Layla Skinns

To snitch or not to snitch? An exploratory study of the factors influencing whether young people actively cooperate with the police

The death of Adam Regis in March 2007 and subsequent murder investigation highlighted the difficulties of encouraging young people to cooperate with the police by providing information that could lead to a successful conviction. ‘Snitching’, as it is known, is currently an under-explored area of research in the UK with most extant research having been conducted in the US. Therefore this paper attempts partially to fill this gap in the research. Drawing on a recent multi-method qualitative study, involving 24 interviews with young people in one London borough and two focus groups with teachers, police officers and youth workers, this paper seeks to explore the puzzling issue of why young people do not ‘snitch’. In particular, we explore the impact of relationships with the police and the impact of wider social influences – such as young peoples concerns about their safety, peer groups, particularly ‘elders’, families and music – on their decision to ‘actively cooperate’ with the police. We argue that peers, specifically ‘olders’, appear to have more influence on a young persons decision to cooperate with the police, than their relationships with the police or the advice from their family. However, the intertwined nature of the influences on young peoples decision to cooperate and the importance of trust in the police provide two points of variation with the existing research on procedural justice and police legitimacy. We also demonstrate the benefits of conducting research on policing ‘from within’ and of collaborations between practitioners and academics.

A prominent participant? The role of the state in police partnerships

In this paper I review three books on the notion of partnership working. In Problem-oriented policing and partnerships and Crime reduction partnerships the authors explore partnership working in an informative way for practitioners, whereas in the edited collection. Fighting crime together, the authors combine empirical, theoretical and methodological understandings of the notion of security networks. The books provide a useful starting point for exploring wider issues. I examine the involvement of the police, as a dominant partnership participant; the existence of co-operation and contest in police partnerships, as a manifestation of contradictions in the wider socio-political climate; the role of the state, empirically and normatively, in policing through partnerships. My argument is that the state does and should have a vital role in police partnerships, although not without it being regulated through an independent and socially representative body, such as a community safety or policing commission.

‘Let's get it over with’: early findings on the factors affecting detainees’ access to custodial legal advice

This paper explores why detainees in police custody decline free and independent legal advice whilst they are in police custody. To do this, I draw on three kinds of data (participant observation, interviews and custody records) collected in a predominantly privatised police custody area in the South-East of England. Detainees’ decisions to decline legal advice were shaped by their perceptions of it (e.g., how long they would have to wait to consult with a solicitor). These perceptions were in turn affected by the practices of solicitors (e.g., only attending the police station immediately prior to detainees’ interviews) and the practices of police and private security staff (e.g., their use of informal conversations and negative stereotypes about solicitors). To conclude, I examine the implications of the research for detainees’ access to justice, inter-professional relationships and the privatisation of the police custody process.

Preliminary findings on police custody delivery in the twenty-first century: Is it ‘good’ enough?

ABSTRACT Since the 1980s, police custody in England and Wales has seen the civilianisation and privatisation of key roles formerly performed by police officers and changes to how police custody suites are managed and owned. These changes have been encapsulated in a five-pronged typology of custody suites identified by Skinns et al. Drawing on theories about ‘good’ policing as well as quantitative and qualitative data collected as part of an ongoing study of ‘good’ police custody, this paper provides some preliminary answers to two key questions: Can police custody ever be ‘good’ for suspects and, relatedly, are some types of custody suites likely to be better than others, in this regard? What are the implications for ‘good’ policing? We show that of the five types of custody suites identified in Skinns et al., the ‘unhurried hybrid’ may be particularly beneficial to ‘good’ experiences of police custody; for example, the conditions of custody are better and may facilitate a more trusting relationship between suspects and the police. The data also show that theories about ‘good’ policing are relevant and useful for conceptualising ‘good’ police custody; though of the five dimensions of ‘good’ policing some (e.g. policing as just) are more relevant than others (e.g. policing as crime reduction).

The role of emotion, space and place in police custody in England: Towards a geography of police custody

Police custody is a complex environment, where police officers, detainees and other staff interact in a number of different emotional, spatial and transformative ways. Utilising ethnographic and interview data collected as part of a five-year study which aims to rigorously examine ‘good’ police custody, this paper analyses the ways that liminality and temporality impact on emotion in police custody. Architecture has previously been noted as an important consideration in relation to social control, with literature linking the built environment with people’s emotional ‘readings’ of space. No work, however, has examined the links between temporality, liminality and emotional performativity in a police custody context. In this environment, power dynamics are linked to past experiences of the police, with emotions being intrinsically embodied, relational, liminal and temporal. Emotion management is therefore an important way of conceptualising the dynamic relationships in custody. The paper concludes by arguing that emotional aftershocks symbolise the liminal experience of detainees’ understanding of the police custody process once released, noting that it is important to understand the microscale, lived experience of police custody in order to develop broader understanding of broader social and policing policy in a police custody context.

Police legitimacy in context: an exploration of “soft” power in police custody in England

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how police authority – in its “soft” form – is used and understood by staff and detainees in police custody in England, examining how these meanings are shaped by this unique police setting. It is argued that the nature of this setting, as fraught and uncertain, along with the large volume of citizens who come into contact with the police therein, makes police custody the ultimate “teachable moment”. Design/methodology/approach The present paper is based on in-depth qualitative data collected between March 2014 and May 2015 in four custody suites (in four forces). In each site, the researchers spent three to four weeks observing and then interviewed 10-15 staff (largely police officers, detention officers but also a few other criminal justice practitioners) and 10-15 detainees. In total, the paper is based on 532 hours of observing and 97 interviews (47 with staff and 50 with detainees). Findings One way that the staff used their authority in the custody suites in the research was softly and innocuously; this entailed for example staff communicating in a respectful manner with detainees, such as by being deliberately polite. The authors conclude that this “soft” power was a dynamic, processual matter, shaped in particular by the physical conditions of the suite, the uncertain and insecure nature of detainees’ circumstances, as well as by the sense of disempowerment they felt as a result of being deprived of their liberty and autonomy, all of which contributed to police custody being the ultimate “teachable moment”. Originality/value The paper draws on a range of qualitative data collected from both staff and detainees in four types of police custody suites as part the “good” police custody study. It therefore makes an original contribution to the field which has tended to rely on cross-sectional surveys of citizens not policed populations (Harkin, 2015; Worden and Mclean, 2017).

Stop the clock? Predictors of detention without charge in police custody areas

The recent consultation exercise, used to review the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, highlighted that that the detention clock (used to detain suspects without charge) does not allow the police sufficient time to conduct their investigation, especially in complex cases. In this review it was suggested that the detention clock — which normally allows detention without charge for 24, 36 or in exceptional circumstances 72 hours — should be stopped if suspects are unfit due to intoxication or they require a period of rest or to allow legal advisers, health professionals, interpreters and others time to arrive at the police station. Drawing on data collected from two sites — one public, one private — this article quantitatively and qualitatively explores the factors affecting the length of detention in police custody. I argue that there is insufficient evidence to introduce a stop-clock system and that the increase in the length of detention to pre-PACE levels suggests that it may not have struck the intended balance between suspects’ rights and police powers.