This roundtable is organised by the Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre in the UK. Funded by the ESRC, the research centre aims to reshape how the police and other organisations work together in order to reduce harm among vulnerable people in society. The causes and characteristics of vulnerability are complex. For vulnerable individuals in contact with the police, the remits of the police and partner organisations intersect and interact in complicated and shifting ways. We know that vulnerabilities, harm and crime are unevenly distributed socially and spatially across populations, adversely affecting the life chances and wellbeing of certain groups and individuals. Moreover, multiple vulnerabilities interact with cumulative effects. The history of system failures, case reviews and public enquiries, testifies to the disjointed and siloed nature of public service provision that fosters unmet need.
This roundtable will explore contested issues concerning the policing of vulnerability and how research can be harnessed to rethink or address some of these issues. It will prompt discussion about how to generate and use the evidence base in ways that shift policy debate and service provision towards more systemic, preventive approaches to harm reduction. The following questions will be discussed:
1. To what extent does vulnerability serve as a valuable shared language around which to organise service provision or as a stigmatising and disempowering term?
2. What is the political space and appetite within public discourse and frontline buy-in for policing reform that centres on vulnerability and harm reduction?