) by using a case study of a single metropolitan police force. In order to achieve this aim, the thesis objectives are to examine: the sources that officers and staff draw upon to inform their decision making; how they understand EBP and research evidence; the extent to which they use research evidence; and their perceptions regarding the organisational challenges, and opportunities, to engage with, and embed EBP. A triangulation mixed methods design is used to explore this. The thesis demonstrates the significance of role in relation to EBP and it is suggested that the heterogeneity of ‘policing’ should be more widely scrutinised by policy makers and scholars. Within the case study force, the thesis also identified variance in how the concepts of research evidence and EBP are understood, with no consistent understanding of the term. Consequently, ambiguity exists regarding the expectations of officers and staff in implementing EBP within their role. This thesis also highlights the necessity to build the capability of officers and staff in relation to EBP, in particular their skills for critical appraisal of research evidence and other knowledge sources, including professional experience. The thesis also reports that the nature of crime and demand was perceived to be changing and that the existing ‘evidence base’ was not perceived to reflect the nature of crime and demand that the police force deals with. The thesis makes recommendations for a re-conceptualisation of EBP, to encompass a range of information sources including research evidence, with an emphasis on the importance of a shared understanding of EBP within the police force. The proposed model encompasses a range of information sources including research evidence, professional experience, organisational information, stakeholder views and national guidance. It also suggests a need to draw more heavily on public perception as an information source in police decision making. The term ‘Informed Policing’ is favoured, rather than EBP to better reflect the more inclusive conceptualisation and emphasis on the critical appraisal of knowledge sources.

The central goal of the current thesis is to understand the experience of crime committed by various types of offenders and, in so doing to examine its psycho-social and criminal background correlates. This is explored by drawing on a narrative approach. This approach includes both the episodic roles criminals play during the crime as well as broader aspects of their understanding of their life story. A consequent research question is the relationship between their life narratives and their conceptualisation of their roles when committing their crimes. This perspective views the immediate components of the criminal experience as emotional and cognitive, essentially subjective in nature, thus self-report measures are used to uncover these internal processes. In the current thesis, the Narrative Roles Questionnaire (NRQ) was used. This is a standardized, quantitative method designed to reveal an offender’s crime narratives. In addition to the NRQ an offender’s general view of self/world and life was measured with the Life Narrative Questionnaire which is composed of positive and negative life narrative themes. The offenders’ history of offending was measured by the D-60 (History of Offending Questionnaire) which consists of three distinct offending styles, namely Instrumental, Sensory and Power. All these measures, along with a demographic information were completed by 468 Turkish prison inmates. Each questionnaire was translated into Turkish. Reliability and validity analyses revealed more than satisfactory results, which indicated the applicability of these scales in Turkish culture. Results indicated a consistency between life and offence narratives in terms of strength. This suggests that independent of the direction (negative vs positive), offenders who have a strong attitude towards themselves/life/world have a stronger commitment to the roles they enact during the offence. There was also a significant relationship between history of offending styles and offence roles. This showed that except for the Victim role, all offence roles are associated with aspects of the history of offending. This differentiates the Victim role from others as being more circumstantial and not associated with previous criminal behaviour. These results are relevant to developing different rehabilitation strategies for offenders based on the roles they enact during the offence. In addition, the results show that, while life outside of crime has more predictive power for the Victim and Hero NRQ roles, for others history of offending behaviour has more predictive power. The results of the third relationship, between the life narrative themes and history of offending styles, show that a negative life narrative theme is associated with a history of Instrumental and Sensory offending styles. Whereas a positive life narrative is associated with the Power offending style. Also, offenders with a strong attitude towards life/world/themselves score higher on the Power offending style. These results uncover the relationship between criminal history and how offenders see themselves/life and world outside of crime. There is evidence supporting specialisation in offending because distinct factors emerged in the history of offending scale. Each offending style is shown to be associated with different psycho-social and criminal background characteristics. The results show that the effects of an offender’s attitude towards a) their lives outside of crime, b) their history of criminal behaviour, and c) their experience of crime, vary based on the narrative roles they enact during the offence. Furthermore, the results show that life narrative themes moderate the relationship between history of offending styles and offence roles, which indicates that one’s view of self/life/world (which is accepted as a dynamic, changing and unfolding factor) has an impact on how history of offending (which is a static, unchanging factor) affects the offence role choice which is an immediate experiential aspect of crime. The major methodological contribution is the adaptation of the three primary measures to the Turkish context and the work shows the high ecological validity of these scales in a novel cultural context. Along with presenting an understanding of the experiential aspects of criminality, the major theoretical contribution of the current thesis is to provide empirical evidence for the theory that there is consistency in an offender’s behaviours in crime and outside of crime, and that this consistency is effectively revealed through the application of narrative theory. The theory and results open paths to the development of rehabilitation and crime prevention strategies by targeting life narratives of offenders. They point to the potential development of interview techniques based on offence roles. Furthermore, there are applications of the history of offending and offence role relationships to police investigations; understanding the revealed associations would help investigators to infer offender characteristics.

