John Topping

Source: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/john-topping/ Parent: https://www.qub.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/criminology-ba-m900/

View Scopus Profile

John Topping

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6129-715X

Phone+44 (0)28 9097 3630
EmailJ.Topping@qub.ac.uk
Room 01.006 - 1 College Park East

United Kingdom

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

Police, policing, police reform, police accountability crime, criminology, restorative justice,

2008Research output 2008: 2Research output 2010: 1Research output 2012: 3Research output 2013: 3Research output 2014: 3Research output 2015: 8Research output 2016: 4Research output 2018: 6Research output 2019: 6Research output 2020: 3Research output 2021: 4Research output 2022: 4Research output 2023: 1Research output 2024: 3Research output 2025: 22025

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Particulars

Appointed by the Justice Minister as Independent Expert Advisor to the Reviewer of the Northern Ireland Policing Board (2024), see: https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/news/long-launches-review-northern-ireland-policing-board

Review published by the Minister for Justice on 30th January 2025: https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/news/minister-long-receives-policing-board-independent-review available here: https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2025-01/final-report-nipb-jan.pdf

Appointed the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) stop and search working group regarding children and young people (2021)

Formerly on the Executive of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) 2018 - 2023

John has over 15 years cumulative experience beyond academia working in the voluntary/community, statutory and NGOs sector in Northern Ireland covering human rights, ex-offenders, and community-based restorative justice.

He has formerly been the Programme Director for Criminology within QUB and between 2020-2023 was the Director of Undergraudate Education for SSESW.

Research Interests

John is a senior lecturer in criminology in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, with research specialising in the area of policing.

To date, he has worked on a variety of research, consultancy and advisory roles with all the major policing institutions in Northern Ireland. This includes experience of engaging and working with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Policing Board, and the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern.

In addition, he has also acted as an Independent member of the Belfast Policing and Community Safety Partnership.

John has published widely in the area of policing, with particular focus on police stop and search powers, community policing, police reform, public order policing and paramilitarism.

Previous Grant Successes:

Awarded £30,000 CI on award from the NI Community Relations Council as part of multi-disciplinary team to publish the Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring Report

Awarded £74,000 as PIfrom British Academy Advanced Newton Fellowship Fund to collaborate with Federal University Sao Paolo, Brazil on police reform

CI on EU COST Networking Grant CA17102 'Police Stops' involving 45 parnters across EU universities exploring the use of police 'stop and search' powers (c.€400,000).

Awarded £60,306 co-investigator as part of successful multidisciplinary Ulster University team on EU HORIZON 2020 GAP ‘Gaming for Peace’ bid lead by Trinity College, Dublin (Jan. 2016)

Awarded £165,000 co-investigator as part of successful multidisciplinary University of Ulster team on EU HORIZON 2020 FCT10 bid worth total of 4.9m Euros (June 2015)

Awarded £15,000 consultancy from INTERCOMM IRELAND for examining engagement of young people with PSNI (December 2014)

Awarded £2850 consultancy from Belfast City Council Community Safety Unit to design a survey tool for the Belfast Policing and Community Safety Partnership for policing and community safety issues (March 2014)

Awarded £10,000 across two tenders from the Northern Ireland Policing Board to examine issues related to confidence in Police Service of Northern Ireland: "The key drivers of public confidence in policing in NI" and "The influence of politicians, community leaders and the media has on confidence in the police in NI" (February 2014)

Awarded £2935.50 consultancy from Police Service of Northern Ireland for supervising intra-organisational research by police officers (May 2014)

Principle Investigator: Awarded £20,000 tender from the Police Service of Northern to research public order policing (joint bid with Institute for Conflict Research) (April 2012)

Co - Investigator: Awarded £6000 tender to examine community safety policy and the Policing Community Safety Partnerships from Belfast Conflict Resolution Consortium (September 2011)

Awarded £4500 tender/teaching contract from PSNI to deliver two day criminology short course for senior PSNI officers: ‘Enhancing Policing: A Criminology of Crime and Society’ (PUP107) (March 2012)

Keywords

H Social Sciences (General)
criminology
crime
policing
police reform
security governance
stop and search
police accountability
peace process
peace building
restorative justice

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics where John Topping is active. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

