INVESTIGATING THE SOCIAL PROPERTY OF SENSE-MAKING AS A SOURCE OF NOVEL APPROACHES TO SERIOUS AND ORGANISED CRIME

Purpose Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) is a scourge upon society, has significant impact on the UK economy and is classified as a chronic risk by the UK Government. Repeated reviews, both governmental and independent, observe that current approaches to SOC are ineffective, divergent, and that novel approaches are required. My research explores new territory by investigating the social property of sense-making as a source of novel approaches to SOC. It identifies practical and achievable opportunities to make more of existing police capability to understand, and so combat, SOC. Design My research uses qualitative methods of inquiry and is primarily situated within a constructivist-interpretivist paradigm but extends to include elements of post-modernism, pragmatism and critical realism. This lightly pluralist philosophical position acknowledges the role of positional power in determining reality and bounding understanding in the police. It further ensures that my research supports the development of practical approaches to real world issues and recognises the influence of organisational history in the interpretation of information and creation of knowledge. My research data is drawn from 30 semi-structured interviews, supported by 24 months of passive observation and informal conversation. I applied Template Analysis to the data, generating 1025 individually coded meaning elements to support three thematically focused studies. Findings My research context is a UK Police Force under considerable pressure in terms of finances, the capacity of its people, and the capabilities it can deploy. I found that a lack of social inclusion in sense-making has resulted in different policing teams making their own, different, exclusive, even anti-social sense of the world, leading to a disconnected, piecemeal, response to SOC. However, my research also identifies examples of socially inclusive sense-making and their contribution to successful outcomes against SOC. These were often the result of local initiative, dependent upon individual effort, but their presence demonstrates what can be achieved within existing capabilities. Originality Research Implications My research challenges orthodox views of the social property of sense-making, opening a door to further research into this under-researched topic. It breaks new ground in adopting concepts from creativity theory to recast the social property as more complex and more subject to environmental influences than previously thought. It includes a model, developed using my findings, for assessing social inclusion in sense-making within organisations. Practical Implications I also signpost opportunities for the police to make more of existing capabilities, highlighting the potential of small rather than seismic or resource intensive changes. From the outset my research has had practitioner need in mind, it provides an empirical basis for designing future practice and for supporting the development of practical and novel approaches to SOC.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

PhD

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

De Montfort University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Mountford, Timothy

Licence

• https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstreams/699f9e29-3241-4da9-aff9-1628293681f1/download