Summary of the impact

Criminology research by SQUIRES has changed national and European policy, practice and debate on public safety. Evidence based on the research submitted to the UK Home Affairs Select Committee influenced directly legal changes, policy guidance and policing innovations tackling gun crime and developing more effective firearms controls. For 20 years, SQUIRES' research has engaged directly with the community and inter-agency agendas in policing, firearms control and public safety, demonstrating that improvements in accountability, research evidence and effective evaluation are critical issues for gun control and (CCTV) surveillance policy. SQUIRES is a leading public academic in the field so that research, public and political engagement and impact are mutually reinforcing. The research comprises on-going critical involvement with public debate and policymaking including SQUIRES' appointment to the Association of Chief Police Officers National Advisory Committee on Criminal Use of Firearms. SQUIRES also contributed directly to the European Charter on CCTV surveillance, adopted by the EU in 2010.

Underpinning research

Linking research and impact: SQUIRES has developed, through funded research, engagements in public discourse and contributions to policy debate, a research programme over two decades that was designed to integrate academic and policy research on policing, public safety and weapons misuse. The research, therefore, involves SQUIRES acting as a public academic presenting research critically to a range of audiences and medias, some of whom are often resistant to acknowledging the implications of research findings. This process, however, ensures a mutually enhancing interaction between research and impact so that SQUIRES' research activity is informed by regular exchanges with users which build trust between researcher and user. An active dissemination profile (see section 4) was reflected in one of the Guardian's `academic expert profiles': `Squires is the country's most-quoted academic expert on gun crime, whose voice has been much in demand over recent months, not least by the BBC'.

Firearms violence and control: This research has involved two interrelated strands, both concerned with public safety, which use similar conceptual frameworks, research methods and approaches to impact. The first strand concerns gun violence and control and a series of initial publications that followed SQUIRES' seminal work in 2000 [reference 3.1], which revealed the inadequacy of narrow solutions to gun control and the need for more evidence-led and culturally sensitive approaches to gun control that adjusted to changing patterns in firearm misuse over time. Following participation in an EPSRC-funded `research sandpit' Tackling Gun Violence in 2005, SQUIRES was involved in three major EPSRC-funded collaborative, interdisciplinary research projects (EP/D078725/1 MAGNET 1; EP/E003826/1 DNA Receptors with Nanotags on Cartridges and EP/D078326/1 MEDUSA). These illustrated the changing profile of gun-involved violence in the UK's most deprived areas and demonstrated the complex mixed economy of illegal firearms in gang networks. Several highly influential publications followed, including the definitive Centre for Crime and Justice Studies' Gun Crime: A Review of Evidence and Policy [3.2], along with publications on illegal firearm supply, community `weaponisation', gangs and youth violence [3.3] and policing gang and gun cultures, and addressing firearm misuse [3.4]. This research informed SQUIRES' written and oral evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on Firearms Controls (2010), which has subsequently influenced both legislation and policy guidance (see section 4).

The effects of CCTV surveillance: The second research strand focuses on the effects of the implementation of (police and local authority) CCTV surveillance cameras in urban areas. SQUIRES led eight separate CCTV camera-installation impact research and evaluation projects (with £115k funding from public-sector organisations) between 1994 and 2002 in London and the South East. The findings featured in the Welsh and Farrington `Crime prevention effects of closed circuit television' review conducted for the Home Office (see Home Office Research Study, no.252, London: HMSO). SQUIRES was subsequently invited to provide research evidence to a European Forum for Urban Safety (EFUS) initiative developing effective and accountable CCTV-based crime prevention systems in the EU. This involved a series of research visits to cities in EU-member states and the findings, along with those from the earlier research, were published in a paper on `learning the lessons' of successful CCTV implementation and evaluation [3.5]. The research impacted on EFUS policy and practice (see section 4), as it had identified unrealistic expectations regarding CCTV impacts upon crime and disorder and demonstrated the role of appropriate evaluation in effective, democratic and accountable public policy development.

Key researchers:

Peter Squires:

Lecturer (Apr 1986-Aug 1991), Senior Lecturer (Sept 1991-July 1998), Principal Lecturer (Aug 1998-June 2000), Reader (June 2000-June 2005) Professor of Criminology and Public Policy (July 2005-to date).

References to the research

Key research grants:

SQUIRES, MAGNET 1 Modelling Analysis of Gun Crime Networks 2005-2007, EP/D078725/1; EPSRC, total project value £206,367, UoB allocation £8,103.

