As international criminal gangs increasingly target online dating and social networking sites, as a means of extorting money from unwary victims, research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) suggests that new strategies are needed for tackling the crime and supporting its victims.

As public sector prisons move towards the thin staffing level model of profit-making institutions, with their high turnover of personnel who are less connected to their occupation, a study funded by the ESRC warns of a potentially detrimental impact on prison quality.

Urban conflict is nothing new in cities like Belfast, Jerusalem and major cities in the Middle East. An international conference at Queens’s University in Belfast explores how cities have been shaped by ethnic, religious and national conflicts.

New research from the Institute for Criminal Policy Research at King's College, London, examines whether the police and the youth justice system treat young people from different ethnic groups in different ways.

Following recent media reports of racial strife and gangs in high security prisons in the UK, a new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) paints a more encouraging - if sometimes contradictory - picture of multicultural prison life.