Dr Ben Archer

First viva anniversary 🎉

Feel really lucky to have had an enjoyable experience, although I do look like a deer in headlights in these pictures!

Public spaces protection orders and the policing of sub-criminal behaviour - Benjamin Archer, 2025 Public spaces protection orders (PSPOs) are civil powers used to regulate anti-social behaviour in England and Wales. Since their introduction in 2014, concerns...

New Open Access article published in Punishment & Society! 📢

Public Spaces Protection Orders and the Policing of Sub-Criminal Behaviour 👮

doi.org/10.1177/1462...

Travelling back from Birmingham after attending Green & Burton ASB Associates’ #ASB11 conference.

Privileged to launch the Good Practice for Implementing a PSPO guide. Thanks to my Fellowship budget, I printed 150 copies, and every delegate took one home.

Talk about research impact!

All printed and ready to be launched at #ASB11 next month!

@janinegreenasb.bsky.social

Making the long journey from Sheffield to Leeds this week, as I'm excited to be attending the Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference!

I'll be presenting in the Criminal Law and Criminal Justice stream tomorrow, 3:00–4:40 pm.

If you're around and fancy meeting up, drop me a message 😅

ASB hotspot response pilot evaluation We use some essential cookies to make this website work.

Hotspot patrols (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) to reduce anti-social behaviour (minor public incivilities) didn’t lead to any change in residents’ perception of ASB frequency. The evaluation report includes lots of useful lessons for similar programmes in future:

Although I'm on Annual Leave, I was pleased to see this in my email inbox yesterday!

Always on PSPO watch 👀 this time outside Elland Road after a stadium tour for my partner’s 30th birthday 🎁

Thrilled to speak for the first time “up the road” at the University of Sheffield, and my first time using a microphone too 🎤

It was a pleasure to present my paper this morning at the Emerging Urban Inequalities Conference hosted by @sheffieldurbanism.bsky.social!

Scrapping the Vagrancy Act won't end the criminalisation of rough sleeping The Vagrancy Act criminalising rough sleeping in England and Wales is set to be axed but homeless people could still face criminalisation.

"Repealing the Vagrancy Act 1824 is a positive step forward, but it risks being largely symbolic as rough sleepers face a growing use of other powers."

Dr Ben Archer @benjaminarcher96.bsky.social writes for @bigissue.com ⬇

www.bigissue.com/opinion/vagr...

Scrapping the Vagrancy Act won't end the criminalisation of rough sleeping

The Vagrancy Act criminalising rough sleeping in England and Wales is set to be axed but homeless people could still face criminalisation.

Scrapping the Vagrancy Act won't end the criminalisation of rough sleeping The Vagrancy Act criminalising rough sleeping in England and Wales is set to be axed but homeless people could still face criminalisation.

Many thanks to @bigissue.com for inviting me to write this opinion piece on the repeal of the Vagrancy Act 1824!

www.bigissue.com/opinion/vagr...

Now, I’m making the most of my final week out of office in sunny Fuerteventura 🌞

It was a visit that’s left me reflecting on how I can embed co-production into my future research with people experiencing street homelessness.

While I was there, I visited the Museum of Homelessness. It’s an inspiring space that’s building the UK’s national collection of homelessness, with ‘storytellers’ sharing the stories behind objects connected to those who’ve experienced homelessness, giving a platform to voices that often go unheard.

I spent part of my annual leave last week in London attending the Cowboy Carter tour 🤠 🐝

‼️ THAT’S NOT ALL

They also want to increase existing fines for Community Protection Notices (CPNs) and Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) from £100 to £500

📈UK homelessness figures have risen dramatically since 2014 – the year these laws were created!

Image of two police officers on Liberty green background. Text reads "POVERTY IS NOT A CRIME"

‼️ The Government wants to introduce even MORE powers that will punish those living in poverty – at a time of record homelessness and during a cost-of-living crisis

Here’s why EVERYONE should be concerned
🧵👇 (1/8)

We’ll be featuring papers on: • Understanding trauma through the experiences of homelessness by Alex Norton • Multidimensional trauma and the trauma-informed community in Rotherham by Rebecca Hamer • “I do think people aren’t treated equally across the board”: Public Spaces Protection Orders and people experiencing street homelessness by Dr Ben Archer

Our #PPPconf2025 Session 1a will feature these papers – book now to be involved in these discussions 🎫 💬

➡️ ppp-online.org/annual-confe...

"Sheffield Council recently introduced a Public Spaces Protection Order that will have a major effect on the lives of homeless people in the city, including bans on begging and loitering."

Really appreciate the Manifesto Club asking me to write something on this.

manifestoclub.info/sheffield-co...

Spending a sunny morning indoors was worth it for such an insightful event!

Thanks to Public Policy Exchange for having me.

Now off to get some WFG time in the sun 🌞

Sheffield’s new anti-begging order has been criticised for targeting the most vulnerable. Is it also unlawful? At the time a decision was made to introduce the controversial new PSPO, civil liberties campaigners say a legally-mandated assessment of its impact on disabled people had not been completed.

Last week, Sheffield's first Public Space Protection Order came into force.

But did @sheffcitycouncil.bsky.social properly consider whether it will disproportionately impact the city's most vulnerable people?

@sammgreg.bsky.social investigates, with insight from
@benjaminarcher96.bsky.social ⬇️

Excited to be presenting a paper in what looks to be a brilliant session on ‘Trauma and Homelessness’

We’re delighted to launch our #PPPconf2025 programme 🚀
The programme theme is Political Transitions: Continuity and Change and we look forward to hearing from a range of fantastic speakers. Book your place now!
➡️ ppp-online.org/annual-confe...

🚨 Reuse Them or Lose Them: C20's Risk List campaign 2025 is here!

From a Millennium pop music museum in Sheffield to a Bauhaus-inspired 1930s department store in Bradford, a 1970s brutalist football stand in Newcastle, to a 1980s ‘High-Tech Nissen hut in London.

c20society.org.uk/buildings-at...

‘It’s unjust’: charity fights to save UK’s at-risk modern buildings Millennium-era buildings – including Sheffield’s ‘kettle building’ – among a number of landmarks facing demolition

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

If anyone in Sheffield comes across a PSPO sign, let me know - I walked up The Moor yesterday and didn't spot any!

www.sheffield.gov.uk/pollution-nu...

Suited and booted last month for the Law Ball 🪩 #35mm

Sheffield's Public Spaces Protection Order – with prohibitions on alcohol consumption, begging, loitering, drug use, and urination/defecation – is confirmed to become active on Monday, April 7th:

www.sheffield.gov.uk/pollution-nu...

Unfortunately, this isn't an April Fool's joke 😕

Speaking at Public Policy Exchange’s ‘Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour’ event on April 29th – discussing PSPOs and the impact of the Crime and Policing Bill.

Looking forward to the conversation!

www.publicpolicyexchange.co.uk/event.php?ev...