SQUIRES, DNA Receptors with Nanotags on Cartridges 2005-2008, EP/E003826/1; EPSRC, total project value £247,877, UoB allocation £6,868.

SQUIRES, MEDUSA (Multi Environment Deployable Universal Software Application) Project Digital CCTV imaging and Weapon-Related Behaviour Identification 2005-2008, EP/D078326/1; EPSRC, total project value £398,698; UoB allocation £12,870.

Details of the impact

Policy and legislation impact — firearms violence and control: SQUIRES' gun crime research on the illegal mixed economy of firearms in the UK is cited by the Academy of Social Sciences in its Making the Case for the Social Sciences 2011 series of publications, in Booklet no. 4, `Crime' (source 5.1), as an example of pioneering research in criminology that has had a successful impact on policy. The research had a highly significant series of impacts in the wake of the Cumbria 2010 shootings, when the Home Affairs Select Committee undertook an inquiry into firearms control. The resulting Firearms control — Third Report of Session 2010-2011, Volume 1 by the Home Affairs Committee (HC 447-I, 2010) accepted and went on to present to Government specific recommendations made in evidence by SQUIRES on the misuse of firearms (5.2).

These included evidence in relation to:

• legal weapon possession and domestic violence (para. 21)
• the impact of the 1998 handgun ban (para. 29)
• the role of `readily convertible' weapons and firearms supply (para. 123)
• anti-social behaviour and the misuse of air weapons (para. 129).

In particular, the Committee noted that: `On the basis of data submitted to the Cullen Inquiry, and that collected more recently by Professor Squires and the Gun Control Network, we are concerned about the use of legal firearms in domestic incidents, often linked to domestic violence'. The Committee also accepted the suggestion by SQUIRES that policing agencies `...make generalised data about the illegal gun market available to academics and policymakers more widely ... in recognition of the contribution that such individuals can make to crime reduction' (5.2). A number of these recommendations were specifically accepted by Government (The Government Response to the 3rd Report from the Home Affairs Committee session 2010-11, HC 447 - Firearms Control (HC 8155, September 2011) (5.3). Consequently, in new legislation, Part 8 of the current Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill (sections 100 and 101) (5.4) now includes recommendations relating to a proposed new offence of `illegal firearm possession with intent to supply', which traces back to the evidence presented by SQUIRES to the Home Affairs Committee (5.2: section 4, from para. 105). Subsequently, the Home Office incorporated proposals relating to records of domestic violence risk and spousal counter-signatories into the revised Guide on Firearms Licensing Law 2013 (5.5) distributed to all police forces to guide their determination of firearm licence applications and renewals based on earlier evidence on firearms in the home and domestic violence risks presented to the Home Affairs Committee (5.2).

Policy impact — CCTV surveillance: During 2009 to 2010, SQUIRES joined a working party of the European Forum for Urban Safety (EFUS) commissioned to develop a protocol of evidence-led guidance and good practice in CCTV policy development. The EU Charter for the Democratic Use of Video-Surveillance, based on the protocol, was launched in Rotterdam, becoming formally adopted in Lisbon in November 2010, being incorporated and implemented by the EFUS network of EU cities and regions. Evidence presented by SQUIRES to EFUS provided clarification and offered useful lessons for improving the process of policy transfer in this area to inform the effective integration of CCTV into the criminal justice and security infrastructures. This evidence demonstrated the importance of effective evaluation in crime prevention development, pointing out the need for appropriate accountability safeguards and realistic expectations of CCTV development. It thereby directly underpinned the EU Citizens' Charter on CCTV surveillance. SQUIRES' article on evaluating CCTV effectiveness was published by EFUS in a companion volume to the new EU Charter Citizens, Cities and Video-Surveillance (EFUS, 2010) (5.6, 5.7).

Policy discourse and public debate: SQUIRES' interventions as a public academic integrating academic and policy research have had a subsequent impact on policy and public discourse and debate in the field of youth and public safety. SQUIRES was part of a team in 2008 developing an evidence base on gangs and weapon use for the Street Weapons Commission chaired by Cherie Blair for Channel 4 (5.8). The commission recommended elements of a `violence reduction strategy', which became a central feature of government policy. SQUIRES worked in 2009 for the Children's Commissioner for England in a meta-analysis (5.9) examining the use of weapons by children and young people, drawing attention to the fact that this phenomenon was closely associated with disadvantage, social exclusion, victimisation and disrupted childhoods and was not, therefore, amenable to enforcement-led strategies alone (5.9), as reflected in the cross-governmental Violence Reduction Strategy of 2011. Following appointment in 2013 to the UK Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) National Independent Advisory Group on Criminal Use of Firearms, SQUIRES continues to contribute to policy and practice debates in these areas.