The present thesis explores how both ‘live’ (current) and ‘cold’ (often unresolved) UK homicide investigations are currently, and have been in the past, conducted. In contrast to other related research, it focuses in particular on underpinning theory, organisational processes and investigator practice. By comparing ‘cold’ and ‘current’ homicide investigations, it explores their investigative similarities and differences, and also other more complex factors that have combined to alter the way in which approaches to both, as well as their outcomes, have changed over time. To offer a rounded, holistic overview of the field, a range of perspectives on homicide investigation are presented, first the detail in case and process-specific datasets at three levels, specifically individual cases, Force–level approaches and National overviews, and second, the personal and professional experiences of lead investigators, the Senior Investigating Officers, which also explores how perspective and context can influence these investigations. The early chapters explore the theoretical and practical underpinning influencing the ‘scenario’ of a homicide investigation and how those have changed and impacted on investigations differently over time. They also evidence key differences between ‘initial’ and ‘subsequent’ investigations, new knowledge that in turn provides a rationale for adopting a fresh approach, namely one that rather than considering individual investigations in isolation, instead views the ‘investigative lifetime’ of a Homicide, and its management and evolution through multiple investigations and reviews, as a single process, -an ‘investigative continuum’, within which a single investigation or review is merely one part of the whole. Later chapters explore a holistic overview of Homicide investigations, both historic and current. Specifically, they explore how Homicide-related deaths are recorded and managed at three separate levels, namely the single ‘death event’, within clusters of ‘unresolved’ cases, and by national overviews and perspectives. They also examine the specific methodology, policy, and practice of Homicide investigations, comparing case data at every level with the personal perspectives of experienced senior investigators. From this they identify a range of shortfalls and opportunities for innovation. Firstly they question the value of these datasets as generally-accepted references for ‘stakeholders’ of Homicide investigations, and by challenging the historic and current capability and capacity of extant datasets and processes to support and manage effective investigations, and particularly unresolved or historic investigations, they argue the need for better and more useful databases to be developed. Secondly, they identify a range of process and procedural practices that of themselves can influence investigative outcomes, and from this propose a range of new measures to enhance investigative practice throughout the investigative continuum’, for example adopting investigative approaches that anticipate failure rather than success and thus better prepare investigations to avoid such failure, and arising from this concept, new approaches that properly capture and preserve investigative material in a form that creates investigative ‘time capsule’s; -repositories of material and information more fit to be revisited by future enquiries. The research also explores the actual decisions made by Senior Investigating Officers in real homicide investigations with different outcomes, in context, and over time. Using new methodology it categorises these decisions according to their intended impact, and then contrasts them with contemporaneous investigative ‘events’. From this it identifies a range of specific patterns in decision-making that appear to influence investigative outcomes for better or worse, findings which not just support and extend the understanding of ‘tipping points’ observed by other studies, but which go further, firstly by identifying new and additional factors in the investigative process, termed ‘transition points’, and secondly by suggesting that these appear, both in isolation and in interraction with ‘tipping points’, to influence investigative outcomes in complex and hitherto unrecognised ways. The four perspectives provided by the research thus identify a range of issues and explore how they have combined to impact upon homicide investigations both historic and current, across the 'investigative continuum’ to date. From this the research establishes firstly that a range of identifiable differences exist between ‘initial’ and ‘subsequent’ homicide investigations and the processes which govern them, secondly that these differences can impact upon investigative outcomes, and third, how this can happen. It offers a range of new knowledge, concepts and approaches, almost wholly hitherto unrecognised in related research, and identifies how both individually and taken together these can influence different aspects of homicide investigation such that these factors and how they operate can be better understood. Finally, the research findings also suggest a range of opportunities to utilise this new learning to influence not just existing investigations, but also those of future homicide events, and proposes a range of opportunities both for further research and for practical changes in investigative policy, practice, and delivery designed to in order to stimulate and improve investigative understanding, outcomes, and ‘success’.

