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“United to End Sextortion”: Launching a New Animation for the 16 Days of Activism

By Dr Nadia Aghtaie, Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Bristol

Sextortion is one of the fastest-growing – and least understood – forms of abuse facing young people today. Yet it is still rarely discussed in schools, families or policy debates.

Our new animation, launched as part of the UN 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, aims to start those conversations in a way that is accessible, sensitive and grounded in research.

What do we mean by “sextortion”?

We use sextortion to describe situations where someone threatens to share explicit, intimate or embarrassing sexual images without consent in order to force a person to do something – often to send more images, carry out sexual acts, hand over money, or provide other favours (see Ray & Henry 2024; Wolak et al. 2017).

There is still no consistent terminology. Different organisations talk about “image-based sexual abuse”, “online blackmail”, “sexual extortion”, or “sexual corruption”. This lack of shared language makes it harder for young people, parents, teachers and professionals to recognise what is happening and to know where to turn for help.

Why a sextortion animation for young people?

Sextortion doesn’t affect all young people in the same way. Research by NSPCC points to gendered patterns in both who is targeted and what is demanded: boys are often targeted by organised cybercrime gangs demanding money, while girls are more likely to face pressure from people they know – peers, partners or ex-partners – to share more nudes or agree to unwanted sexual acts. Whatever the context, sextortion can be devastating, combining sexual abuse, psychological control, financial exploitation and, for many, intense shame and fear.

These are also experiences that are very hard to talk about. Shame, fear of being blamed, worries about family reactions or community honour, and concerns around immigration status can all create silence. Animation gives us a different way in: it lets us tell a story that feels recognisable without identifying any individual, show clearly that victims are not to blame, signpost routes to support, and open up honest but non-graphic conversations in classrooms, youth groups and families. By launching this animation during the 16 Days of Activism, we place sextortion firmly within global efforts to end violence against women and girls, while recognising that boys and gender-diverse young people are affected too.

From Iran-focused campaign to a wider audience

The initial animations (Coercive Control, Economic Abuse, Active Bystander and Technology Facilitated Abuse) grew out of a wider project on violence against women and girls (VAWG) that began with a focus on Iran. The aim was to design a research-based, evidence-informed animated campaign, United to End Violence Against Women and Girls, to raise awareness of different forms of VAWG and to support intergenerational conversations that might help reduce violence over time.

Although the early work centred on Iranian contexts and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, our previous studies, together with conversations across NGO networks and a school in the UK, quickly showed that these issues are relevant beyond national borders.

Collaboration, creativity and cultural sensitivity

The animations have been funded by VISION Consortium and Bristol ESRC Accelerator Award and shaped by a multidisciplinary team including academic colleagues from City St George University (Dr Ladan Hashemi & Professor Sally McManus); the University of Bristol (Associate Professor Nadia Aghtaie); Leeds Beckett University (Dorreh Khatibi-Hill); Goldsmiths (Dr Atlas Torbati) and University for the Creative Arts (Professor Birgitta Hosea). We have worked closely with two NGOs as advisory partners and an animation team:

  • An Iran-based NGO working with women from diverse backgrounds and running specialist programmes for survivors of gender-based violence. We do not name the organisation here for security reasons, as this could limit how widely the animations can be shared.
  • IKWRO, a London-based charity supporting women and girls from Middle Eastern and North African communities who are facing “honour”-based abuse, forced marriage and other forms of VAWG.
  • “Resilient Anonymous Creators”: An animation team based in Iran. For security reasons, we cannot name them publicly. The name “resilient anonymous creators” is a reflection of both their creativity and the structural barriers they are forced to navigate. We are deeply grateful for their courage, commitment and artistry; this work is only possible because of them.

Ultimately, our goal is simple: to give young people, and the adults who support them, a starting point – a shared language, a shared story and a shared commitment to challenging sextortion and other forms of digital-based abuse wherever they occur.

