Women, Ethnicity and Trustworthiness Towards the Metropolitan Police Service.

By Eleanor Lawrence,

London Metropolitan University.

Trust in the Metropolitan Police Service (the Met) has significantly declined in recent years. The Met has lost the public's trust because of a number of high-profile incidents, see the murder of Sarah Everard, accusations of racial profiling as well as highly publicised homophobic, racist, and misogynistic messages between police officers on WhatsApp (Akram, 2022). The murder of Sarah Everard and other high-profile media reports on the Met Police have had a unique impact on women (Simon et al, 2021). As supported by the quantitative work of Simon et al (2021), women are indeed significantly impacted by the Met's failings. Other literature sources have collected data on both genders but haven't emphasised the greater failure in women's trust. This dissertation has identified the absence of qualitative data as a reason for the lack of in-depth understanding of women's trust towards the Met Police. Therefore, this research project fills this gap by using qualitative interviews with female students in London to gather answers to research questions based on women, ethnicity, and trustworthiness. The software NVivo helped in analysing the data gathered in this research project, which produced two themes: 'Ramifications of Police Failings', and 'Feelings of Influence'. Further research is needed to to investigate the female perspective specifically regarding how the Met can change as to better promote public confidence. This study recommends that the Met can regain trust and legitimacy by understanding women's experiences and thoughts on the organisation.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8353257

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Russian Organised Crime and its Connection with the Russian State.

By Liudmila Rosca,

London Metropolitan University.

This thesis seeks to shift the research focus from the characteristics and impact of criminal organisations to the societal factors that facilitate their emergence and growth. In Russia, criminal organisations comprised of state officials, businesspeople, and law enforcement members have successfully obtained financial and economic gains. Law enforcement and government officials were tasked with combating organised crime, but they often benefited from these criminal activities and forced illicit businesses to submit to their monitoring. To understand the Russian Mafia's success, one must investigate its background and the conditions that allowed it to thrive in the state.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8371323

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Rape Culture in the Finnish Criminal Justice System.

By Tea Österlund,

London Metropolitan University.

In recent years, western criminal justice systems have been criticised for their problematic handling of rape cases. Equally, there has been a rising demand from academic circles for these systems to be fundamentally reformed to eliminate attitudes and legislation that perpetuates rape culture. This research project serves as a pilot study aiming to assess the prevalence of rape culture in the Finnish legal system and to explore the potential impact of recent Finnish sex crime legislation. The methodology used in this study is desk-based research. By applying this method, the study juxtaposes precedents from both the Finnish and Swedish Supreme Courts. Sweden was chosen for this comparative analysis because of the similarities between the two countries' criminal justice systems and legislative structures. Moreover, both countries have recently reformed their sex crime legislation.

This project arrives at two main findings. Firstly, the study argues that the Finnish legislative system has contributed negatively to rape culture by legally defining rape through violence or the threat of it. Secondly, the most significant change in recent Swedish sex crime legislation, in terms of challenging rape culture, was the recognition of 'negligent rape'. The project posits that while efforts have been made to eliminate rape culture from the Finnish legal system, there remains room for improvement. Similar to Sweden, the Finnish system could more actively challenge rape culture by criminalising 'negligent rape'. As this research project serves as a pilot study, it provides a foundation for further exploration into the effectiveness of reforms.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8415078

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