Detective Work in England & Wales in Comparative Perspective: a report for the National Police Chiefs Councils’ Recruitment, Retention and Wellbeing of Investigators Working Group

James, A ORCID: 0000-0001-5460-406X, Cox, C and Carr, R (2025) Detective Work in England & Wales in Comparative Perspective: a report for the National Police Chiefs Councils’ Recruitment, Retention and Wellbeing of Investigators Working Group. Technical Report. Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies, LJMU.

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Abstract

• We examined the experiences of detectives in England & Wales, drawing on 45 qualitative interviews across five police forces, alongside comparative material from 14 Finnish and 24 Danish detectives.
• Across all three jurisdictions, investigators described conditions of overload, digital evidence backlogs, and threats to wellbeing. Yet, the ways in which these pressures were mediated diverged sharply.
• In England & Wales, detectives carried excessive caseloads with little organisational protection, leaving resilience to individuals and informal peer solidarity.
• In Finland, detectives also faced overwhelming 'piles' of cases, but cultural resources of compassion and atmosphere provided collective resilience, making workloads more bearable.
• In Denmark, particularly in the National Special Crime Unit, detectives operated with formal organisational protections, including caseload caps, mandatory supervision, embedded psychological support. The National Police employ coordinators who ensure that responsibility for backlog and delay is absorbed institutionally rather than by individual investigators.
• Placed in comparative perspective, these findings highlight three distinct models of detective resilience: one centred on individual endurance, one grounded in occupational culture, and one institutionalised through organisational structures.
• The English & Welsh case demonstrates the risks of leaving resilience to individuals alone, while the Finnish and Danish experiences suggest alternative pathways for sustaining detective work under strain.

Item Type:	Monograph (Technical Report)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies (LCAPS); case study; detective culture; detective work; international comparison
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology K Law > K Law (General) K Law > KD England and Wales H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology > HV7231 Criminal Justice Administrations H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology > HV7231 Criminal Justice Administrations > HV7551 Police. Detectives. Constabulary
Divisions:	Law and Justice Studies
Publisher:	Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies
Date of acceptance:	16 October 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access:	20 October 2025
Date Deposited:	20 Oct 2025 11:16
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2025 11:16
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27380

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