Browsing by Author "Dando, C."

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    Perceptions of Psychological Coercion and Human Trafficking in the West Midlands of England: Beginning to Know the Unknown
    (Public Library of Science, 2016-05-05) Dando, C.; Walsh, D.; Brierley, R
    Modern slavery is less overt than historical state-sanctioned slavery because psychological abuse is typically used to recruit and then control victims. The recent UK Draft Modern Slavery Bill, and current UK government anti-slavery strategy relies heavily on a shared understanding and public cooperation to tackle this crime. Yet, UK research investigating public understanding of modern slavery is elusive. We report community survey data from 682 residents of the Midlands of England, where modern slavery is known to occur, concerning their understanding of nonphysical coercion and human trafficking (one particular form of modern slavery). Analysis of quantitative data and themed categorization of qualitative data revealed a mismatch between theoretical frameworks and understanding of psychological coercion, and misconceptions concerning the nature of human trafficking. Many respondents did not understand psychological coercion, believed that human trafficking did not affect them, and confused trafficking with immigration. The public are one of the most influential interest groups, but only if well informed and motivated towards positive action. Our findings suggest the need for strategically targeted public knowledge exchange concerning this crime.
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    Triage Decision-Making by Welfare Fraud Investigators
    (Elsevier, 2018-03-01) Dando, C.; Walsh, D.; Ormerod, Thomas
    Two studies explored triage decision-making in a welfare fraud investigation, specifically decisions concerning what evidence to collect when deciding whether to pursue a case to prosecution or to issue a warning only. An observational study revealed that triage decisions appear to be determined by subjective estimates of the ease of evidence collection and that these estimates are influenced by complexity of mapping evidence onto fraud types. This hypothesis was explored in an experimental study of investigators, managers, and students choosing evidence to inform triage decisions for cases that varied according to relevance and complexity. Student selections were unaffected by the nature of the case. In contrast, with a simple fraud case, investigators and managers tended to select evidence to support a prosecution decision, but with complex fraud they selected evidence that supported comparative evaluation of prosecution and warning decisions. The results demonstrate flexible expertise in choosing what evidence to sample.