Abstract
The special issue “Project Bluestone: Improving the Police Response to Rape and Serious Sexual Offending in the United Kingdom” provides the first overview in the academic literature to an ambitious programme of work to transform police responses to rape and serious sexual offending in the United Kingdom. This editorial provides contextual background to the project along with an overview of its constituent parts. The focus of the papers in this special issue are on providing the underpinning framework for the project and on some early findings. The special issue includes eight papers, starting with one that describes the development of the underpinning framework. Five papers then provide early findings on various aspects of the work from Phase 1 of the project which ran from January to April 2021 in Avon and Somerset Constabulary alongside a systematic literature review on specialism in the policing of rape and serious sexual offending. The penultimate paper is based on a conversation between the lead academic and policing practitioner about the collaborative approach taken by the project and the eighth paper presents a commentary on the academic research that was undertaken for this project by a critical friend. Ultimately, we advocate for a whole systems approach. For this to be possible it is essential that there is significant long-term commitment of resourcing, high-level buy in, and willingness from the police, the wider criminal justice system, politicians, and the general public to accept that radical change is needed on every level to improve our response to rape and serious sexual offences.
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