Link to Women’s Research Hub YouTube Channel 

Link to Women’s Research Hub Instagram Account  

For further information, please contact Ladan at ladan.hashemi@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Confronting ‘Honour‘-Based Abuse: Reflections on IKWRO’s 2025 Conference

By Ladan Hashemi, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Health and Health Policy at City St George’s University of London  

VISION was proud to sponsor their second collaboration with IKWRO (Women’s Rights Organisation) and host their annual conference. This year’s theme was Confronting ‘Honour‘-Based Abuse (HBA) in Policy, Technology, and Collective Action and held at City St George’s, University of London on 22nd October 2025. 

The event brought together around a hundred survivor advocates, academics, frontline practitioners, and policymakers to critically examine urgent responses to HBA in today’s rapidly evolving world. 

The conference featured three panels examining the flagship “Crime, Not Culture” campaign, the growing role of technology and media in shaping harm, and the resilience and leadership of survivors and community advocates. Throughout the day, speakers and attendees returned to a central question: How do we ensure HBA is recognised and treated as a serious crime rather than dismissed or misunderstood as ‘culture’?

Narratives, Evidence, and the Power of Speaking Out

The day opened with powerful survivor testimonies – deeply personal accounts of control, coercion and systemic failures. These stories underscored the  need for meaningful training across policing, healthcare and the family courts. As one panel chair reflected, “It’s not that the government lacks the budget. It’s about priorities. Women from ethnic minorities are not a priority.” The consequences of this neglect, she noted, echo across public services, placing a substantial and avoidable burden on institutions such as the NHS and the police.

Scholars challenged common assumptions about “culture” and emphasised the importance of evidence-informed policy. Their discussions invited the audience to interrogate the ways colonial narratives have shaped understandings of honour, family, and gender norms. 

Technology, Media, and Emerging Threats

The second panel explored the fast-changing digital landscape. Speakers examined how technology-facilitated abuse, sextortion, online misogyny, and surveillance increasingly interact with HBA. The panel highlighted that marginalised women and girls often face compounded risks: gendered, racialised, and technologically amplified. 

Two short animations produced by the Women’s Research Hub team in collaboration with VISION, on HBA and sextortion were screened during the session. These visual narratives helped ground the discussion in the lived realities of young people navigating online harms – showing not just the risks, but also how digital tools can be used to educate, empower, and support.

One speaker captured the spirit of the day: “It seems it wasn’t enough to be oppressed by patriarchal systems; now we also face the same inequalities reflected back at us through AI and social media.” 

Collective Action and Pathways to Change 

The final panel focused on resilience and community action. Speakers discussed the importance of survivor leadership, culturally informed practice, and training that centres real voices rather than “death by PowerPoint.” Their reflections highlighted that effective change relies on collaboration between organisations, communities, and those with lived experience. 

The conference closed with remarks from Jess Phillips MP, who reinforced the urgent need to strengthen protections and ensure survivors are heard and believed. Her contribution was a fitting conclusion to a day centred on solidarity, listening, and the collective responsibility to challenge harmful practices and support those affected.

One of the quilts created by survivors of ‘honour’-based abuse and IKWRO

A Day of Reflection and Resolve 

The event showcased what happens when survivors, activists, academics, and practitioners come together with a shared purpose. Across panels, one message was clear: understanding and preventing ‘Honour‘-Based Abuse requires research, policy attention, resources, and above all, a commitment to centring the voices of those most affected. 

VISION was proud to support this important gathering for a second time sparking further conversations about how evidence and collaboration can drive meaningful, long-lasting change.

Key to the event was the organisation and support of VISION’s Knowledge Exchange Manager, Kimberly Cullen and the IKWRO conference organising committee. 

