I wasn’t expecting walking down the middle of the newly pedestrianised Oxford Street to feel so lovely (never a word I’ve used for Oxford St before!). It instantly feels like something that should have been done years ago.

Well done, @MayorofLondon, for finally getting it done.

In terms of business, this is what part of the newly pedestrianised section looks like right now. And that’s before they’ve done any of the landscaping works to make it more appealing to pedestrians, and before the Christmas shopping season gets fully going.

Since apparently you only believe AI, try this:

Of 812 articles in the British Journal of Criminology (2014–2024), only 0.2% (two articles in 11 years!) used experimental/quasi-experimental methods.
(Quasi-)experiments aren't good for everything, but is UK crim research really using the right methods?

doi.org/10.1007/s11292…

It’s about 70 buses per hour, not 300. TfL have released a map of where the buses will stop once the pedestrianisation happens.

Adjusted for inflation, fuel duty is currently at its lowest since March 1993.

All of those cities have redeveloped disused docks/wharves into mixed-use zones. Salford Quays, Clyde Waterfront Regeneration and Brindleyplace, for example.

This was the view from Hyde Park. It was brilliant to watch and phone pictures don’t do it justice.

This seems like a pretty open-and-shut case of research misconduct. Certainly something we’d fail an undergraduate student for doing.

I work in London, I spend a lot of time researching crime in London, and I’ve been a police officer in London. Here’s a picture I took on an evening walk in Hackney recently.

I suspect you’ve never even been to London, so I’m pressing the ‘mute’ button now.

I've been seeing this map all week across social media, but quite a few things about it are wrong (no Southwark, two Bexleys) that suggest it's been AI generated without checking the details.

So I created a version based on the actual census data:

The Epilepsy Society says ‘brainstorming’ is fine

epilepsysociety.org.uk/about-epilepsy…

Amazing how brazen the boats are …

A really useful framework for police leaders to think through the issues associated with adopting a new technology, written by my colleagues Shane Johnson and Kate Bowers.

More detail in this paper: doi.org/10.1111/1467-9…

You want to go back to a London where tens of thousands of people lived in slums like this? This picture is from 1934.

Loads of interesting findings in a new report on how police (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿/🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿) spend their time, including that police spend more time investigating violent crime than any other crime type, and they spend almost no time investigating people's social-media posts.

Some other highlights …

I know that in my own field, German researchers are less likely to make sure their work is open access than those in Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, etc.

German researchers aren’t as bad at open access as those from the US, though!

And in Nottingham itself

All within an hour of Nottingham.

Today mark‘s the 200th anniversary of the founding of UCL, London’s first university.

Apparently, right from the start UCL was looked down on by some for being too egalitarian, because we admitted (male) students regardless of religion or background!

He’s referring to the homicide rate *per million people* in England and Wales versus the same rate per million people in the United States, so the difference in population is already taken into account.

The homicide rate in the US is much higher than in the UK:

Gang-related homicides are often linked to on-going disputes, happen during feuds or brawls, or are committed in the course of the offender committing another crime.

Homicide is often made more likely by 'enhancers' such as drugs, alcohol, mental health or the involvement of street gangs. This thread summarises what we know about factors that make homicide more likely.

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Some ethnic groups were at much higher risk from domestic homicide than others. While a majority of victims of domestic homicide were White women, Black men and women as well as Asian women had higher homicide rates per million people.

This is the sixth thread in a series of threads about homicide in England and Wales.

All the threads: lesscrime.info/post/homicide-…

Full report: library.college.police.uk/docs/Patterns-…

The most-common victim of homicide a young man killed during a brawl. But what about child homicide, elder abuse and domestic abuse? This thread summarises what we know about homicide vulnerability for those specific groups in society.

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While female victims were most likely to be killed in a dwelling at almost all ages, male victims between 10 and 40 were more likely to be killed in a public place.

A majority of homicides occurred in homes, especially for female victims: 78% of female victims were killed in a dwelling, compared to 41% of male victims.