6 Similar Profiles
UK Social Sciences
Policing Social Sciences
Police Social Sciences
Stop and Search Social Sciences
Perspective Social Sciences
Service Industries Social Sciences
Neighborhood Social Sciences
Higher Education Institution Social Sciences

View full fingerprint

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or Select a country/territory from the list\

Dive into details

Select a country/territory to view shared publications and projects

Explore network further

Research output

9 Commissioned report
6 Article
2 Other report
2 Chapter (peer-reviewed)
8 More
4 Digital or Visual Products
3 Chapter
2 Conference contribution
2 Discussion paper
1 Other contribution to conference
1 Paper
1 Book/Film/Article review
1 Featured article
1 Other contribution
Independent review of the Northern Ireland Policing Board Report

Topping, J. & Sweeney, P., 30 Jan 2025, Belfast: Department of Justice (Northern Ireland). 66 p.

Research output: Book/Report › Commissioned report

Open Access

File

UK
Justice
Public Service
Police
Public Utilities

151 Downloads (Pure) - ### Twenty-five years on the boundary between state and community: revisiting the ‘Impossibility’ of restorative justice and security informalism

Topping, J., Albert, A. & Martin, R., 09 Aug 2025, In: Policing & Society. 35, 7, p. 967-982 16 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Open Access

File

Justice
UK
Community-Based
Ownership
Authors

1 Citation (Scopus)

50 Downloads (Pure) - ### Dimension Two - The sense of safety

Topping, J. & Martin, R., 05 Jan 2024, Northern Ireland peace monitoring report number six. Belfast: Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, p. 67-108

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

Open Access

File

UK
Crime
Complexities
Assessment
Policing

237 Downloads (Pure) - ### Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring Report Number Six

Topping, J., Martin, R., Gray, A. M., Hamilton, J., Devine, P., Kelly, G., Lynn, B. & Hetherington, G., 05 Jan 2024, 6 ed. Belfast: Northern Ireland Community Relations Council. 184 p.

Research output: Book/Report › Commissioned report

Open Access

File

Journey
Belfast
Tools
Research
Reading

491 Downloads (Pure) - ### Response to the proposed amendments of the Police and Criminal Evidence (NI) Order 1989 Code of Practice A - Stop and Search

Topping, J., 16 Oct 2024, 10 p.

Research output: Working paper › Discussion paper

Open Access

File

26 Downloads (Pure)

View all 53 research outputs

Prizes

Queen's Student Union Education Awards 2018 - Nomination

Topping, J. (Recipient), 29 Mar 2018

Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)

Education
Queen
Awards
Student Union
Queen's Student Union Education Awards 2018 - Winner

Topping, J. (Recipient), 18 Apr 2018

Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)

File

Feedback System

Activities

10 Invited talk
6 Participation in conference
4 Participation in workshop, seminar, course
3 Oral presentation
13 More
5 Invited or keynote talk at national or international conference
5 Public lecture/debate/seminar
3 Participation in Festival/Exhibition
2 Contribution to the work of national or international committees and working groups
2 Work on advisory panel to industry or government or non-government organisation
2 Hosting of external, non-academic visitor
2 Membership of public/government advisory/policy group or panel
1 Joint or sponsored appointments or secondments with industry or commerce
1 UG external examination
1 Membership of network
1 Research and Teaching at External Organisation
Independent Expert Advisor

Topping, J. (Reviewer)

12 Oct 2024

Activity: Consultancy types › Work on advisory panel to industry or government or non-government organisation - ### 20 Year of Police Accountability in Northern Ireland: The Office of the Police Ombudsman

Topping, J. (Keynote speaker)

23 Mar 2023

Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk - ### Lessons Learned from the Northern Ireland Peace Process Peace

Topping, J. (Invited speaker)

19 Oct 2022

Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference - ### Mitchell Conversations Episode 8 Dr John Topping

Topping, J. (Advisor)

25 Mar 2022

Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar - ### A comparative discussion on police reform after George Floyd: Where do we go from here?

Corda, A. (Organiser), Phelps, M. S. (Invited speaker), Loader, I. (Invited speaker), Cobbina-Dungy, J. (Invited speaker) & Topping, J. (Invited speaker)

27 Jan 2022

Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course

View all 69 activities