Andrew Wooff
Andrew Wooff

Dr Andrew Wooff

Associate Professor

 0131 455 3352

  A.Wooff@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

I am an Associate Professor of Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University and the Head of Social Sciences and former Programme Leader for BSc (Hons) Policing and Criminology.

I am currently working on 2 externally funded COVID-19 focused pieces of research: the first (PI, SFC funded, £44k) is examining the pluralised policing responses to the pandemic in Scotland. The second (Co-I, ESRC funded, £36k) explores local authority partnership responses to the pandemic.

I have published on a number of topics, including police custody, rural policing, vulnerability and volunteering in the police. I have recently published in the Journal of Rural Studies, Policing Journal, Policing and Society, Punishment and Society, European Journal of Criminology and Policing: A journal of policy and practice .

In the past 5 years, I have completed 3 externally funded projects as PI (totalling £33,000), the most recent of which examined the Special Constabulary in Scotland. I have also been Co-I on a further 3 projects (totalling £308,800). As a result of my research and publications, I have been invited to sit on the Home Office Custody Review Design Board, the editorial board for two book series and the international advisory panel for a research project at the University of Sheffield. I am also the co-lead for the Education and Leadership network within the Scottish Institute of Policing Research (SIPR) and I am a member of the British Society of Criminology. I currently supervise 4 PhD students, on who has just completed his corrections.

My research interests are varied and interdisciplinary, informed by extending theoretical developments in criminology, geography and rural sociology. I am interested in how the police use their power in different ways and on different populations, particularly in relation to rural policing, police custody, and the use of police volunteers.

Prior to joining Edinburgh Napier University in 2015, I completed my PhD in 2014 under the supervision of Professor Nick Fyfe at the University of Dundee. This focused on anti-social behaviour in rural Scotland. During my PhD I was seconded into the Police Reform team where I completed research on partnership working. I subsequently completed a Post-Doc at the Centre for Criminological Research at the University of Sheffield, funded by the ESRC, which explored police custody in England and Wales.

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Appointed to the British Society of Criminology Policing Network as National Lead for the ‘Policing Research into Teaching’ portfolio
  • International Research Advisory Group: Good Police Custody Implementation Board, meets quarterly
  • Invited to give evidence to Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs Select Committee, 06/03/2018
  • Academic advisor to the Home Office National Police Custody Design Board, meets quarterly
  • Independent Assurance Group for Police Scotland Custody
  • Invited expert on rural crime, Scottish Government Cross Party Group on rural Policy, 24/02/2016

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Invited Panel member: Law Enforcement Public Health Conference
  • Invited to be panel chair: American Society of Criminology annual conference, 11/2019
  • Police education and professionalisation: Critical international perspectives
  • Panel organiser and Chair at ESC: Conditions of Police Custody in England and Wales
  • Invited presentation to Scandinavian delegation: Professionalising the police: The Scottish experience
  • Invited speaker: Canterbury Christchurch University annual conference
  • Panel member: EUPST II conference
  • Panel Chair: European Society of Criminology: Police custody in rural Scotland
  • Carceral geographies conference: The role of space, place and emotions in police custody
  • Invited discussant: Outsourcing in custody: Preliminary reflections on the good police custody study – Presented at the ESRC Markets in Policing Seminar Series, University of York, 09/06/15
  • Panel Chair: The role of emotion, space and place in Police Custody, The European Society of Criminology, 01/09/15

 

Editorial Activity

  • Editorial board: Palgrave Critical studies in policing book series
  • Editorial Board: Bristol University Press 'Rural Crime book series'

 

External Examining/Validations

  • Invited External Examiner: Canterbury Christchurch University
  • External Examiner, University of Chester

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

 

Grant Reviewer

  • Review for the 2019 COALESCE Irish Research Council call

 

