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Addressing abuse in teenage relationships

    This VISION Policy Brief highlights emerging findings and policy recommendations from ongoing research and stakeholder engagement into abuse in teenage relationships carried out by the UKPRP VISION consortium.

    Abuse—whether physical, emotional, or sexual—within young people’s relationships is often overlooked in both research and policy. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) finds that young women aged 16 to 19 are more likely to experience domestic abuse than any other age group. Despite this high prevalence, this age group is less likely to be referred to support services. Furthermore, the CSEW does not cover individuals under the age of 16, leaving a major gap in understanding of prevalence.

    Key findings:

    • Lack of consistent terminology and recognition – various terms are used to describe abuse in teenage relationships, including ‘teen dating violence’, ‘adolescent domestic abuse’, ‘teenage relationship abuse’ and ‘youth intimate partner violence’. Both the workshop with young people and the roundtables identified that young people generally do not associate the behaviours they experience with any of these terms and are more likely to use language like ‘toxic relationships’.
    • Very limited UK research on risk and protective factors for under 16s – our rapid review found that in the last 10 years there was only one UK academic study that looked into risk and protective factors for abuse in teenage relationships for those aged under 16.
    • Importance of schools and communities – unlike adult domestic abuse, which is largely experienced in private, abuse experienced in teenage relationships is more likely to occur outside of the home, especially within schools.
    • Very difficult to measure extent of issue – due to the current Home Office definition of domestic abuse there is very limited and consistently recorded administrative data collected on those under 16 who are experiencing abuse.
    • Need to take a more radical review of systems – our discussion highlighted the difficulty of addressing abuse in teenage relationships within the current systems.

    Recommendations for change:

    • Develop a national strategy – prevention and early intervention
    • Explore support for young people – victims and those carrying out harmful behaviours
    • Commission research into under 16s – including those with lived experience and taking a whole systems approach
    • Improve measurement in under 16s
    • Agree terminology and produce an associated education programme

    To download the policy briefing: VISION Policy Brief: Addressing Abuse in Teenage Relationships

    To cite: Weir, Ruth; Barrow-Grint, Katy (2025). VISION Policy Brief: Addressing Abuse in Teenage Relationships. City, University of London. Report. https://doi.org/10.25383/city.26539906.v1

    For further information, please contact: Ruth at ruth.weir@city.ac.uk

    How much violence is there?

      This VISION Policy Brief proposes improvements to the definitions and measurement of violence using the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), in order to more fully capture different aspects of violent crime, including violence against women and girls (VAWG). The briefing is aimed at researchers, national statistics offices, and others involved in violence research and policy. It draws on a paper recently published in The British Journal of Criminology, Definition and measurement of violence in the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

      Key findings:

      • The current definition of violent crime excludes key types: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) headline measure of ‘violent crime’ currently excludes sexual violence, robberies, threats of violence, and many incidents of violence where criminal damage was also involved.
      • A broader definition would better capture scale, harm and inequalities: We use a broader measure of violence that includes these currently excluded forms of violence. This broader measure not only reveals a higher prevalence of victimisation in the population as a whole, it also reveals hidden inequalities. Women are more likely than men to experience sexual violence and threats of violence: excluding these from current estimates leads to rates of violence in women, especially domestic violence, being underestimated. The proportion of people physically and emotionally harmed by violence is also better estimated using this broader definition, particularly affecting estimates for women.

      Recommendation for change:

      • National statistics on violence in England and Wales should show violence estimates using a broader definition of violence alongside violent crime statistics to give a more comprehensive overview of violence and its societal impact.

      To download the policy briefing, please see below. To download the paper upon which the policy recommendation is based, please see: Definition and Measurement of Violence in the Crime Survey for England and Wales: Implications for the Amount and Gendering of Violence | The British Journal of Criminology | Oxford Academic

      The citation for the paper: Davies, E., Obolenskaya, P., Francis, B., Blom, N., Phoenix, J., Pullerits, M., and Walby, S. (2024), Definition and Measurement of Violence in the Crime Survey for England and Wales: Implications for the Amount and Gendering of Violence, The British Journal of Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azae050

      VISION Policy Briefing for downloading:

      Violence in the workplace in the United Kingdom

        Our latest research examines two nationally representative datasets, The Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) and the UK Household Panel Survey (UKHLS), to examine variance in the prevalence of workplace violence by industrial sector and occupational group.

        The authors, Dr Vanessa Gash and Dr Niels Blom, found 28% of commercial businesses reported criminal victimisation on their premises in the past year, including 8% reporting violent victimisation (namely assaults, robberies, and threats).

