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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 – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: Community Cohesion. Our submission was published in February 2025.
    2. UK Parliament – Call for evidence on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Our submission was published in February 2025.
    3. UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Use of Artificial Intelligence in Government. Our submission was published in January 2025.
    4. UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Tackling Homelessness. Our submission with Dr Natasha Chilman was published in January 2025. See the full report
    5. Home Office – Legislation consultation: Statutory Guidance for the Conduct of Domestic Homicide Reviews. Our submission was published on the VISION website in July 2024.
    6. UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The rights of older people. Our submission was published in November 2023
    7. UK Parliament  – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The impact of the rising cost of living on women. Our submission was published in November 2023
    8. UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The escalation of violence against women and girls. Our submission published in September 2023
    9. 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
    10. Welsh Government – Consultation: National action plan to prevent the abuse of older people. Summary of the responses published in April 2023
    11. 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
    12. UK Parliament – The Home Affairs Committee – Call for evidence: Human Trafficking. Our submission was published in March 2023
    13. UN expert – Call for evidence: Violence, abuse and neglect in older people. Our submission was published in February 2023
    14. 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
    15. 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

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    Cybercrime victimisation and the association with age, health and sociodemographic characteristics

      By Ben Havers, PhD Candidate at the Dawes Centre for Future Crime, University College London

      The UK has an ageing population; the Office for National Statistics (ONS, 2024) has predicted that the number of people aged 85 and over will increase from 1.6 million (2.5% of the total population) to 2.6 million (3.5%) over the next 15 years. Concerningly, a recent Age UK report (2024) revealed that more than one in three over 65s lack the basic skills to use the internet successfully. This would suggest that the number of older adults ill-equipped to deal with online threats is set to grow.

      This blog describes a recent study conducted by Ben Havers (University College London) and colleagues, including Professor Sally McManus from VISION, exploring how cybercrime victimisation, repeat victimisation and financial impact are associated with age and other sociodemographic and health-related characteristics.

      The authors analysed data from the 2019-2020 Crime Survey for England and Wales, an annual national crime victimisation survey carried out by the ONS. The survey is administered via face-to-face interviews with more than 35,000 adults across England and Wales. Participants are asked whether they have been a victim of crime in the past 12 months, and other personal information on topics such as housing, work and health.

      Some of the key findings of the study were:

      • People aged 75+ were most likely to experience repeat cybercrime victimisation and associated financial loss than younger demographics.
      • Men were more likely to experience victimisation and repeat victimisation than women. A plausible explanation is that men, who have been found to take more risks than women generally (Hudgens & Fatkin, 1985), may also engage in riskier behaviour or activities online, leaving them more vulnerable to malicious actors.
      • People of Black and mixed/multiple ethnicity were more likely to be cybercrime victims than participants of White ethnicity. Research on the drivers behind ethnic disparities in crime victimisation in the UK and abroad is limited. Salisbury and Upson’s ( 2004) crime survey analysis found that people of Black and minority ethnicity are more likely than White people to fall victim to crime in general. Future research might explore differing patterns and types of internet use, and systemic disadvantages, for example linguistic barriers to safe cyber navigation.
      • Worse cognitive, physical, mental and general health were associated with greater risk, across the ages. This relationship is likely to be bidirectional as poor health might increase the risk of cybercrime (Abdelhamid, 2020) and being a victim of cybercrime may worsen mental health (Rhoads, 2023).

      The findings from this study indicate that future developments in online platform and process design, as well as multi-agency collaboration and information sharing, should focus on (a) empowering older adults to detect fraudulent activity before loss is incurred, and (b) removing barriers to reporting so that support can be provided before the individual is victimised a second or third time.

