Archives

New leadership role in National Criminology Network

    Dr Darren Cook

    We’re delighted to share that Dr Darren Cook, Research Fellow at VISION and the Violence & Society Centre at City St George’s UoL, has been appointed Co-Chair of the British Society of Criminology’s Policing Network.

    In this role, Darren will help lead national discussions on contemporary policing research and practice, and support collaboration across the UK’s criminology and policing research community.

    Darren will play a key role in shaping the Network as a space for thoughtful, impactful, and outward-facing policing research.

    The team plans to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration, support early-career researchers, and ensure criminological perspectives are part of broader debates around policing, technology, and justice.

    Call for Frontiers in Sociology abstracts: Enhancing data collection and integration to Reduce health harms and inequalities linked to violence

      Frontiers in Sociology is currently welcoming submissions of original research for the following research topic: Enhancing Data Collection and Integration to Reduce Health Harms and Inequalities Linked to Violence.

      This edition is guest-edited by Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa (University of Bristol and the UKPRP VISION research consortium), Dr Annie Bunce (City St. George’s, UoL and the UKPRP VISION research consortium), and Katie Smith (City St. George’s, UoL / University of Bristol).

      Submissions should focus on any of the following:

      • advancing measurement approaches which emphasise cross-sector harmonisation to better evaluate interventions, address health inequalities, and reduce violence
      • addressing any form of violence (e.g., physical, non-physical, technology-facilitated) and its impacts on health, social and economic well-being, and marginalised groups, considering intersections of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, and religion

      Research using existing datasets or primary data (quantitative or qualitative), cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary approaches (e.g., sociology, criminology, public health), and lived experience perspectives is encouraged.

      Contributions may include conceptual reviews, methodological innovations, empirical studies and systematic reviews on themes such as health inequalities, intervention effectiveness, outcome measurement, data harmonisation, and linkage strategies.

      Abstracts are due by 7th April 2025, and the deadline for manuscripts is 28th July 2025.

      For details of the different article types accepted and associated costs, please follow this link https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sociology/for-authors/publishing-fees.

      For more information and to submit an abstract or manuscript, please use the “I’m interested” link below or visit the Research Topic page here https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/67291/enhancing-data-collection-and-integration-to-reduce-health-harms-and-inequalities-linked-to-violence. 

      This special edition provides an excellent opportunity to advance knowledge in this critical area. Please do reach out and contact us if you have any questions: annie.bunce@city.ac.uk

      Photo from Adobe Photo Stock subscription

      VISION responds to Parliamentary, government & non-government consultations

        Consultation, evidence and inquiry submissions are an important part of our work at VISION. Responding to Parliamentary, government and non-government organisation consultations ensures that a wide range of opinions and voices are factored into the policy decision making process. As our interdisciplinary research addresses violence and how it cuts across health, crime and justice and the life course, we think it is important to take the time to answer any relevant call and to share our insight and findings to support improved policy and practice. We respond as VISION, the Violence & Society Centre, and sometimes in collaboration with others. Below are the links to our published responses and evidence from June 2022.

        1. UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Tackling Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG). Our submission was published in April 2025.
        2. UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: Community Cohesion. Our submission was published in February 2025.
        3. UK Parliament – Call for evidence on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Our submission was published in February 2025.
        4. UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Use of Artificial Intelligence in Government. Our submission was published in January 2025.
        5. UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Tackling Homelessness. Our submission with Dr Natasha Chilman was published in January 2025. See the full report
        6. Home Office – Legislation consultation: Statutory Guidance for the Conduct of Domestic Homicide Reviews. Our submission was published on the VISION website in July 2024.
        7. UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The rights of older people. Our submission was published in November 2023
        8. UK Parliament  – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The impact of the rising cost of living on women. Our submission was published in November 2023
        9. UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The escalation of violence against women and girls. Our submission published in September 2023
        10. Home Office – Legislation consultation: Machetes and other bladed articles: proposed legislation (submitted response 06/06/2023). Government response to consultation and summary of public responses was published in August 2023
        11. Welsh Government – Consultation: National action plan to prevent the abuse of older people. Summary of the responses published in April 2023
        12. Race Disparity Unit (RDU) – Consultation: Standards for Ethnicity Data (submitted response 30/08/2022). Following the consultation, a revised version of the data standards was published in April 2023
        13. UK Parliament – The Home Affairs Committee – Call for evidence: Human Trafficking. Our submission was published in March 2023
        14. UN expert – Call for evidence: Violence, abuse and neglect in older people. Our submission was published in February 2023
        15. UK Parliament – The Justice and Home Affairs Committee – Inquiry: Family migration. Our submission was published in September 2022 and a report was published following the inquiry in February 2023
        16. Home Office – Consultation: Controlling or Coercive behaviour Statutory Guidance. Our submission was published in June 2022

        For further information, please contact us at VISION_Management_Team@city.ac.uk

        Photo by JaRiRiyawat from Adobe Stock downloads (licensed)

        Implications of changing domestic abuse measurement on the Crime Survey for England & Wales

          The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is making a major decision this month on the future of Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) Domestic abuse measurement and monitoring.