A new Model of Burglary Differentiation is proposed based on the central question: how do the psychological interpretations of the domestic burglary offending styles, patterns and offender characteristics relate to a social hypothesis of this crime? Reiss and Farrington (1991) suggest burglary is most commonly committed in groups. As such, the behavioural variations are investigated in relation to an individual’s position within their social network structure. A unique police database, collected from 2011 to 2015, is examined. The data was obtained from a population of offences within a major metropolitan city in the United Kingdom. It consists of 8,491 domestic burglaries (686 solved and 7,805 unsolved). A further 1,017 convicted burglaries from the Police National Computer database are also included. Initial investigation of the differences between solved and unsolved domestic burglaries provided crucial insight to the validity of modelling crime and the utility of the data. Behavioural analysis identified a good relationship between solved and unsolved domestic burglaries, validating the use of this data in modelling burglary and highlighting the evidence required in burglary detection. To provide further clarification of the sample, the behavioural co-occurrences were examined with the aim of identify distinct variations in domestic burglary. Co-offending burglary was apparent in 60% of cases, thus supporting the social hypothesis of burglary. Smallest-Space Analysis (SSA) systematically revealed thematic behavioural differences between offenders in solved and unsolved offences. It was hypothesised that through examination of the offence characteristics, offender traits, and criminal history, behavioural differentiation of burglary could be determined. Four behavioural patterns are identified: Skilled Domestic, Interpersonal, Forceful, and Non-Domestic. The succeeding study predicted offender characteristics from the previously identified behavioural styles, hypothesising differing criminal experience across offending actions. A new Model of Burglary Differentiation was found, across distinct stages of development based on the offender’s age and experience, labelled: Skilled Domestic, Versatile, Opportunistic and Non-Domestic. The prominence of co-offending within the sample allowed for a social-psychological framework of domestic burglary to be investigated. The analysis identified three distinct types of domestic burglary networks: Starter, Core, and Structured. The criminal histories of the co-offending networks were then examined, finding a robust framework of identifying criminal differentiation, with evidence of specialisation to Material, Power, and Vehicle related crime. The final study demonstrates a social-psychological framework of domestic burglary by drawing on the findings of the previous studies. The findings identify small-scale domestic burglary organisations formed through role differentiation. This has significant implications in the use of quantitative information in drawing psychological interpretations of co-offending information. The research demonstrates the utility of a social network framework for understanding the behavioural, social and psychological characteristics of burglary offenders. This suggests further exploration of the social interdependence between offenders and how individuals provide support in offending behaviours. The implications of uncovering a social-psychological framework of domestic burglary and how it contributes to theoretical, methodological and practical settings are discussed.