For further information, please contact Ladan at ladan.hashemi@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Photography supplied by IKWRO

New Animated Campaign Raises Awareness of ‘Honour’-Based Abuse

By Ladan Hashemi, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Health and Health Policy at City St George’s University of London  

A new animation created by the Women’s Research Hub in collaboration with VISION aims to shed light on ‘Honour’-Based Abuse (HBA), a pervasive form of violence targeting women and girls. Informed by research and survey data on violence against women in Iran, this is the fifth animation in the Hub’s series on gender-based violence (GBV). The survey underpinning this work was designed by Fatima Babakhani, CEO of the safe house Mehre Shams Afarid in Iran.

HBA is widespread both in Iran and globally. Studies indicate that thousands of women and girls in Iran experience coercion, forced marriage, and other forms of abuse in the name of “honour.” Globally, HBA affects communities across the Middle East, South Asia, North Africa, and diaspora populations worldwide, often remaining hidden due to social stigma and cultural justifications. While reliable statistics are difficult to obtain because of underreporting, research shows that the consequences are severe: psychological trauma, physical violence, and, in extreme cases, death. The Centre for Human Rights in Iran reported that in 2024 at least 179 women in Iran were killed — roughly a woman every two days — a significant proportion of them as a result of so-called ‘honour’ killings. 

The animation presents real-life narratives, capturing the lived experiences of women subjected to HBA. Through carefully constructed scenes, it depicts situations such as family-imposed restrictions on women’s clothing and mobility, threats, humiliation, forced and child marriage, and the devastating consequences of upholding “honour” through coercion, including physical violence and ‘honour’-based killings. 

Some of the impactful transcripts featured in the animation include: 

Forced marriage: “They said there had been too many rumours about her, so her family forced her to marry.”

‘Honour’– Based Killing: “His brothers came, one by one, saying: ‘You’ve protected your honour. You’ve spared us all the shame.”

The animation brings these testimonies to life with a sensitive and empathetic approach, allowing viewers to understand the psychological and social dynamics of HBA, as well as its human impact. It emphasises that ‘honour’ is never a justification for violence: “No one is another person’s ‘honour’. ‘Honour’ is lost when we turn to violence — not when a woman chooses to live her life on her own terms.” 

The campaign also provides clear guidance for bystanders and communities on how to respond: 

  1. Avoid judging others’ private lives — everyone has the right to make choices about their body, relationships, and lifestyle. 
  2. Support victims of HBA without blame, and do not leave them isolated. 
  3. Be mindful of language: words like “honour,” “shame,” and “purity” can reinforce harmful norms. 
  4. Do not share private information or images that could endanger someone. 
  5. Speak up if you believe someone is at risk and contact trusted organisations. 

The animation was produced in collaboration with animators in Iran, experts supporting women affected by HBA in Iran, Fatima Babakhani, and the UK-based NGO IKWRO, which supports victims of HBA in the UK. 

The research team included colleagues Dr Ladan Hashemi and Professor Sally McManus from City St George’s University of London; Associate Professor Nadia Aghtaie at the University of Bristol; Dr Atlas Torbati from Goldsmiths University; Professor Birgitta Hosea from the Animation Research Centre at the University for the Creative Arts; and Dorreh Khatibi-Hill from Leeds Beckett University. The project was funded by the UKPRP VISION Consortium and the ESRC Impact Acceleration Award at the University of Bristol.

The animation will be officially launched on the Women’s Research Hub Instagram page during the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV, providing an important opportunity to reach a global audience and raise awareness of HBA. Ladan and colleagues will also be discussing the campaign at a free lunchtime webinar on Monday, 8 December. For further information and to register for the Teams link, please see Webinar: Using animation to campaign against VAWG.

Previous animations in the series have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, narrated in multiple languages as well as subtitled, and it has been used in classrooms and at other events. We encourage its widespread use to improve awareness, and one animation in the series provides bystanders with potential strategies for safe intervention. 

By combining rigorous research, authentic survivor narratives, and creative storytelling, this animation series offers a powerful tool for raising awareness and driving action against GBV. It is a vital reminder that combating GBV requires both evidence-informed strategies and a commitment to amplifying the voices of those most affected. 

