Work in progress

Current research projects

• The Impact of Stop and Search on Youth Mental Health and Crime Involvement

  • Research team:
    • Principal Investigator: Thiago R. Oliveira
    • Co-investigators: Arabella Kyprianides (UCL) and Ben Bradford (UCL)
    • Advisor: Paul Quinton (College of Policing)
  • Funder: Youth Endownment Fund
    • £196,503.35
    • September 2025 — March 2027

• Stop and Search and the Reproduction of Social Inequality

  • Research team:
    • Principal Investigator: Thiago R. Oliveira
    • External Partner: Paul Quinton (College of Policing)
  • Funder: ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre
    • £23,226.24
    • May 2025 — April 2026

• Comparing Long-term Effects of Police Stops in Adolescence across Generations in London

  • Research team:
    • Principal Investigator: Thiago R. Oliveira
    • External Partner: Paul Quinton (College of Policing)
  • Funder: UCL Centre for Global City Policing
    • £9,957.75
    • May 2025 — December 2027

Working papers

• Legal cynicism and the enduring legacy of abusive policing

  Thiago R. Oliveira, David S. Kirk, Charles C. Lanfear, & Robert J. Sampson

  See abstract

  This article advances an analytical model of legal cynicism by examining the enduring legacy of abusive policing practices within neighborhoods across decades. We assess the extent to which the over-policing of neighborhoods fosters cynicism of legal norms and institutions, which in turn contributes to the persistence of violence. We also specify theoretical macro-micro mechanisms and suggest that legal cynicism can operate both as a place-oriented, cultural frame and a person-oriented, cognitive frame. By linking data on civilian complaints about police use-of-force and abuse filed against Chicago Police Department officers from 1991 to 2016 with community and longitudinal survey data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, as well as police-recorded crimes and the US Census, we test different mechanisms through which over-policing shapes violence. First, at the neighborhood level, we show that concentrations of complaints about over-policing are associated with subsequent increases in violent crime, and that a neighborhood culture of cynicism about police capacity and intentions mediates these effects. Second, at the individual level, we show that cumulative neighborhood exposure to over-policing is associated with criminal offending, and that adolescents growing up in over-policed neighborhoods develop persistent cynicism about collective moral rules, lasting into adulthood up to twenty years later. We therefore advance a theoretical framework using novel data and advanced statistical methods to provide key insights into the enduring legacy of abusive policing for legal cynicism and the reproduction of violence.

  Pregistration available at OSF Registries https://osf.io/xgeyn.

• Reciprocal relationships, reverse causality, and temporal ordering: Testing theories with cross-lagged panel models

  Charles C. Lanfear & Thiago R. Oliveira

  See abstract

• Cold calculations: How conflict characteristics shape external support in armed conflicts

  Celine Giese & Thiago R. Oliveira

  See abstract

• Cumulative injustice: Exposure to unjust policing across the life course

  Thiago R. Oliveira, Jonathan Jackson, & David S. Kirk

  See abstract

• Racialized policing in England: Stop and search and the neighborhood context of police misconduct and use-of-force

  Amal Ali & Thiago R. Oliveira

  See abstract