As a leading European commentator on firearms controls, SQUIRES participates frequently in public debate, including an international symposium on firearms and self-defence in Washington, DC and a live TV debate (5.10) in March 2012 with Wayne La Pierre, Executive Vice-President for the US National Rifle Association concerning the UN Arms Trade Treaty, to which the NRA was vehemently opposed but which the US Obama Administration backed. Following the shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook School, Connecticut (14 December, 2012) SQUIRES participated in over 40 national and international TV news, radio, press and online interviews and commentaries. His work has also been cited as an `invaluable resource' in the Vice-Presidential Special Commission Report Reducing Gun Violence in America (Webster and Vernick, eds. 2013) (5.11).

Sources to corroborate the impact

5.1 Academy of Social Sciences, 2011 Making the Case for the Social Sciences series, booklet no.4, Crime. London. Available at:
http://www.acss.org.uk/docs/Making%20the%20Case/INF176AcSS_crime_web.pdf.
[Accessed: 2 November 2013]. `Gun control' research appears on page 13.

5.2 Firearms control—Third Report of Session 2010-2011, Volume 1 by the Home Affairs Committee (HC 447-I, 2010). Available at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmhaff/447/44702.htm.
[Accessed: 2 November]. SQUIRES' evidence is provided under the link to 26 October 2010. Specific recommendations are found in section 2 (paras 19-21 and 29) and section 4 (paras 123 and 129).

5.3 The Government Response to the 3rd Report from the Home Affairs Committee session 2010-11, HC 447 - Firearms Control (HC 8155, September 2011. Available at:
http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm81/8155/8155.pdf. [Accessed: 2 November 2013]. This follows up on recommendations to the Home Affairs Committee.

5.4 The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill. Available at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2013-2014/0007/14007.pdf [Accessed: 2 November 2013]. Sections 100 and 101 now include recommendations relating to a proposed new offence of illegal firearm possession with intent to supply.

5.5 Home Office (2013) Guide on Firearms Licensing Law, available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/firearms-law-guidance-to-the-police-2012.
[Accessed: 2 November 2013]. Paras. 12.28-37 relate to the proposals for records of domestic violence risk and spousal counter-signatories.

5.6 European Forum for Urban Security (2010), Citizens, Cities and Video-Surveillance:
Towards a Democratic and Responsible use of CCTV. CCTV Charter documentation. Available at:
http://www.fesu.org/http://cctvcharter.eu/fileadmin/efus/CCTV_minisite_fichier/Publication/CCTV_publication_EN.pdf [Accessed: 2 November 2013]. Programme and EFUS CCTV Charter were launched in Rotterdam, May 2010. SQUIRES is listed as an expert on page 5 and this expert paper features on pp.37-57.

5.7 Testimonial available from the EFUS President confirming SQUIRES' contribution and the resulting adoption of the CCTV Charter.

5.8 SQUIRES, P., SILVESTRI, A., with GRIMSHAW, R. and SOLOMON, E. (2008), Street Weapons Commission: Guns, Knives and Street Violence — Final Report. (London: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Kings College London. Channel 4 report. Available at:
http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/publications/street-weapons-commission-guns-knives-and-street-violence. [Accessed: 2 November 2013]. Report uploaded on the CCJS website.

5.9 SILVESTRI, A., OLDFIELD, M., SQUIRES, P. and GRIMSHAW, R. (2009). Young people Knives and Guns — A Comprehensive Review, Analysis and Critique of Gun and Knife Crime Strategies. Commissioned by 11 Million, the organisation led by the Children's Commissioner for England, Sir Aynsley-Green, originally published by 11 Million in March 2009. Available at:
http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/Gunandknife.pdf.
[Accessed: 2 November 2013].

5.10 Filmed debate with SQUIRES and the NRA's Executive VP Wayne La Pierre. Available at:
http://www.brighton.ac.uk/sass/contact/staffprofiles/pas1-wayne.pdf. [Accessed: 2 November 2013]. [DVD available].

5.11 WEBSTER, D.W. and VERNICK, J.S., eds. (2013) Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. SQUIRES' research is cited on p.193.