ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre

The police have always dealt with vulnerable people but increasingly they have been drawn into policing complex problems that they cannot solve on their own, such as modern slavery, county lines drug networks, mental health, online child sexual victimisation, and domestic abuse.

These problems have been made much worse by austerity, with the police having to fill gaps left by underfunded public services and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Our research explores how vulnerabilities are produced, exacerbated and mitigated by policing, and how the police and other services can be best used to prevent and reduce vulnerabilities.

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Who we are

The ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre brings together an interdisciplinary team of 23 co-investigators from across institutions across the world, as well as 38 police, non-governmental organisations, local and national government partners.

Jointly led from the Universities of York and Leeds by Co-Directors Professor Kate Brown and Professor Adam Crawford, the team includes Deputy Directors Dr Dan Birks (University of Leeds) and Professor Charlie Lloyd (University of York), as well as eight post-doctoral researchers, and a professional support team of three based across the two institutions.