This thesis sets out an argument as to the principles which should determine the scope of public order crimes. The Preface demonstrates that the definition and scope of public order and corresponding public order crimes are arbitrary. In order to arrive at a clear definition of public order interests which can be applied in limiting the scope of offences against public order, in the first chapter the substantive elements of public order are constructed as categories of life convenience, comfort and peace, while the formal publicness is demarcated as multiple subjects of an interest as opposed to one specified subject of the interest. Taking Feinberg’s moral limits of criminalisation as its starting point, the second chapter restates the concepts of ‘harm to others’ and ‘offence to others’ as criminalisation frameworks applicable to public order crimes. In order to justify criminalisation, harm should be an objective, recognisable, imputable and wrongful setback to a physical interest, while offence should be a communicative, imputable and wrongful setback to inner peace based on normative sensibilities. Accordingly, harm/offence to the interests of others in smooth civil life is the moral basis for forming and shaping rules of criminalising disruptions of public order. The third chapter categorises problems of imputing public disorder and public offence and approaches these problems by proposing a formal test of substantial risk and, if necessary, a substantive test of counterbalancing justification. In order to address the problems of public order law in practice, the final two chapters apply the principles developed in the thesis to a number of typical public order problems. These chapters demonstrate that the valid scope of criminalising typical public order related conduct such as disorderly begging, loitering, indecencies and insults can be sensibly determined by the argued steps of limiting criminalisation. These two chapters identify some categories of truly intrusive and wrongful conduct that correspond to legal interests in convenience and comfort and inner peace.

Litigants in Person [LiPs] have a poor reputation in legal scholarship. Routinely labelled ‘pests’, ‘nuts’, ‘weirdos’, and worse, LiPs are often posited as a problem for the courts. This perception has only been aggravated by the passage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act in April 2013 which ended legal aid for the majority of litigants in non-criminal cases. And yet, despite these pejorative attitudes, we know surprisingly little about LiPs. Historically marginalised in scholarship, LiPs are rarely spoken about, and almost never spoken to. This thesis sets out in part to redress this by putting their experiences at the centre of this research. Drawing on fifteen oral history life stories with LiPs, this thesis asks: what is going to law like for them? In addition to adding LiP experiences to the record, though, this thesis also sets out to consider what LiP experiences can tell us about access to justice. This thesis contends that LiPs face far more challenging difficulties than has heretofore been recognised in research. Moreover, this thesis argues that these difficulties are, counter to popular perception, not problems inherent to LiPs, but are instead indicative of systemic inadequacies in the civil justice system itself, a system which theoretically provides access for LiPs but which excludes them in all meaningful ways. Ultimately, I argue that until reform addresses the systematic inequality embedded in the civil justice system, LiPs are doomed to fail.

This thesis seeks to explain the lax enforcement of tax laws in Egypt. While I acknowledge that existing explanations emphasising amongst other things the importance of low administrative capacity, neopatrimonialism, or rentseeking may discern some of the drivers of tax collection performance, I claim that other factors have been neglected. Based on a combination of historical and ethnographic research, I show how historical legacies and contemporary political dynamics intertwine and shape taxation at the three levels of microlevel tax relations, intra-bureaucratic relations, and the administrative and political leadership. I argue that deep-seated distrust on the one hand, and the consequences of a persistent but broken social contract on the other, contribute to the lax enforcement of tax laws. I show how repressive statebuilding resulted in a legacy of distrust that became institutionalised over time and that permeates tax relations to this day. I also explain how post-colonial populist state-building has led to the formation of moral economies of a “caretaker state”, widely-held norms, expectations and beliefs with respect to what the state should do for its citizens and its employees. The persistence of core aspects of this social contract until this day, in combination with its breaking by the state, shapes state and bureaucratic politics in important ways. On the one hand, tax collectors are in many different ways less inclined to do their jobs effectively and to strictly enforce the law against their fellow citizens. On the other hand, lenient enforcement is influenced by regime fears that the strict application of tax laws could provide a trigger for regimethreatening popular mobilisation. These findings make a number of different contributions to the literatures on taxation in developing countries, everyday governance and the enforcement of laws, as well as Middle East political science. Most crucially however, my research shows that both distrust and normative-ideational factors have to be taken seriously not only when it comes to explaining the willingness of taxpayer to pay, but also the willingness of tax collectors to collect.

