Criminal Armourers play a key role in the firearm supply chain, however their modus operandi and roles in making firearms accessible to criminals differs depending on motivations, contacts, skills and knowledge. Drawing on UK data (primarily open-source and post-conviction offender interviews) three sub-groups of armourers have been identified – the ‘criminal’, ‘opportunistic’ and ‘potential’. Furthermore, these sub-groups can be overlayed on the initial typology of criminal armourers suggested by Williamson (2015) which groups individuals based on employment, education, service history, life-style choices, working practises, social and criminological backgrounds.

Each sub-groups can be explained through the lens of the Rational Choice Perspective and Routine Activity Theory, using the MICE principle to frame individuals’ motivational factors. The MICE principle represents an agent recruitment methodology whose origins evolve from espionage-related ‘tradecraft’ (Fitzpatrick and Burke, 2003). The acronym stands for Money, Ideology, Compromise and Ego, motivations that may drive a person to betray his country, employer, cause or, in this case, contravene firearm legislation. Aspects of Maslow’s psychological motivations, which stem from Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’, are also adapted to frame certain motivational factors specific to UK data highlighting vulnerabilities and potential exploitation opportunities (Maslow, 1943).


FITZPATRICK, W. M. & BURKE, D. R. 2003. Competitive intelligence, corporate security and the virtual organization. Advances in Competitiveness Research, 11,20-45.

MASLOW, A. H. 1943. A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370-396.

WILLIAMSON, H. Criminal Armourers and Illegal Firearm Supply in England and Wales. British Society of Criminology, 2015. 93-115.

Substantial, and growing, numbers of people work at night, in regular shift work, occasional night-time rostering, the late hours of the entertainment industry, or the taken-for-granted demands of servicing the so-called 24-hour city. To date, little criminological research has studied the precariousness of night workers and (risks of) harm they may experience. Researchers in the ‘Night Shift’ study at the University of Melbourne are studying night workers in 3 cities in Australia as well as collaborating with night-time researchers in the UK. The study has developed a multifaceted research methodology involving night walks, interviews, and 3D visualisation of night-time spaces to examine the atmospheres of a range of night-time occupations (such as carers, cleaners and waste service workers, hospitality workers, delivery riders, and transport workers), focusing on their experiences and voices, and the atmospheres of their employment workplaces.

For night-time workers, a number of well-known adverse consequences can arise, such as short-term disruption of circadian rhythms, as well as longer-term serious health problems such as the risk of diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Our research also examines workers’ fears and experiences of crime and victimisation, and we draw from criminological research examining affect and atmospheres of urban places as well as on the experiences of those vulnerable to injury or harm in public space. Centring on the experiences of food delivery riders, office cleaners and street waste workers, this paper will discuss (the risk of) victimisation during night-time work, including injury from traffic, assault and sexual assault, verbal abuse, and homicide, as well as the isolation, disconnectedness, and asociality of night work atmospheres. For night workers the urban ‘everynight’ contains the risk of victimisation: the night-time workplace is thus a potential crime scene.

"I'm hopin' not to join the 27 Club": Using a social harms approach to explore mistreatment in the music industry.

There have been many deaths of pop and rock musicians, including the so-called 27 club which comprises of stars who died aged 27 from causes such as alcohol (Amy Winehouse, for example), or drug overdoses (i.e., Jimi Hendrix). Many of these deaths could be criminal, as interpreted by laws, and some may be classified as ‘misadventure’ or accidental. While, the negative impact of being a professional musician has been gaining more attention over recent years, there are still huge pressures arising from the powerful music industry for artists to constantly tour, release new music and generate profits. This has led to mental and physical pressures and harms. Adopting a harms-based critical criminology, this paper will consider why the rock n roll business can be so dangerous for its artists and how this can be understood criminologically.