Prof Emma Williams

Emma joined ARU's Centre of Excellence for Equity in Uniformed Public Services (CEEUPS) in 2024. Prior to joining ARU, Emma was the Academic Director of the Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL) at the Open University.

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Background

Emma’s career as a policing academic started with a role as a Principal Researcher at the Metropolitan Police Service, where she undertook applied, operational, and strategic research on several policing related issues such as rape and serious sexual offending, trust and confidence in policing and neighbourhood policing.

Emma completed a two-year secondment with the Ministry of Justice, and following that joined Canterbury Christ Church University as a Senior Lecturer, where she was responsible for the design and delivery of a successful MSc programme for serving police officers. She was made principal lecturer in 2016 and in 2017 developed the Canterbury Centre of Police Research, which she directed until she left to become the Research Director at CPRL in 2021.

Emma was awarded a PhD from London Southbank University in 2018 for a thesis that explored police officer perspectives on the challenges to reform focused on improving the police investigation of rape.

From 2021, whilst at CPRL ,Emma led one of the research pillars for Operation Soteria (a Home Office-funded project) exploring the investigation of rape and serious sexual offending. Emma and her team led the work on officer wellbeing, learning and development which has culminated in the specialist course for officers who investigate rape being redesigned and piloted in collaboration with the College of Policing.

Emma’s work is influenced by policing scholarship, justice theory, organisational theories, criminology, and sociology. Emma is also committed to knowledge mobilisation and impact.

Research interests

• Organisational legitimacy
• Violence against women and girls
• Collaboration and research co-design
• Organisational and procedural justice

Qualifications

• PhD in Social Sciences, London South Bank University
• MA in Criminal Justice, Brunel University
• BSc (Hons) Criminology and Psychology, Brunel University

Memberships, editorial boards

• British Society of Criminology
• Executive Board of the Society of Evidence Based Policing
• Academic representative on the College of Policing Governance Board
• Academic reference group member for the National Police Federation
• Academic reference group member for HMICFRS

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

Selected recent grants

2025-2027: (PI) UKRI Secondary Data Analysis Funding Secondary Analysis of Operation Soteria Data: Officer learning, development and wellbeing (£212,000).

2024-2025: (PI) Home Office Evaluation of the Serious Sexual Assault Investigator Development Programme (£200,000) to review the impact of the new learning programme for officers who investigate rape and sexual offending through a quasi-experimental approach.

January-April 2025: (PI) Avon and Somerset Police Operation Bright Light: Applying the methodology of Operation Soteria to explore the learning and development and wellbeing of officers who respond to and investigate domestic abuse (£50,000).

2021-2024: (PI) Home Office Operation Soteria – Officer learning and development and wellbeing (£2.6 million).

2021-2023: (PI) Durham Constabulary Uplift Programme. Extending the evidence base on tutor constables/assessment of new officers and the impact of younger in service/age officers (£230,000).

Selected recent publications

Williams, E., Norman, J. and Barrow Grint, K. (forthcoming) ‘Policing Vulnerability: Attrition, rape and domestic abuse’. In: Pepper, I. and McGrath, R. (Eds.) (forthcoming) Introduction to Professional Policing Second Edition: Examining the Evidence Base. Abingdon: Routledge.

Fenton-O’Creevy, M., Bowles, B., Maguire, L. and Williams, E. (2024) ‘Uncomfortable knowledge, the production of ignorance, and the trustworthiness of UK policing’, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 18. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paae117

Sondhi, A., Harding, R. and Williams, E. (2024) ‘Segmenting the Rape and Serious Sexual Offence (RASSO) investigator workforce: implications for wellbeing and burnout’, Police Practice and Research. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2024.2426172

Harding, R. Maguire, L. and Williams, E. (2024) 'Competing concepts of public value and legitimacy in the police: Organizational challenges in the investigation of rape and serious sexual offences,' International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 76. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2023.100646

Foley, J., Hassett, A. and Williams, E. (2024) '‘It’s why you get up in the morning’. A Straussian grounded theory study of coping in police officers who investigate rape and child abuse', The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles, 97(4).

Stevens, A. Hendrie, N. Bacon, M. Parrott, S. Monaghan, M., Williams, E. Lewer, D., Moore, A., Berlin, J., Cunliffe, J. and Quinton, P. (2023) 'Evaluating police drug diversion in England: protocol for a realist evaluation,' Health & Justice, 11(1), pp. 46-49.