This thesis addresses the long-debated question of courts’ proper role in enforcing constitutional social rights; and it does so from a new perspective – that of political trust. Its central argument is that the concept of political trust – as it has been conceptualised and theorised in the relevant social science literature – has normative potential for defining such a role for courts. Specifically, I argue that courts, in enforcing constitutional social rights, can, and should, use political trust as an adjudicative tool, employing it to develop a standard to which government, in its provision of social goods and services to the public, can and will be held. To make out this argument, I draw on both theoretical and empirical social science scholarship on trust and how it functions in contemporary societies. I suggest, based on that scholarship, that we can expect constitutional social rights adjudication by courts to be able to impact (and in the right circumstances, to foster) political trust. And following from this impact, in combination with the well-recognised value of political trust by social scientists as well as a host of other principled reasons, I make the claim that political trust can, and should, lie at the very centre of social rights enforcement by courts.

What type of political association is the European Union? From the start of the European integration process, this question has puzzled scholars. Many different answers have been offered, but in the absence of an agreed response, most scholars implicitly avoid the issue by suggesting that the European Union is ‘sui generis’. In contrast, this thesis maintains that the European Union is a federation (Bund): a political union of states founded on a federal treaty-constitution that does not constitute a new federal state. The thesis maintains, further, that the federation is a discrete form of political association on a par with, though differentiated from, the empire and the state. The thesis aims to make three contributions. First, to contribute to the constitutional theory of the European Union by solving the mystery of its political form. Second, to contribute to the constitutional theory of the federation through an in-depth case study of the European Union as a federal union of states. Third, to contribute to both European Union studies and federalism studies by showing, first, how some of the most profound constitutional questions of the contemporary European Union raised by the rise of authoritarianism in Poland and Hungary and the Eurozone crisis can be properly understood on the basis of the constitutional theory of the federation. Second, by demonstrating how these contemporary issues shed light on the most difficult question for the constitutional theory of the federation: whether, to what extent and under what circumstances the Union has authority to intervene in the internal constitutional affairs of its Member States.

This socio-legal study reconceptualizes the principle of distinction in international humanitarian law (IHL). Moving away from the dominant vision of fixed civilian and combatant entities separated by a bright line, it introduces an alternative vision of how distinction works in different places and at different times, or what we might think of as ‘a new law of distinction’. This account is grounded in the practices of international actors across a number of global sites: from Geneva and The Hague to civil–military training programmes in Europe and the operational context of South Sudan. The main character of interest is the international humanitarian actor, who is situated alongside other international actors, such as NATO soldiers, UN peacekeepers and UN civilian actors. As is shown, the everyday interactions of these actors are shaped by contests over distinction. In the law of distinction that is distilled from these practices, qualities of ‘civilianness’ and ‘combatantness’ float around in the air, able to attach to any individual at any given moment, depending upon their self-presentation, behaviour and context. Three new figures emerge around these qualities: the ‘civilian plus’, the ‘mere civilian’ and the ‘civilian minus’. The ‘civilian plus’, this study proposes, represents a special status that international humanitarian actors disseminate on a daily basis. This special status relies upon a concept of civilianness that is relative, contingent and aligned with an alreadyfragmented civilian category in IHL. The distinction practices of humanitarian actors also have an important performance component, designed to influence the perceptions of an omnipresent observer – the ‘phantom local’. The overarching aim of this inquiry is to uncover and contend with distinction’s perpetually disrupted nature. The study dismantles the idea of distinction as we know it, enabling us to recognize distinction in strange and unfamiliar forms.