          Last year, ONS ran an experiment where half of the CSEW sample got the domestic abuse module used since 2005, and the other half got a new module that is not comparable with the previous one. ONS intend to move over entirely to the new module in the next data collection (2025/26).

          Loss of the existing module has major implications: it is world-leading, uses globally comparable items, and with trend data going back to 2005. Without consistently administered core items from that module, it will no longer be possible to:

          • Produce long-term trends over time in domestic abuse for England and Wales.
          • Group a decade of survey years together to have enough cases to robustly examine domestic abuse in particular regions, minoritised groups, and by other protected characteristics for many years. This is essential for understanding inequalities in violence and subsequent service contact, and whether these are changing.

          The new module is problematic for many reasons:

          • Is not a standardised measure, has undergone little validation or psychometric testing, and is not comparable with anything used previously or in any other country or study.  
          • It separates data collection between former and current partner based on relationship status at the time of the interview, not at the time of abuse. This distinction creates confusion for interpretation of analysis and may be misinterpreted. The distinction is also problematic for classification of casual and other relationship types.
          • The overhaul of the module was intended to align measurement with the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 definition, but it appears that domestic abuse as recognised by that Act cannot be identified by this module.

          We urgently recommend that before losing this world-leading time series and relying on an untested, not comparable, and flawed new approach to DA measurement in England and Wales, that ONS:

          1. Pause: continue the split-sample data collection for one more year.
          2. Test the new approach: fully compare data collected using the new and old modules data so the validity and utility of the new measures can be evaluated appropriately, and its impact on inequalities assessed.
          3. Publish these results publicly: and fully consult once stakeholders understand all the implications of having data collected in each way before the decision to roll out new data collection is finalised.
          4. With this information, then compare all options: such as maintaining some of the existing questions alongside adding new coercive control items. This straightforward approach would ensure the utility of the survey for national trends (in both England and Wales) and analysis of inequalities and minoritised groups, while also improving the measurement of coercive control.

          We urge others who feel similarly to contact ONS at CrimeStatistics@ons.gov.uk  or contact us at VISION_Management_Team@city.ac.uk if you would like to discuss.

          Note that ONS is planning a raft of further changes with similar implications for trends and analysis of minoritised groups, including:

          • Removal of the sexual victimisation module from next data collection (2025/26), with redevelopment at some future date.
          • Removal and redevelopment of the nature of partner abuse questions, which cover DA survivors service use and police contact and are essential to understanding whether some groups are underserved by services.

          These will further undermine continuity of data for trends and the ability to analyse minoritised groups or by protected characteristics.

          For researchers interested in combining CSEW waves to enable robust analysis of inequalities by protected characteristics and for minoritised groups, VISION researcher Niels Blom has published syntax: https://vision.city.ac.uk/news/new-possibilities-created-by-crime-survey-wave-integration/.

          Photo from Adobe Photo Stock subscription

          VISION researcher, Lizzie Cook, speaks at Dutch Embassy Just Talk(s) event on femicide

            On 10 December 2024, celebrated globally as Human Rights Day and the final day of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence campaign, the Dutch Embassy in London organised a panel discussion on femicide and the criminalisation of violence against women and girls.

            Lizzie Cook was invited to speak as part of the event which was opened by the Dutch Ambassador Paul Huijts and Liaison Magistrate Wendela Mulder, and moderated by Lotte Wildeboer. The afternoon consisted of talks by Professor Sandra Walklate (of the VISION Advisory Board), Judith van Schoonderwoerd den Bezemer-Wolters (Dutch Public Prosecutor for Domestic and Sexual Violence), Katie Hoeger and Angela Whitaker (VKPP and College of Policing), and Janine Janssen (Dutch Police Academy). The event was part of a series of Just Talk(s) organised by the Dutch Embassy which seek to foster dialogue and exchange ideas on particular issues.