Link to Women’s Research Hub YouTube Channel 

Link to Women’s Research Hub Instagram Account  

For further information, please contact Ladan at ladan.hashemi@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Confronting violence against vulnerable groups: Insights from a Pint of Social Sciences

On a balmy May evening, VISION researchers Dr Anastasia Fadeeva and Dr Ladan Hashemi had the pleasure of presenting at Pint of Social Science, an engaging public event held at a local pub. The event, organised by Caroline (Cassie) Sipos, Business Development Manager for the School of Policy and Global Affairs, City St George’s University of London, was part of the broader Pint of Science movement.

This event, one of many on the same night, is an annual global festival bringing academic research into informal, accessible spaces such as pubs or cafes. The environment enables researchers and the public to connect over important social issues, drinks, and conversation.

Anastasia showcased her research on violence against older people, an often-overlooked area of abuse and harm. She spoke about different forms of violence in older age, including physical, emotional, and economic, and discussed the social and structural barriers that allow this violence to remain hidden. Anastasia also shared the findings from the recent study that measured the prevalence of violence in older age and the associations between violence and mental health in later life. The talk concluded with calls for stronger protective measures and greater public awareness to safeguard the dignity and wellbeing of older populations.

Ladan shared the Breaking the Silence campaign, which uses culturally sensitive animations to amplify the voices of women in Iran affected by violence. Grounded in a survey of 453 Iranian women, the campaign highlights the widespread and multifaceted nature of violence against women and girls, and the urgent need for greater awareness and legal reform. Through powerful storytelling, the animations address issues such as coercive control, economic abuse, and technology facilitated abuse, while promoting the role of active bystanders and signposting available support services. The campaign aims to break taboos, raise awareness, and foster dialogue about women’s rights and freedoms in Iran.

The evening provided a lively and welcoming space for thoughtful conversations and personal reflections. The audience was engaged with both talks, asking insightful questions—often the kind that don’t come up in professional or academic settings. Pint of Social Sciences was a reminder of the value of public engagement and the importance of making research accessible beyond academia. Events like this help to build understanding and inspire collective action towards a more just and informed society.

For further information, please contact VISION_Management_Team@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Photographs: Top – Dr Anastasia Fadeeva; Above – Dr Ladan Hashemi

Researching the impact of Black and Asian women leadership within East of England domestic abuse services

The East of England is a region with minimal presence of ‘by and for’ (BFR) domestic abuse (DA) specialist services despite being home to Black and Asian communities. A VISION-funded research project, ‘Nothing about us without us’: Investigating the impact of the leadership of ethnic minority women on domestic abuse service provision in East England’, is exploring the impact of the leadership of Black and Asian women within DA service provision in the region.

As part of the work, researchers Dr Mirna Guha (Anglia Ruskin University) and Dr Katherine Allen (University of Suffolk), hosted a leadership event on 3 April 2025 for racially and culturally diverse women. Held at a venue provided by the City of London police, the event was part of a leadership programme implemented through the HUM (‘Us) : A Place-based Emerging-Leaders Model designed and piloted by Mirna and Katherine to diversify leadership in domestic abuse and sexual violence services. Research aims include ensuring culturally responsive and representative support for minoritised victims-survivors in East England.

Prior to the April event, Mirna and Katherine researched the leadership needs of 19 overstretched frontline practitioners i.e. ‘emerging leaders’ from racialised communities working within White-majority and at times professionally isolating generalist services across Bedfordshire, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. East England is home to scattered racialised and diasporic communities where women’s leadership in local politics and policymaking is low. Based on this, three events on trauma-informed, culturally responsive and diverse styles of leadership have been co-produced with national DASV experts. Participants were invited to also join a regionally pioneering Community of Practice (CoP).