Sondhi, A., Harding, R., Maguire, L. and Williams, E. (2023) ‘Understanding Factors Associated with Burnout Symptoms amongst Investigators working on Rape and Serious Sexual Offence (RASSO) investigations in England and Wales’, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 17. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paad020

Sondhi, A. and Williams, E. (2023) ‘A systematic mapping of public health primary prevention interventions with relevance for policing’, International Journal of Police Science & Management, 25(2), pp. 148-156.

Foley, J. Hassett, A., Williams, E. et al. (2023) ''Holding onto trauma?’ The prevalence and predictors of PTSD, anxiety and depression in police officers working with child abuse, rape and sexual exploitation victims', The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles, 97(2). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X231183638

Williams, E., Norman, J., Ward, R. and Harding, R. (2022) ‘Linking Professionalism, Learning and Wellbeing in the Context of Rape Investigation: Early Findings from Project Bluestone’, International Criminology, 2(3), pp. 262-275.

Foley, J., Hassett, A. and Williams, E. (2022) ‘“Getting on with the job”: A systematised literature review of secondary trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in policing within the United Kingdom (UK)’, The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles, 95(1), pp. 224-252.

Williams, E. and Sondhi, A. (2022) 'A Narrative Review of the Literature on the Recruitment of Younger Police Officers in Age and in Service: What Are the Implications for the Police in England and Wales?' Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 16(4), pp. 648-662.

Charman, S. and Williams, E. (2021) 'Accessing justice: The impact of discretion, ‘deservedness’ and distributive justice on the equitable allocation of policing resources', Criminology & Criminal Justice, 22(3), pp. 404-422.

Williams, E. Norman, J. and Boag-Munroe, F. (2021) ‘Direct Entry: Fairness, resilience and the impact on regular cops’, International Journal of Law and Criminal Justice, 64, pp. 100-121.

Williams, E., Norman, J. and Rowe, M. (2019) ‘The Police Education Qualification Framework: A Professional Agenda or Building Professionals?’ Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, 20(3), pp. 259-272.

Williams, E., Norman, J. and Sondhi, A. (2019) ‘Understanding Risks: Practitioner’s Perceptions of the Lottery of Mental Healthcare Available for Detainees in Custody’, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 13(4), pp. 441–454.

Scott, S. and Williams, E. (2019) ‘Change to Police Leadership: The legitimisation and the challenges of direct entry’. In: Ramshaw, P., Silvestri, M. and Simpson, M. (Eds.) (2019) Police Leadership. Changing Landscapes. London: Palgrave (50 per cent contribution).

Williams, E. and Cockcroft, T. (2019) ‘Knowledge wars, organisational justice and competing knowledge paradigms in British policing’. In: Mitchell, R. and Huey, L. (Eds.) (2019) Evidence Based Policing. Bristol: Policy Press.

Williams, E., Norman, J. and Nixon, K. (2018) 'Violence against Women: Public health or law enforcement problem or both?', International Journal of Police Science and Management 20(3), pp. 196-206.

Sondhi, A. and Williams, E. (2018) ‘Patient perspectives of being detained under section 136 of the Mental Health Act: Findings from a qualitative study in London’, Medicine, Science, and the Law, 58(3), pp. 159–167.

Hesketh, I. and Williams, E. (2017) 'A New Canteen Culture: The Potential to Use Social Media as Evidence in Policing', Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 11(3), pp. 346–355.

Horvath, M. A. H., Tong, S. and Williams, E. (2011) 'Critical issues in rape investigation: an overview of reform in England and Wales', The Journal of Criminal Justice Research, 1(2).

Recent presentations and conferences

Williams, E. (2024) 'Policing and wellbeing amongst officers who investigate sexual offences', London City Forum event.

Williams, E. (2024) ‘The Achievement of Credibility in Rape Investigations: Confirming old norms’, Canterbury Centre for Policing Research Policing Futures conference. The Policy Press ‘best paper of conference’ award, voted for by attendees.

Williams, E. (2023) ‘Enabling Change: The move from tokenistic to specialist learning for officers who investigate rape and sexual offences’, European Society of Criminology Conference.

Williams, E. (2023) ‘Organizational Responsibility: Enabling from the inside’, Law Enforcement and Public Health Conference (Sweden).

Williams, E. (2023) ‘Vulnerability and Learning’, Vulnerability Knowledge and Police Practice Conference.

Media experience

Social media

Lead academic advisor to the Twitter group #wecops team, which seeks to disseminate academic and police learning via social media. The group aims to impact on knowledge exchange and mobilising knowledge into practice within policing.