            The panel addressed a range of themes including challenges in current definitions of femicide, the implications for data and measurement, and what this means for prevention.

            To read more about some of the themes discussed in this panel, do take a look at Lizzie, Sandra and Kate Fitz-Gibbon’s 2023 special subsection of Current Sociology: Re-imagining what counts as femicide which brings together contributions on femicide from the UK, South Africa and Latin America.

            Photograph from Adobe Photo Stock subscription

            Deputy Chief Constable awarded Practitioner in Residence at Violence and Society Centre

              Katy Barrow-Grint, Deputy Chief Constable, Gloucestershire

              City St George’s, UoL, offers a Practitioner in Residence programme at the School for Policy and Global Affairs. It is for mid-level and senior policy practitioners within the UK and provides a platform to grow and explore their practice in partnership with the school.

              Katy Barrow-Grint, Deputy Chief Constable in Gloucestershire and an executive leader in national policing, became aware of the opportunity via her work with VISION Senior Research Fellow, Dr Ruth Weir,  on the VISION adolescent domestic abuse (ADA) research programme. Having recently written a book entitled ‘Policing Domestic Abuse’ with Ruth and others, the research identified a national gap academically and in policing with how ADA is understood.

              Katy’s focus will be on how police constabularies document ADA and developing a better understanding of the impact of the statutory age limitations on the practical work police officers do on the front line.

              Forces do not routinely record ADA as the statutory guidance states that domestic abuse occurs in relationships where both parties are aged 16 or over. As a result, whilst crimes against young people will be recorded and investigated, they are not necessarily classified as domestic abuse, and it may be that child protection, domestic abuse or front-line response teams deal with the case.

              Her project work will seek to understand how forces are recording such incidents, and what type of officer and role is investigating. Katy will work with policing nationally through the National Police Chief‘s Council (NPCC) domestic abuse and child protection portfolios and collate an up-to-date picture across all forces in England and Wales to understand how they are recording and who is investigating ADA.

              Katy is also undertaking specific localised work in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Northumbria, hosting roundtables with Dr Ruth Weir and  practitioners from all relevant agencies to gain a qualitative understanding of the problems staff encounter when dealing with ADA.

              Photograph from Adobe Photo Stock subscription

              VISION-funded research: Surviving Economic Abuse survey initial findings released

                Tackling economic abuse should be part of the solution to meet the new government’s ambitious target to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. It is important that the government’s measurement approach can understand the range of ways that economic restriction, exploitation and sabotage that victim-survivors experience at scale across the UK.

                Recent survey results from Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) tell a powerful story that highlights experiences of economic abuse across the UK. The full report will be launched by SEA in March 2025, but their early release of key findings include:

                • Economic abuse is often understood to only be about creating dependency through restriction, but it can take many forms e.g., having a partner or ex-partner steal money, refuse to pay bills, or scare their partner into taking out credit. Early analysis suggests that a wider range of behaviours may continue post-separation than previously thought.
                • The data shines a light on the dangerous situation for young women- an area that SEA and VISION are seeking funding to explore further. 18–24-year-olds experienced more economic abuse than any other age group, for example 12% of this sample had been prevented from having log-in information (e.g. passwords, usernames) to key accounts such as online banking, utilities accounts, emails by a partner or ex-partner compared to 4% of all women.
                • Black, Asian and racially minoritised women in the UK may be more than twice as likely to experience economic abuse from a partner or ex-partner than White women, with women with a Black/African/Caribbean or Black British ethnicity particularly at risk.
                • Disabled women in the UK may be nearly twice as likely to experience economic abuse from a partner or ex-partner as non-disabled women

                The VISION consortium was delighted to financially support SEA’s research, A rapid impact survey to monitor the nature and prevalence of economic abuse in the UK, through our Small Projects Fund in spring 2024. Their full report will be widely shared in 2025, including on the VISION website and through our networks.

                Photograph from Adobe Photo Stock subscription

                The benefits system: source of support or hindrance to victims of violence?

                  Previous VISION research showed how 4% of domestic violence victims lose their job as a result of abuse and that half of unemployed women have experienced intimate partner violence in their lives.

                  A report just published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) further confirms high levels of trauma and mental distress among people not in employment and approaching benefits services for support. The report focuses on those in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) aimed at people with an impairment or health condition that affects how much work they do.