At the April event in London, 15 emerging leaders from racialised backgrounds gained insights into the strategies, opportunities and challenges of practising culturally and racially representative leadership through an inspiring keynote by Superintendent Jasvinder Kaur, Domestic Abuse Lead at Suffolk Constabulary and co-founder of the National Women of Colour in Policing network. Furthermore, nine Black and racialised women speakers associated with statutory institutions viz. Cambridge City Council and the National Police Chief’s Council.

Voluntary organisations also spoke including Apna Haq in Rotherham, Asian Women’s Resource Centre in London, and Karim Foundation in Cambridge. Others also shared their experiences of navigating rural and predominantly White spaces, and their strategies for claiming space, giving voice to community members and creating opportunities for other culturally and racially diverse women leaders. One notable theme was the pathbreaking role each panellist had assumed during her career, opening (or at times creating) doors for herself and those who followed. Discussions across the day dwelled on temporality and the changing political landscapes as well as place-based challenges linked to rurality.

Overall, the leadership model, including this event and others and the growing leadership CoP, with a current membership of 25 emerging women leaders, aims to address these contextual and temporal challenges by bolstering and diversifying racialised women’s leadership in public services to ensure equity for minoritised victims-survivors.

By laying the groundwork for a regional advisory board through the CoP, the model challenges the epistemic erasure of racially and culturally minoritised women within the design of DASV, and broadly, public services which exacerbate the postcode lottery of services across England and Wales. Inspired by Pawson and Tilley’s (1997)[1] approach to realist evaluation (which seeks to understand what works for whom and in which circumstances) Mirna and Katherine aim to evaluate the impact of the leadership programme and CoP on how emerging leaders navigate specific challenges rooted in specific professional, relational and spatial contexts.

[1] Pawson, R. and Tilley, N., 1997. Realistic evaluation.

For further information, please contact Mirna at mirna.guha@aru.ac.uk

Photograph courtesy of Dr Mirna Guha and Dr Katherine Allen.

VISION/VASC Webinar Series: The intersection of a gendered economy and violence prevention

Mary-Ann Stephenson

This event is in the past.

We are pleased to announce our next webinar for the VISION and Violence & Society Centre (VASC) Webinar Series on Tuesday, 17 June, 11.00 – 11.50.

Mary-Ann Stephenson is the Director of Women’s Budget Group (WBG), a feminist think tank that works in research, advocacy and training to realise a gender equal economy in the UK. As an influential link between academia, the community and voluntary sector, and through their activities of government building and exchanging evidence, data, knowledge, and capacity, WBG’s work often interlinks with violence-prevention research and policy.

Examples include their 2019 report, Benefits or barriers? Making social security work for survivors of violence and abuse across the UK’s four nations, written with Surviving Economic Abuse and End Violence Against Women Coalition. Findings highlighted that the social security systems across the UK failed survivors of violence and abuse when they needed help most.

In 2024, WBG published Funding for violence against women and girls services: Briefing for a new government. Recommendations included:

  • A commitment to long-term grant funding for specialist women’s services, including ringfenced funding for services led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women, Deaf and disabled women and LGBT+ survivors.
  • More specialist training for police dealing with VAWG cases.
  • Reform social security (including uprating benefits and scrapping the benefits cap and two-child limit) to ensure women’s economic independence and their ability to leave abusive relationships.

In this webinar, Mary-Ann will highlight WBG’s programme of work demonstrating that a gender equal economy and the embedding of gender equality policymaking are necessary in the reduction of violence against women.

Please join the VISION research consortium and the Violence and Society Centre at City St George’s University of London for what will be a fascinating exploration of economic inequality through a gendered lens.

To register for the event and receive the Teams link, please contact: VISION_Management_Team@city.ac.uk

The purpose of the VISION/VASC webinar series is to provide a platform for academia, government and the voluntary and community sector that work to reduce and prevent violence to present their work / research to a wider audience. This is a multidisciplinary platform and we welcome speakers from across a variety of fields such as health, crime, policing, ethnicity, migration, sociology, social work, primary care, front line services, etc. If interested in presenting at a future Series webinar, please contact: VISION_Management_Team@city.ac.uk

This webinar series is sponsored by the UK Prevention and Research Partnership consortium, Violence, Health and Society (VISION; MR-V049879) and the Violence and Society Centre at City St George’s, University of London.

