Accessibility statement

ESRC WRDTP Associated Studentship – The Role of Policing in Diversionary Interventions with Young People

University: University of York

Doctoral training pathway: White Rose Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP). Main pathway: Education, Childhood and Youth Pathway; Secondary pathway Security, Conflict and Justice.

Duration: 1+3 (Masters + PhD) or +3 (PhD) award. Commencing 1 October 2022.

Closing date for application forms 17:00 (UK time) 3 May 2022.

Project Outline

Diversionary interventions aimed at preventing future offending behaviour and criminal prosecutions are a longstanding and contentious feature of the criminal justice system, especially in relation to young people. A recent resurgence of investment and interest in diversionary initiatives across England and Wales is driving an increasing diversity of programmes ranging in ethos and form, from open access schemes more integrated into welfare support services through to targeted interventions located within criminal justice spheres.

These multi-agency initiatives now often dovetail with a focus on vulnerability, with the police playing an increasingly significant but varied role due to localisation and devolved governance. Broader trends influencing diversion models include policy and practice understandings of current and future ‘problem’ behaviour, as well as a more recent focus on young people’s vulnerability to criminal and sexual exploitation. 

This project will investigate a range of youth diversion programmes where the police play a significant role, focussing on their various effects and efficacy. Through detailed qualitative investigation within one police force the study will explore the rationales and operationalisation of youth diversionary interventions, including how the concept of vulnerability is understood within these programmes, as well as the lived experiences of young people (aged 10-25) who are subject to them.

After mapping diversionary interventions in the area, the study will focus on selected multi-agency programmes with varying ethos and with differing roles for the police, with deliberate coverage of interventions situated and orientated differently across criminal justice and welfare provision. Producing new insights about the progressive power and potential pitfalls of policing involvement in diversionary programmes, the study will support the development of conceptualisations and models which are more firmly rooted in young people’s life experiences and perspectives. 

Interventions of interest will include welfare-orientated and also more criminal justice-based interventions. Indicative interventions might include: new teams of specialist staff dedicated to children who are missing, exploited, and/or in contact with the criminal justice system; new NHS programmes working with those children with mental health problems or with learning disabilities who are deemed 'at risk'; local authority interventions with those who are also identified as 'at risk of offending'. 

Areas of focus for investigation will include: 

  • The various ways diversion is conceptualised and practiced by professionals, and the rationales which underpin police involvement 
  • How young people perceive and experience various forms of diversion and police roles in these
  • The tensions and opportunities police-related diversion brings for welfare-oriented provision
  • How practices and rationales of diversion relate to and inform social divisions such as gender, ‘race’/ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation. 

The researcher will work with local partners in the refinement and development of the study

Research Methods and Data Collection

The project will collect data from the following sources:

  • Interviews with practitioners and managers involved in the schemes
  • Interviews with young people who are subject to the schemes
  • Ethnographically-informed methods such as shadowing the delivery of interventions or outreach 
  • Police and multi-agency data which contextualises the qualitative insights, such as throughputs on programmes, demographics of young people receiving interventions and outcomes monitoring. 

Supervision and support

Dr Kate Brown and Dr Hannah Jobling will provide the academic supervision, with the studentship based in the department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York. The researcher will benefit from monthly supervision meetings with both academic supervisors, as well as 6 monthly progress reviews and assistance in planning with an extended supervisory team. This PhD will be part of a cohort of 6 studentships attached to the Centre of Vulnerability and Policing Futures, so the candidate will benefit from a range of networking and training opportunities attached to this programme of work.

Studentships

Two types of studentship are available depending on the level of social science research training already completed:

1+3 Studentships: an integrated Research Training Masters – MA Social Research at York - https://www.york.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/courses/ma-social-research/ - followed by a 3-yearPhD programme.

+3 Studentships: 3-year PhD (applicants must demonstrate that they have already completed substantial social sciences training in research methods which would enable them to undertake an independent research project in a particular discipline or interdisciplinary field. An applicant must have at least 60 credits at Masters level of core social sciences research methods acquired in the last five years. This must include a broad range of methods, including quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods and the use of appropriate software/tools for their application, and comprehension of principles of research design and strategy, and an appreciation of alternative approaches to research).

Funding

  • The award will cover fees at standard Research Council rates
  • A maintenance grant at the standard UKRI rate (£15,609 in Session 2021/22)
  • Research Training Support Grant which covers travel and research costs during the PhD part of the award

How to apply

Applicants applying on both 1+3 and +3 basis must apply through the SPSW PhD application site - https://www.york.ac.uk/spsw/phd-mphil-programmes/#d.en.76862.

Conditions relating to PhDs undertaken within the Department will apply as described on this site.

However, in filling out the online form please provide all of the requested information except:

  1. Under the Research Proposal summary on the online form, please include the following:  Centre Studentship: The Role of Policing in Diversionary Interventions with Young People and list the supervisors as Dr Brown and Dr Jobling. 
  2. Instead of providing a research proposal, please provide a covering letter addressing:
    1. The salient challenges in researching this topic, including any methodological issues
    2. Any particularly directions in which they would wish to take the project

After receipt of your application, the Department will interview selected candidates and, if successful at interview, you will be asked to apply to the ESRC White Rose Doctoral Training Programme, who will need to ensure that your application meets their requirements.