MSc Policing and Data Analytics

University of Essex

Police play a crucial role in society, and policing has a direct impact on the lives, freedoms and security of citizens. Police rely increasingly on evidence and research to design interventions, allocate resources, and evaluate their work. This programme examines key challenges in contemporary policing and provides students with strong quantitative analysis skills to analyse policing. Students will have the opportunity to gain an advanced understanding of how policing works in and tries to adapt to our contemporary world.Students will address cutting-edge critical, conceptual and theoretical analyses of policing, human rights, privacy and surveillance studies, domestic violence, hate crime, and gender-based violence. They will gain an applied understanding of different research methods and concepts including randomised control trials, the use of ‘R’ and conceptualisations of causality, allowing them to design and critically analyse approaches to gathering evidence. They will have the opportunity to hear from police themselves about how they respond to these challenges. They will be taught by our academic experts who have worked closely with police as well as campaigning for police reform to address brutality, abuse and misconduct. The module equips students with the necessary skills to evaluate the current academic and policy literature on policing and develop a critical understanding of key topics in policing.Conceptualising CausalityRandomised Controlled TrialsThe use of RInternal and External ValidityBetween- and Within-subjects DesignsDifference in Differences Designs ·Regression Discontinuity DesignsCybercrime, the dark net, policing the cybersphereCop culture through historyAI, big tech, and digital policingPolicing contested crimes: hate, crimes of abuse, and political protest.Globalisation and crimeVulnerability, harm and protecting the publicPolice in the media and popular cultureInternational policing and bordersCrime in the cityPolice ethicsGender, race, and crimeHuman rights

Sociology and Criminology