Systematic review: Effectiveness of UK-based adult domestic and sexual violence support interventions and services

Recommendations

  • Further high-quality research into the effectiveness of domestic and sexual violence and abuse (DVSA) interventions and evaluations of perpetrator programmes are required, including randomised controlled studies where appropriate and ethical, to improve certainty regarding the effect estimates generated from evidence syntheses. Published protocols, adherence to reporting guidelines, such as CONSORT, STROBE and SQUIRE 2.0, and considering and accounting for confounding factors where randomisation is not feasible, will strengthen the research.
  • Developing a core outcome set via co-production with survivors, practitioners and service providers, commissioners, policy makers and researchers will increase consistency in reported outcomes and create the cohesion necessary to develop a robust evidence base to aid understanding of how effective various support services are.

In the United Kingdom, there are a range of support services and interventions for people who have experienced domestic and sexual violence and abuse (DSVA), including refuges, advocacy such as Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs), referral, outreach, and helplines. These are often provided by the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS), although may also be located in the public or private sector. Due to the lack of consensus on outcomes used to assess effectiveness, evidence syntheses in this field have been limited.

Dr Sophie Carlisle led a team of VISION researchers, Dr Annie Bunce, Prof Sally McManus, Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa, Prof Gene Feder, and Dr Natalia V Lewis, and Prof Matthew Prina from Kings College London. They used findings from their scoping review to identify the common reported outcomes, to direct and inform an evidence synthesis on the effectiveness of UK-based interventions and services for DSVA.

The team conducted a systematic review and, where possible, meta-analysis. They searched relevant peer reviewed and grey literature sources. The following were included: randomised controlled trials, non-randomised comparative studies, pre-post studies, and service evaluations of support interventions or services for adults who had experienced or perpetrated DSVA. The intervention typology and selection of outcomes was determined based on co-production with stakeholders from specialist DSVA organisations. The quality of the studies was assessed independently by two reviewers. Where meta-analysis was not possible, the researchers synthesized studies with vote counting based on the direction of effect.

The review demonstrates that there appear to be benefits of UK-based advocacy and outreach services, psychological support interventions, and perpetrator programmes. However, risk of bias and methodological heterogeneity means that there is uncertainty regarding the estimated effects.

A co-produced core-outcome set is needed to develop a more robust evidence base and facilitate future research in this field. Research practices such as publishing of study protocols, following reporting guidelines and, for research where randomisation is not feasible, considering and accounting for potential confounding factors, would greatly improve the quality of research.

To download the paper: Effectiveness of UK-based support interventions and services aimed at adults who have experienced or used domestic and sexual violence and abuse: a systematic review and meta-analysis – PMC

To cite: Carlisle S, Bunce A, Prina M, McManus S, Barbosa E, Feder G, Lewis NV. Effectiveness of UK-based support interventions and services aimed at adults who have experienced or used domestic and sexual violence and abuse: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Public Health. 2025 Mar 14;25(1):1003. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-21891-5. PMID: 40087589; PMCID: PMC11908015.

For further information, please contact Sophie at sophie.carlisle4@nhs.net

Illustration from Adobe Photo Stock subscription

VISION Policy Briefing: Domestic violence and abuse and mental and physical health

Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is prevalent within the United Kingdom (UK) and has severe and long-lasting physical and mental health consequences. An estimated 2.3 million adults in England and Wales (4.8%) experienced domestic abuse in the past 12 months. More women than men experience DVA, and women experience more repeated abuse, more physical, sexual, and emotional violence and coercive control, more injuries, and greater fear.