                  VISION researcher Sally McManus, with colleagues Claire Lapham and Ann Conolly from the National Centre for Social Research, analysed the government’s main mental health study. They found that nearly one in three (30%) ESA recipients screened positive for post-traumatic stress disorder. This was more than twice the rate for Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) claimants (12%), and ten times that of employed people (3%). The analyses show that the claimant population experienced high levels of stress, in which self-confidence was low and anxiety high. Compared to those in employment, few ESA claimants owned their home and many faced serious debt arrears.

                  Sally presented findings from this study as oral evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee’s Inquiry into Safeguarding Vulnerable Claimants, including domestic violence victims. She drew attention to calls from Women’s Aid for reform they highlight is needed to make the benefits system the lifeline survivors need, rather than a source of re-traumatisation and further harm.

                  Women’s Aid recommendations include implementing a named domestic abuse lead in every Jobcentre Plus and ensuring staff receive regular, specialist domestic abuse training, so that work coaches and other frontline staff are better able to recognise claimants experiencing domestic abuse. Specialist domestic abuse services need to be properly funded to support and advocate for survivors in making their claims to DWP. Extending the domestic violence easement to up to a year would also help, alongside exempting those who are moving to or from refuges from repayment of Jobcentre Plus advances.

                  The report can be downloaded from the DWP website: A health, social and economic profile of ESA recipients: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014 – GOV.UK

                  To cite:

                  Claire Lapham, Anne Conolly, Sally McManus (2024): A health, social and economic profile of ESA recipients: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014 DWP ad hoc research report no.79.

                  Photograph licensed by Adobe Stock

                  VISION gender-based violence research findings presented at European conference

                    The European Network on Gender and Violence (ENGV) is an interdisciplinary, international network supporting exchange and collaboration among researchers, scholars, and professionals. Each year, the ENGV hosts a conference that provides a forum for current research related to gender-based violence (GBV). The annual event provides an excellent opportunity for many of the VISION researchers to present their findings and to engage and connect with others.

                    This year, the ENGV conference was held at Vilnius University, Lithuania, from June 26-28. Eleven VISION / VASC colleagues attended and shared their GBV research in either a presentation or a poster. VISION GBV topics included measurement, intersectionality, migration and forced sex and marriage.

                    Presentations:

                    • Niels Blom and Vanessa Gash, The effects of intimate partner violence and abuse on job loss and time off work
                    • Ruth Weir and Sally McManus, Findings from the interdisciplinary VISION consortium: Measuring violence to reduce its impact
                    • Jana Kriechbaum, Normative Borders: The paradox around insecure-migrant women experiencing intimate partner violence in post-Brexit Britain
                    • Hannah Manzur, Inequality Dimensions of Violence: Disparities and Disproportionalities in Victimisation and Fear by Gender, Ethnicity and Migrant-status
                    • Ladan Hashemi and Sally McManus, The Multifaceted Nature of VAWG in LMI Countries: The Case of Forced Sex and Forced Marriage in Iran

                    Posters

                    We are also thrilled to announce that the 2026 ENGV annual conference will be held at City St George’s 24-26 June at the Clerkenwell campus. Planning will begin in spring 2025 with a Call for Proposals announced in the summer. Check the VISION website for details next year or email us at VISION_Management_Team@city.ac.uk to be added to the ENGV 2026 email group distribution list to receive updates.

                    Photograph: (left to right) Annie Bunce and Polina Obolenskaya in front of their poster at the ENGV conference 2024.

                    Commercial determinants of violence highlighted at World Safety Conference by Prof Mark Bellis

                      This September, on behalf of the VISION research consortium and Liverpool John Moores University, Professor Mark Bellis gave the plenary violence prevention address to World Safety Conference in in New Delhi, India.

                      World Safety 2024 is the World Health Organization’s biennial global conference on injury prevention and safety promotion, covering all aspects of violence and unintentional injury.

                      Mark’s plenary dealt with the commercial determinants of violence based on a paper published earlier this year with his VISION colleagues, Professor Sally McManus and Dr Olumide Adisa, and others.

                      In his presentation, Mark outlined how, as well as governments, public sector organisations and charities, commercial organisations also have a major part to play in the prevention of violence. The plenary considered commercial influence on violence through political, scientific, marketing supply/waste chain, labour & employment financial and reputational management practices. For some industries such as the arms and alcohol industries their relationships the causes of violence are already relatively well understood. However, mining, financial, social media, clothing and other manufacturing industries are also contributors to a growing violence problem.

                      The plenary presentation addressed commercial impacts on child maltreatment, sexual and domestic violence, youth violence and elder abuse. It also explored how companies can, and should, move from being part of the violence problem to leaders in implementing solutions.