      To read or download the article for free: Cybercrime victimisation among older adults: A probability sample survey in England and Wales | PLOS ONE

      To cite: Havers, B., Tripathi, K., Burton, A., McManus, S., & Cooper, C. (2024). Cybercrime victimisation among older adults: A probability sample survey in England and Wales. PLOS ONE, 19(12), e0314380. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0314380

      Or for further information, please contact Ben at benjamin.havers.20@ucl.ac.uk

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      Uncovering ‘hidden’ violence against older people

        By Dr Anastasia Fadeeva, VISION Research Fellow

        Violence against older people is often overlooked. As a society, we often associate violence with young people, gangs, unsafe streets, and ‘knife crime’. However, violence also takes place behind front doors, perpetuated by families and partners, and victims include older people. 

        Some older people may be particularly vulnerable due to poorer physical health, disability, dependence on others, and financial challenges after retirement. Policy rarely addresses the safety of this population, with even health and social care professionals sometimes assuming that violence does not affect older people. For example, doctors may dismiss injuries or depression as inevitable problems related to old age and miss opportunities to identify victims (1). In addition, older people may be less likely to report violence and abuse because they themselves may not recognise it, do not want to accuse family members, or out of fear (2). 

        Given victims of violence often remain invisible to health and social services, police, or charities, the most reliable statistics on violence often come from national surveys such as the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) conducted by the Office for National Statistics. However, for a long time the CSEW self-completion – the part of the interview with the most detail on violence and abuse – excluded those aged 60 or more, and only recently extended to include those over 74. Some national surveys specifically focus on older people, but these ask very little about violence and abuse. Additionally, despite people in care homes or other institutional settings experiencing a higher risk of violence, it can be challenging to collect information from them. Therefore, many surveys only interview people in private households, which excludes many higher-risk groups.

        We need a better grasp of the extent and nature of violence and abuse in older populations. First, reliable figures can improve the allocation of resources and services targeted at the protection of older people. Second, better statistics can identify the risk factors for experiencing violence in later life and the most vulnerable groups.

        In the VISION consortium, we used the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS 2014) to examine violence in people aged 60 and over in England (3). While we found that older people of minoritised ethnic backgrounds are at higher risk of violence (prevalence of 6.0% versus 1.7% in white people in 12 months prior to the survey), more research needs to be done to distinguish the experiences of different ethnic groups. Our research also showed that loneliness and social isolation were strongly related to violence in later life. Older people may experience social isolation due to limiting health issues or economic situations, and perpetrators can exploit this (4). Moreover, isolation of victims is a tool commonly used by perpetrators, especially in cases of domestic abuse (5).  Knowing about these and other risk factors can help us better spot and protect potential victims.

        Additionally, more needs to be learnt about the consequences of life course exposure to violence for health and well-being in later life. This is still a relatively unexplored area due to limited data and a lack of reporting from older victims and survivors. It is sometimes more difficult to establish the link between violence and health problems because the health impacts are not always immediate but can accumulate or emerge in later life (6). Also, as people develop more illnesses as they age, it is more challenging to distinguish health issues attributable to violence. Therefore we are also using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) to examine temporal relationships between lifetime violence exposure and health in older age.

        Dr Sophie Carlisle, Evaluation Researcher at Health Innovation East Midlands, and former VISION researcher, also reflects on violence against older people and includes an analysis of our study’s strengths and weaknesses in her 10 December 2024 blog on the Mental Elf website, Violence against older people – linked to poor mental health #16DaysOfActivism2024. Sophie highlighted how the study reported that violence against older people is often perpetrated by an intimate partner and is strongly associated with poor mental health.

        In an inclusive society, every member should be able to lead a life where they feel safe and respected. We are delighted that the CSEW has removed the upper age limit to data collection on domestic abuse, which is one step towards making older victims and survivors heard. Continuous work on uncovering the ‘hidden’ statistics and examining the effects of intersectional characteristics on violence is crucial in making our society more inclusive, equal, and safe for everyone. For example, one VISION study (7) has demonstrated that the risks of repeated victimisation in domestic relationships had opposite trends for men and women as they aged. We are committed to support the Hourglass Manifesto to end the abuse of older people (8), and are willing to provide decision makers with evidence to enable a safer ageing society.