We, in the VISION research consortium, investigate how DVA is related to health. This policy briefing summarises evidence from five of our recent publications. We highlight the key recommendation resulting from across the research and discuss the key findings and evidence demonstrating the prevalence of DVA and the need for a cross-government approach to violence prevention.

Key Recommendation

A cross-government approach to preventing violence needs to include health services, alongside justice, welfare, education and other sectors. An effective and safe NHS response to survivors of domestic violence needs to be implemented. That response, embedded in training for healthcare professionals and referral to appropriate services, stretches from identification of survivors to initial support, to addressing the mental health and other sequelae of violence. Currently, the response is sporadic and patchy, with many Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) not commissioning necessary services. Integrated commissioning, as recommended in the NICE guidelines, could help bridge silos and sectors. 

Key findings

  • Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) affects the physical and mental health of victim-survivors.
  • About half of people who attempted suicide in the past year had experienced violence from a partner at some point in their life, and one in four experienced violence from a partner in the preceding year 
  • The type of intimate partner relationship and the type of violence and abuse affects the nature and level of physical and mental health consequences. 
  • People who use violence against their partners also tend to have worse mental health, and mental health services present an opportunity for intervention with this group. 

To download the paper: VISION Policy Briefing: Domestic violence and abuse and mental and physical health

To cite: Blom, N., Davies, E., Hashemi, L., Obolenskaya, P., Bhavsar, V., & McManus, S. (2025). VISION Policy Briefing: Domestic violence and abuse and mental and physical health. City St George’s, University of London. https://doi.org/10.25383/city.28653212.v3

For further information, please contact Niels at niels.blom@manchester.ac.uk

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

Upcoming event: Weaving Stories of Peer Sexual Abuse 

This event is in the past.

Insights from a youth co-created animation project

Weaving Stories is a pilot animation project developed by County-Durham arts education company, Changing Relations, and funded via the VISION research consortium through the Small Projects Fund.

The animation was co-produced with Secondary-aged students, survivors of peer sexual abuse, and an artistic team, to amplify young people’s voices on the theme of unwanted sexual behaviour and the culture that enables it. The students and young survivors shaped every aspect of the animation.

An interdisciplinary Steering Group of academic researchers, creative practitioners, and child protection and sexual violence specialists from a North East school and Rape Crisis centre, were also involved in the project.

With this animation and associated school based learning programme, Changing Relations seeks to influence knowledge, behaviour, and institutional change using the impactful animation as stimulus for reflection. Following this pilot project, VISION and Changing Relations have organised a one-hour webinar for UK policymakers and practitioners to:

  • Watch the co-created animation (20 minutes)
  • Hear young people’s perspectives on the key themes and co-production approach
  • Explore the animation’s potential impact on school cultures, disclosure, help-seeking, and victim-blaming attitudes
  • Engage in academic-informed analysis of trauma-informed safeguarding and youth-centred approaches to sexual violence prevention
  • Gain practical insights on using creative participatory approaches to engage young people in conversations about violence and abuse
  • Consider actionable recommendations for policy and practice
  • Contribute your reflections

This webinar will be of interest to a wide range of professionals who work with adolescents and / or in violence-prevention. Educators, social workers, academics, and third sector, central and local government policy analysts and researchers in particular may be interested.

There are two dates providing the option to choose between a more practice or policy oriented session:

  • Thursday 8th May 1-2pm for policymakers
  • Wednesday 14th May 3-4pm for practitioners

Speakers and facilitators

  • Lisa Davis, Managing Director, Changing Relations
  • Kate Gorman, Creative Producer and Artistic Director, Changing Relations
  • Kimberly Cullen, Knowledge Exchange Manager, UKPRP VISION research consortium, City St George’s UoL

Webinar registration

To register for free for either the 8th or 14th of May, please visit our page on Ticket Tailor.

The webinar will be on Microsoft Teams and you will receive the link on the day you choose to attend.

For further information, please contact VISION_Management_Team@citystgeorges.ac.uk