        Using individual-level data, the report also found 8% of employees had been threatened, insulted or physically attacked at work in the past year, and a similar percentage have felt unsafe at work, with public sector workers most at risk.

        The authors call for enhanced recognition of the problem of workplace violence for a significant proportion of workers in multiple different sectors, alongside improved policies to minimise workplace violence going forward.

        Figure 1. Prevalence of Violence and Fear of Violence in the Workplace by Sector, UKHLS data 2020-2021, weighted estimates

        The report can be downloaded here: VISION Policy Report – Violence in the workplace in the UK: Business and individual-level exposure

        Acknowledgements:

        The report benefited from input and insights from the Home Office, who provided us with access to the Commercial Victimisation Survey used here.

        Photograph licensed by Adobe Stock

        Learning across statutory reviews

          This VISION policy briefing summarises themes arising from the symposium, Learning across statutory review practices: origins, ambitions and future directions, held as part of the 2024 VISION Annual Conference on 11 June.

          The symposium was led by Dr Elizabeth Cook, City, UoL, and Dr James Rowlands, University of Westminster.

          The following panellists introduced several of the statutory reviews and shared their thoughts on lessons learnt and the future:

          • Dr Bethan Davies, Cardiff University: Wales Single Unified Safeguarding Review (SUSR)
          • Professor Emeritus Jonathan Dickens, University of East Anglia: Child safeguarding
          • Frank Mullane, Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA): Ambitions for learning and change across systems
          • Professor Emeritus Michael Preston-Shoot, University of Bedfordshire: Adult safeguarding
          • Sumanta Roy, Imkaan: Domestic Homicide Reviews

          After the series of presentations, as part of breakout roundtable discussions, conference attendees were invited to explore how different statutory reviews are conducted and practised, their ambitions, and challenges for the future.

          This briefing is for practitioners and managers who participate in or lead statutory reviews. The briefing will also be of interest to policy makers and senior leaders from local and national government who commission or oversee statutory review processes.

          The policy is available in the public domain, Learning across statutory review practices: Origins, ambitions, and future directions (figshare.com).

          For further information, please contact Lizzie at elizabeth.cook@city.ac.uk.

          VISION Policy Series: The impact of intimate partner violence on job loss and time off work in the UK

            Key research findings

            The latest research by VISION colleagues, Vanessa Gash and Niels Blom at City, finds serious negative effects of intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) on labour market outcomes, with 3.6% of those who experienced intimate partner violence losing their jobs because of the abuse. Furthermore, 1 in 10 of those who experienced intimate partner violence took a period of leave from work, with 1 in 4 of those who took leave needing to take a month or more off work.

            Based on a large statistically representative sample for England and Wales, this research is one of the first to examine different types of IPVA, with five categories distinguished in the analysis.

            The report examines differences between those who experienced; (1) physical abuse, (2) sexual abuse, (3) stalking, (4) coercive or controlling behaviour, as well as those who were (5) threatened with abuse by a current or former intimate partner. There were strong differences in prevalence of IPVA by sex, with women disproportionately exposed to threats (34% compared to 15% for men) and to sexual violence (7% compared to 3% for men). Additionally, compared to men, women were more likely to report multiple types of violence and abuse.

            Job loss is associated with all five forms of IPVA, and the risks were highest for those who experienced: stalking, sexual violence as well as physical threats by an intimate partner. The research also includes qualitative findings from those with lived experience of IPVA and abuse. Participants noted an ongoing stigmatisation of victims of abuse, which had serious impacts on disclosure. Victim-survivors noted their fear of being declared ‘unfit for work’ and of becoming a ’marked person’ should they disclose their abuse to relevant managers.

            Policy implications

            • Though IPVA was found to have significant effects on victims’ experiences at work, those with lived experience noted a reluctance to disclose IPVA to relevant managers.
            • Employers may therefore want to consider enhanced IPVA and DA support systems for employees in the workplace.
            • While we can expect enhanced support to improve job retention and productivity, we currently lack the appropriate data to directly examine these effects

            For further information please download the full report below and / or contact Dr Vanessa Gash at vanessa.gash.1@city.ac.uk.

            About the authors

            Dr Vanessa Gash is a Reader in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at City and a member of the UKPRP VISION team based at the Violence & Society Centre.

            Dr Niels Blom is a Research Fellow at the Violence & Society Centre and a member of the UKPRP VISION team.