Almost all homicides in dwellings were committed by someone the victim knew.

Homicides are also concentrated in areas with high levels of deprivation: a quarter of all homicides occurred in the 11% of most-deprived neighbourhoods in England.

Homicide is also heavily concentrated in a few neighbourhoods.

For example, homicide in London is heavily concentrated in a small number of areas. But it's worth noting that not all of those areas are in the inner city where you might expect.

Homicide is heavily concentrated in a few local-authority areas, but not not always those you might think. Some London boroughs have high homicide rates, but the highest rates are in deprived coastal areas such as Boston and Blackpool.

While homicides of men are most concentrated in urban police-force areas such as Cleveland and the West Midlands, homicides of women are more concentrated in suburban and rural police-force areas such as Dyfed-Powys, Warwickshire and Norfolk.

Half of all homicides occur in six police-force areas: Metropolitan Police, Greater Manchester, West Midlands, Essex, West Yorkshire, and Thames Valley. But the highest homicides per million people were in the Cleveland and Greater Manchester force areas.

This thread is the fifth in a series of threads about homicide in England and Wales.

All the threads: lesscrime.info/post/homicide-…

Full report: library.college.police.uk/docs/Patterns-…

Homicide (like all types of crime) is heavily concentrated in a small number of places – half of all homicides in England and Wales happen in six police-force areas. But where are different types of homicide most concentrated?

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Homicide methods are often different depending on circumstances. Knives are more-often used in domestic homicides and homicides of male adolescent victims, while strangulation is more common in homicides of female victims.

Young male victims of homicide were particularly likely to be killed with a sharp instrument, while older male victims were more-often killed by hitting or kicking. Female victims were more likely than male victims to be killed by strangulation or with a blunt object.

And (because people sometimes suggest this), the low rate of firearms homicides in England and Wales isn't explained by us having more knife homicides: Australia, Canada and the US have similar knife-homicide rates as us, but we have much lower firearms-homicide rates.

Firearms homicides in England and Wales are very rare, with about 30 people fatally shot each year. That's lower than the rate of firearms homicides in most other European countries, Australia and Canada. It's also vastly lower than in the United States.

Most homicides in England and Wales were committed with sharp instruments (mostly knives) or without weapons. Male victims were more likely to be killed by hitting, kicking etc, shooting, or sharp instrument; female victims by strangulation or arson/burning.

This thread is the fourth in a series of threads about homicide in England and Wales.

All the threads: lesscrime.info/post/homicide-…

Full report: library.college.police.uk/docs/Patterns-…

Victims were also more likely to be killed by someone of the same ethnicity as them. This wasn't driven solely by suspects and victims knowing one another: victims killed by strangers were also more likely to be killed by someone of the same ethnicity.

Of all female victims of homicide, 48% were killed by a current or former partner, compared to only 4% of male victims.

Conversely, 32% of male victims were killed by strangers, compared to 12% of female victims.

Most homicide offenders are White (unsurprisingly since 82% of people in England and Wales define themselves as White) but Black offenders are substantially over-represented relative to the population, especially young Black offenders.

But remember …

Most offenders were young, but not for all homicide types. Half of offenders in homicides of male victims under 25 in public places were 19 or younger (three quarters were 22 or younger), but for female victims of domestic homicide half of offenders were 40+.

Most homicide offenders are young, with half of all convicted offenders age between 13 and 26, and a quarter aged between 13 and 19.

This thread is the third in a series of threads about homicide in England and Wales.

All the threads: lesscrime.info/post/homicide-…

Full report: library.college.police.uk/docs/Patterns-…

Each year about 730 people are charged with a homicide offence in England and Wales. But who are they?

This thread summarises what we know about who commits homicides and in what circumstances.

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Other types of homicide are much rarer: only 1% of homicides had a sexual motive and only 0.2% occurred during terrorist attacks, even though those types of homicide often dominate public debates about public safety.