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All Outputs (44)

Policing Together: a framework for innovating volunteer policing through community-driven partnerships (2025)
Journal Article
Cheah, P. K., Britton, I., Callender, M., Wolf, R., Frayling, A., Pepper, M., & Wooff, A. (in press). Policing Together: a framework for innovating volunteer policing through community-driven partnerships. Policing, https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paaf022

Police agencies face growing pressure from limited resources and increasingly complex crime patterns. Innovation in public safety is no longer optional, it is imperative. Volunteer policing has long played a vital role in supporting law enforcement.... Read More about Policing Together: a framework for innovating volunteer policing through community-driven partnerships.

Abstract Policing, Covid-19 and the ‘Rural Idyll’ in Scotland (2025)
Journal Article
Buchan, J., Horgan, S., Wooff, A., & Tatnell, A. (online). Abstract Policing, Covid-19 and the ‘Rural Idyll’ in Scotland. Policing and Society, https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2025.2481117

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on rural ‘policing’ (broadly defined to include a range of institutions involved in order maintenance) remains relatively under-discussed and under-theorised. The pandemic created particular challenges for these se... Read More about Abstract Policing, Covid-19 and the ‘Rural Idyll’ in Scotland.

Covid-19, Communities and Policing: Service Abstraction and the Persistence of Place (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Buchan, J., Wooff, A., & Horgan, S. (2024, July). Covid-19, Communities and Policing: Service Abstraction and the Persistence of Place. Presented at British Society of Criminology Conference 2024, Glasgow, UK

This paper presents qualitative data from two projects on policing and local partnership working in rural Scotland, with fieldwork carried out in 2021-2.

We understand this through an interdisciplinary synthesis of theoretical concepts - ontologic... Read More about Covid-19, Communities and Policing: Service Abstraction and the Persistence of Place.

Police custody in rural Scotland: Negotiating boundaries, risk and organisational change (2024)
Journal Article
Wooff, A. (2024). Police custody in rural Scotland: Negotiating boundaries, risk and organisational change. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 47(3), 407-419. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm-01-2024-0007

Design/ Methodology
This paper draws on data from a study funded by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (2016-2018), entitled ‘Measuring Risk and Efficiency in Police Custody in Scotland’. The paper adopts a qualitative methodology to deve... Read More about Police custody in rural Scotland: Negotiating boundaries, risk and organisational change.

Researching Police Custody. Past, Present and Future (2023)
Book Chapter
Skinns, L., Banwell-Moore, R., Rice, L., & Wooff, A. (2023). Researching Police Custody. Past, Present and Future. In D. Martin, & S. Tong (Eds.), Introduction to Policing Research. Taking Lessons from Practice (123-137). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003276456-12

Over the last decade, police custody has seen a resurgence of scholarly interest. This chapter maps the contours of this burgeoning field, critically examining the data collection methods that researchers typically use, including observation, intervi... Read More about Researching Police Custody. Past, Present and Future.

Critical perspectives on policing rural environments: Cops, context, communication and COVID-19 (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Wooff, A., Horgan, S., & Tatnell, A. (2023, September). Critical perspectives on policing rural environments: Cops, context, communication and COVID-19. Presented at 23rd Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Florence, Italy

Recent work on policing in rural communities has highlighted the importance of reflecting critically on the context and environment being policed. Research has pointed to the importance of police discretion, order maintenance and police-community rel... Read More about Critical perspectives on policing rural environments: Cops, context, communication and COVID-19.

‘Come on mate, let's make you a cup of tea’: Theorising materiality and its impacts on detainee dignity inside police detention (2023)
Journal Article
Skinns, L., Wooff, A., & Rice, L. (2024). ‘Come on mate, let's make you a cup of tea’: Theorising materiality and its impacts on detainee dignity inside police detention. Theoretical Criminology, 28(2), 175-194. https://doi.org/10.1177/13624806231184827

In this article, we examine detainee experiences of dignity in police detention through the lens of materiality. To do this, we draw on sociological and anthropological literature on the ‘material turn’ and its application to criminal justice setting... Read More about ‘Come on mate, let's make you a cup of tea’: Theorising materiality and its impacts on detainee dignity inside police detention.

Systematic review of blue-light service collaboration for community health and well-being (2023)
Journal Article
Dougall, N., MacGillivray, S., Heyman, I., Wooff, A., & Tatnell, A. (2023). Systematic review of blue-light service collaboration for community health and well-being. Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being, 8(2), 66-74. https://doi.org/10.35502/jcswb.319

Effective cross-service collaboration has been posed as a way of improving outcomes for people, enhancing community safety and well-being, reducing social and health inequalities, and improving service resource efficiencies. However, it was not known... Read More about Systematic review of blue-light service collaboration for community health and well-being.

How cross-service collaboration between ambulance, fire, and policing services can improve community safety and wellbeing: A systematic review and case study of an area experiencing significant disadvantage (2023)
Report
Dougall, N., Heyman, I., Tatnell, A., Wooff, A., & MacGillivray, S. (2023). How cross-service collaboration between ambulance, fire, and policing services can improve community safety and wellbeing: A systematic review and case study of an area experiencing significant disadvantage. SIPR

Critical perspectives on rural policing in times of change: Cops, communication and context (2022)
Book Chapter
Wooff, A. (2022). Critical perspectives on rural policing in times of change: Cops, communication and context. In M. Bowden, & A. Harkness (Eds.), Rural Transformations and Rural Crime: International Critical Perspectives in Rural Criminology. Bristol University Press

Scotland is classed as 94 percent rural and with 18 percent of the population living in accessible and remote rural locations. Policing in these contexts requires the use of discretion, order maintenance and an intricate knowledge of the rural commun... Read More about Critical perspectives on rural policing in times of change: Cops, communication and context.