        For further information, please see: Violence against older people and associations with mental health: A national probability sample survey of the general population in England – ScienceDirect

        Or please contact Anastasia at anastasia.fadeeva@city.ac.uk

        Footnotes

        • 1.  SafeLives U. Safe later lives: Older people and domestic abuse, spotlights report. 2016.
        • 2.  Age UK. No Age Limit: the blind spot of older victims and survivors in the Domestic Abuse Bill. 2020.
        • 3.  Fadeeva A, Hashemi L, Cooper C, Stewart R, McManus S. Violence against older people and mental health: a probability sample survey of the general population. forthcoming.
        • 4.  Tung EL, Hawkley LC, Cagney KA, Peek ME. Social isolation, loneliness, and violence exposure in urban adults. Health Affairs. 2019;38(10):1670-8.
        • 5.  Stark E. Coercive control. Violence against women: Current theory and practice in domestic abuse, sexual violence and exploitation. 2013:17-33.
        • 6.  Knight L, Hester M. Domestic violence and mental health in older adults. International review of psychiatry. 2016;28(5):464-74.
        • 7.  Weir R. Differentiating risk: The association between relationship type and risk of repeat victimization of domestic abuse. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice. 2024;18:paae024.
        • 8.  Hourglass. Manifesto A Safer Ageing Society by 2050. 2024.

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        Presentations from the 2024 VISION Annual Conference

          The presentations from the 3rd VISION annual conference are now available for downloading.

          The event was held at Kings College London, Strand campus, on 11 June. The theme was Violence prevention in research and policy: Bridging silos. Keynote speakers, Dr Claudia Garcia-Moreno (World Health Organisation) and Professor Katrin Hohl (City, UoL) considered the changes needed for effective violence prevention from the perspectives of health and justice. Three symposiums highlighted interdisciplinary research from the VISION consortium and partners on:

          – Violence against older people: Challenges in research and policy;

          – Learning across statutory review practices: Origins, ambitions and future directions; and

          – Responding to experiences and expressions of interpersonal violence in the workplace

          Approximately 80 academics, central and local government officials, practitioners, and voluntary and community sector organisations attended from a range of health and crime / justice disciplines.

          All the slides that could be shared are available below. Please feel free to download.

          Photo caption: Symposium 3, ‘Responding to experiences and expressions of interpersonal violence in the workplace’. From left to right: Chair, Dr Olumide Adisa (University of Suffolk) and Panellists Dr Vanessa Gash (City, UoL), Dr Alison Gregory (Alison Gregory Consulting), Catherine Buglass (Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse) and Dr Niels Blom (City, UoL)

          Professor Gene Feder, VISION Director – Welcome – 1 download

          Welcome_VISION-Annual-Conference-2024Download

          Keynote Speaker, Dr Claudia Garcia-Moreno – Violence against women: From research to policy and action – 1 download

          Keynote-Speaker-2_Research-to-policy-and-action_2Download

          Symposium 1 – Violence against older people: Challenges in research and policy – 4 downloads (Hourglass, Office for National Statistics, Public Health Wales & VISION)

          Symposium-1_Older-people-and-violence_HourglassDownload
          Symposium-1_Older-people-and-violence_ONSDownload
          Symposium-1_Older-people-and-violence_PHWDownload
          Symposium-1_Older-people-and-violence_VISIONDownload

          Symposium 2 – Learning across statutory review practices: Origins, ambitions and future directions – 1 download

          Symposium-2_Statutory-Review-Practice_AllDownload

          Symposium 3 – Responding to experiences and expressions of interpersonal violence in the workplace – 3 downloads (Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse, and 2 from VISION)

          Symposium-3_Violence-and-the-workplace_VISIONDownload
          Symposium-3_Violence-and-the-workplace_EIDADownload
          Symposium-3_Violence-and-the-workplace_VISION-2Download