Invited Speaker

  • Invited talk to Scandinavian delegation: Police professionalisation in Scotland
  • SIPR annual conference: The Conditions of Police Custody and the importance of 'good' design
  • George Mason University: Police Education in Scotland
  • Invited participant: Knowledge exchange and police professionalisation
  • Invited presentation to the National Custody Forum
  • Invited presentation: Treading the front line: Tartanization and police academic partnerships
  • Fully paid invitation to speak in Stockholm at Rural Studies Conference after publishing my paper in the Journal of Rural Studies, 09/2014
  • Policing anti-social behaviour in rural Scotland – Space, Society Research Group, School of the Environment, Dundee, Scotland, 16/12/2011
  • Policing territoriality in rural Scotland: Applying a normative approach to understanding some of the challenges of rural policing – RGS-IBG annual conference, Edinburgh, 31/08/12
  • The policing of insecurity: Policing places, policing people– Co-convener of session at RGS-IBG annual conference, Edinburgh, 31/08/12
  • Relationships and Responses: Policing ASB in rural Scotland – Presented at Symposium on Rural Crime in Sockholm, Sweden, 17/09/14
  • Policing vulnerability? The impact and implication of No Cold Calling Zones in Angus – Presentation for Trading Standards, Angus, 06/09/2010
  • A snapshot of ASB in Scotland – Presentation to Chinese Police Officer Delegation, Edinburgh, 22/05/12
  • Beyond the thin blue line: The everyday impacts of ASB – Presented at RGS-IBG conference, 28/08/13
  • Chair: Lothian and Borders Criminal Justice Authority on Electronic Monitoring, 17/02/16
  • Invited talk: Policing ASB in rural Scotland: The importance of context – Presented at the International Policing Conference, Tulliallan, 20/10/14
  • Discretion in Police Custody – Presented at the British Society of Criminology conference, 11/07/14
  • Invited talk: Preliminary findings on police custody delivery in England and Wales in the 21st century: Is it ‘good’ enough? – Presented at the Dundee Policing and Criminal Justice seminar group, 30/1/14
  • Police custody in the 21st Century: Is it ‘good’ or ‘good enough’? – Presented to the National Custody Forum, Police Federation, Stoke on Trent, 23/09/14
  • Partnership working within Police Scotland – Presented to Senior Management Team, Police Scotland, 12/12/12

 

Media Activity

  • Various media outlet coverage of Special Constable training programme (The Metro/ Edinburgh Evening News) on 29/04/20
  • Interviewed for "Quality Magazine", 02/10/2018
  • Invited participant: French national radio discussion on artificial intelligence, 10/07/2018
  • Wired Magazine Interview: Uk police are using AI to make custodial decisions, 01/03/2018
  • Invited participant: BBC Scotland John Beattie Show, 18/05/2018
  • Edinburgh Evening Telegraph interviews (various)
  • Scotsman article: Country cops could teach city cops a lesson, 29/06/2017

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • British Society of Criminology
  • Deputy Chair, Sheffield University Policing Research Group
  • Associate member: Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research
  • Interim co-Lead, Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) Education and Leadership network
  • Scottish Institute of Policing Research

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • Law Enforcement Public Health Stakeholder Engagement event
  • Lothians Criminal Justice Forum: Chair
  • Invited presentation to stakeholders: College of Policing 'Market of Ideas'

 

Research Degree External Examining

  • External Examiner: Canterbury Christchurch University

 

Reviewing

  • Peer Reviewer for multiple journals (British Journal of Criminology, Theoretical Criminology, Policing and Society, Policing: A journal of policy and practice, European journal of Criminology, Punishment and Society, Policing: An international journal of strategies and management

 

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Date


34 results

Police custody in rural Scotland: Negotiating boundaries, risk and organisational change

Journal Article
Wooff, A. (in press)
Police custody in rural Scotland: Negotiating boundaries, risk and organisational change. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 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 Polic...

Researching Police Custody. Past, Present and Future

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 collec...

Locked Down, Locked Out? Local Partnership Resilience in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Final Report

Report
Buchan, J., Nogales, C., Morrison, K., & Wooff, A. (2022)
Locked Down, Locked Out? Local Partnership Resilience in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Final Report. Economic and Social Research Council

Critical perspectives on rural policing in times of change: Cops, communication and context

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: 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 d...

The Criminal Justice System in Scotland

Book Chapter
Morrison, K., Buchan, J., & Wooff, A. (2021)
The Criminal Justice System in Scotland. In The Oxford Textbook on Criminology. (2nd). Oxford: 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...

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

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 a...

“My best day will be my last day!”: Appreciating Appreciative Inquiry in police research

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 us...

Information sharing in community policing in Europe: building public confidence

Journal Article
Aston, L., O'Neill, M., Hail, Y., & Wooff, A. (in press)
Information sharing in community policing in Europe: building public confidence. European Journal of Criminology, 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 interac...

Locked Down, Locked Out?: Local Partnership Resilience in the Covid-19 Pandemic - A Report on Interim Findings

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...

Vulnerability assessment across the frontline of law enforcement and public health: a systematic review

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 ...

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • Deputy Chair: Sheffield University Policing Research Group
  • ESRC PhD Funding: Space, Place and the Policing of Anti-social Behaviour in Scotland

Current Post Grad projects

Previous Post Grad projects

Non-Napier PhD or MSc by Research supervisions

  • PhD supervisor to Andy Tatnell at University of West of Scotland: The role of higher education and police professionalisation