The Criminal Justice System in Scotland (2021)
Book Chapter
Morrison, K., Buchan, J., & Wooff, A. (2021). The Criminal Justice System in Scotland. In S. Case, P. Johnson, D. Manlow, R. Smith, & K. Williams (Eds.), The Oxford Textbook on Criminology. (2nd). Oxford University Press

Morrison, K., Buchan, J., & Wooff, A. (2021). The Criminal Justice System in Scotland. In The Oxford Textbook on Criminology. (2nd). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at: https://learninglink.oup.com/access/case2e-student-resources#tag_all-c... Read More about The Criminal Justice System in Scotland.

Pluralised responses to policing the Pandemic: Analysing the emergence of informal order maintenance strategies, the changing ‘policing web’, and the impacts of COVID-19 in rural communities. A Report on Interim Findings (2021)
Report
Wooff, A., Horgan, S., & Tatnell, A. (2021). Pluralised responses to policing the Pandemic: Analysing the emergence of informal order maintenance strategies, the changing ‘policing web’, and the impacts of COVID-19 in rural communities. A Report on Interim Findings. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Napier University

Acknowledging the differential impacts of COVID-19 on communities, this project examines how the policing of rural communities has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We assessed the changing demands made of the police and other key organisations... Read More about Pluralised responses to policing the Pandemic: Analysing the emergence of informal order maintenance strategies, the changing ‘policing web’, and the impacts of COVID-19 in rural communities. A Report on Interim Findings.

“My best day will be my last day!”: Appreciating Appreciative Inquiry in police research (2021)
Journal Article
Skinns, L., Wooff, A., & Sprawson, A. (2022). “My best day will be my last day!”: Appreciating Appreciative Inquiry in police research. Policing and Society, 32(6), 731-747. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2021.1984471

Appreciative Inquiry is a methodology originating from organisational psychology, though it has since been used in criminal justice research including police studies. It is used to identify the actual and potential strengths of an individual or an in... Read More about “My best day will be my last day!”: Appreciating Appreciative Inquiry in police research.

Information sharing in community policing in Europe: Building public confidence (2021)
Journal Article
Aston, L., O'Neill, M., Hail, Y., & Wooff, A. (2023). Information sharing in community policing in Europe: Building public confidence. European Journal of Criminology, 20(4), 1349-1368. https://doi.org/10.1177/14773708211037902

The literature on the importance of procedural justice in policing is extensive. Using the context of information sharing in community policing, this paper argues that interactional, procedural and distributive justice are salient in interactions bet... Read More about Information sharing in community policing in Europe: Building public confidence.

Locked Down, Locked Out?: Local Partnership Resilience in the Covid-19 Pandemic - A Report on Interim Findings (2021)
Report
Buchan, J., Nogales, C., Wooff, A., & Morrison, K. (2021). Locked Down, Locked Out?: Local Partnership Resilience in the Covid-19 Pandemic - A Report on Interim Findings. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Napier University

This report presents interim findings from a research project on local partnership working and resilience in the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdown measures. This grant is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of UK... Read More about Locked Down, Locked Out?: Local Partnership Resilience in the Covid-19 Pandemic - A Report on Interim Findings.

Vulnerability assessment across the frontline of law enforcement and public health: a systematic review (2021)
Journal Article
Enang, I., Murray, J., Dougall, N., Aston, E., Wooff, A., Heyman, I., & Grandison, G. (2022). Vulnerability assessment across the frontline of law enforcement and public health: a systematic review. Policing and Society, 32(4), 540-559. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2021.1927025

Assessing vulnerability is an international priority area across law enforcement and public health (LEPH). Most contacts with frontline law enforcement professions now relate to ‘vulnerability’; frontline health responders are experiencing a similar... Read More about Vulnerability assessment across the frontline of law enforcement and public health: a systematic review.

'I Feel Trapped': The Role Of The Cell In The Embodied And Everyday Practices Of Police Custody (2020)
Book Chapter
Wooff, A. (2020). 'I Feel Trapped': The Role Of The Cell In The Embodied And Everyday Practices Of Police Custody. In J. Turner, & V. Knight (Eds.), The Prison Cell: Embodied and Everyday Spaces of Incarceration (95-118). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39911-5

This chapter explores the police custody cell from the perspective of policing staff. Legally it is the cornerstone of the criminal investigation process, being the place where arrested persons are taken while charging decisions are made. Police cust... Read More about 'I Feel Trapped': The Role Of The Cell In The Embodied And Everyday Practices Of Police Custody.

Co-creation of five key research priorities across Law Enforcement and Public Health: A methodological example (2020)
Journal Article
Murray, J., Heyman, I., Dougall, N., Wooff, A., Aston, E., & Enang, I. (2021). Co-creation of five key research priorities across Law Enforcement and Public Health: A methodological example. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 28(1), 3-15. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpm.12664

Introduction
Law enforcement professions now assume more responsibility for tackling mental health issues alongside public health colleagues than ever before. The term ‘vulnerability’ is frequently used within Law Enforcement and Public Health (LEPH... Read More about Co-creation of five key research priorities across Law Enforcement and Public Health: A methodological example.