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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

Healthcare responding to violence and abuse in Brazil

Domestic violence against women (DVAW) is a public health issue and a breach of human rights, yet evidence on effective interventions remains limited, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. In Brazil, around one third of women have reported current or previous experiences of DVAW, especially perpetrated by intimate partners. Brazil has a comprehensive policy framework on DVAW, however, their implementation has been piecemeal and low priority.

The research team, led by VISION co-Deputy Director Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa, aimed to evaluate changes in identification and referral to specialist support associated with system-level strategies implemented within Brazilian primary healthcare (PHC) to strengthen the response to DVAW as part of the Healthcare Responding to Violence and Abuse (HERA) programme.

The HERA Programme was an international collaboration, involving research partners in the UK, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Palestine, which aimed to strengthen the healthcare system response to DVAW, in order to ultimately ensure better outcomes for women and children.

The researchers explored before and aftereffects using difference-in-difference techniques in a quasi-experimental design, using observational data. HERA intervention in Brazil was implemented in eight PHC clinics, while 33 served as controls. Data on DVAW identification and referral were obtained from the national Epidemiological Surveillance System.

Results indicated that the HERA implementation strategies were effective in increasing identification and referral of women who experienced violence and presented at primary care clinics. By prioritising the needs and experiences of women, under a gender and human rights perspective, the strategies may also have enhanced the quality of interactions between healthcare providers and patients.

To the research team’s knowledge, this is the first Brazilian study using a quasi-experimental design to evaluate a system-level set of implementation strategies to DVAW. It provides compelling evidence for the effectiveness of culturally tailored strategies aimed at improving the response of PHC settings to DVAW. The findings reveal significant improvements in both identification and referral rates. The evidence not only underscores the intervention’s potential but offers a valuable framework for policymakers and healthcare providers seeking to implement effective strategies in similar contexts, particularly in low- and middle-income settings.

To download: Healthcare responding to violence and abuse in Brazil: a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences analysis – ScienceDirect

To cite: Estela Capelas Barbosa, Stephanie Pereira, Loraine J. Bacchus, Manuela Colombini, Gene Feder, Lilia Blima Schraiber, Ana Flávia Pires Lucas d’Oliveira, Healthcare responding to violence and abuse in Brazil: a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences analysis, The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, Volume 47, 2025, 101114, ISSN 2667-193X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2025.101114.

For further information, please contact Estela at e.capelasbarbosa@bristol.ac.uk

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A personal view on the Netflix hit, Adolescence

A Warning for Parents, a Teaching Moment, or Just a Drama?

by City St George’s UoL doctoral researcher Sylwia Wypyska-Kieran

I finally got around to watching the show. I braced myself for it. I work in this field, and when I sit down to watch TV, I want an escape. And more importantly, I have a son the same age as the main character. I was scared—I know how dramas can pull the right emotional strings to shake you to your core. And this show does exactly that.

It grips the audience, tapping into their deepest emotions to climb the charts. It spreads fear about youth violence, fueling the anxieties of parents who are already overwhelmed by the mysteries of the online world. At the school gates, friends tell me how upsetting it was. Online, acquaintances share tips on how to ‘better control’ our children, while colleagues publish their expert opinions. Following the discourse surrounding the show is fascinating. But let’s start from the beginning.

Katie was murdered. In a typical narrative about crime, the show’s focus is on the perpetrator – a 13-year-old boy. This compelling drama has done an amazing job of avoiding the othering of the boy who killed, a common and widely criticised practice in the media. Jamie looks young and innocent. His child-looking face shatters the stereotype of a perpetrator, which is so important for society’s understanding of the reality of everyday violence. We feel for him. We see a child whose life has crumbled. We feel for his parents, we feel their pain, self-blame and disbelief. Together with the detectives, we seek the answers. Why?

I was expecting the answer to be the manosphere. The trailer and discourse surrounding the show heavily focused on that. The online world of incels and Andrew Tates. I was surprised and rather confused to see that the manosphere was not a direct effect on Jamie’s behaviour. Katie was bullying Jamie, calling him an incel and telling him that no one will ever go out with him.

How did a drama about a boy who murdered a girl manage to make her seem responsible for his crime? Whilst I pondered whether I misunderstood the implication, I saw a comment online ‘What the boy did was definitely wrong but didn’t it start from the bullying by the girl!!!’.

The detective’s son pulls his Dad aside and tells him about the secret language of teenagers. I work with some amazing people whose work is all about young people’s participation. Teenagers don’t live on The Planet of the Adolescents, to which we have no access. Yes, adolescence is a distinctive period in people’s lives and we do have to understand the psychosocial challenges young people face. But let’s not align adolescence with violence and let’s not separate ourselves from them. It is harmful to them, to us, and to society as a whole.

‘Adolescence made free for schools as Keir Starmer meets creators’, the BBC reports, alongside calls to introduce anti-misogyny lessons. But we can’t teach our way out of misogyny. It seems like a reactive decision made without consultation with experts or young people. The context, complexities and consequences of this decision could be immense.  

The boys I have spoken to, as part of my research exploring responses to harmful sexual behaviours, have told me that they feel shut down in conversations about relationships and sex. It is consistent with other studies around the topic. They already feel they do not have a space where they can explore and learn about relationships or their identities as men. Will showing this series to them open up a conversation or prove them right? My bet is on the latter. We risk pushing them further into a corner—driving them toward the very spaces where they do feel heard. 

References

Youngs, I. (2025) ‘Adolescence hard to watch as a dad, Starmer tells creators ‘, BBC News, 31 March. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx28neprdppo (Accessed: 02 April 2025).

Gooch, B., Cooke, M. (2025) ‘Schools to run anti-misogyny classes for boys in bid to tackle toxic masculinity’, The Independent, 25 March. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-misogyny-classes-boys-toxic-masculinity-adolescence-b2718706.html (Accessed: 04 April 2025)

King-Hill, S (2025) ‘Adolescence in schools: TV show’s portrayal of one boyhood may do more harm than good when used as a teaching tool’, The Conversation, 02 April. Available at: https://theconversation.com/adolescence-in-schools-tv-shows-portrayal-of-one-boyhood-may-do-more-harm-than-good-when-used-as-a-teaching-tool-253158 (Accessed: 02 April 2025).

For further information, please contact Sylwia at sylwia.wypyska-kieran@citystgeorges.ac.uk

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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

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.

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

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Upcoming event: Weaving Stories of Peer Sexual Abuse 

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

United to End Violence Against Women and Girls: An Online Animated Campaign  

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a pressing issue in Iran, a Middle Eastern country marked by its patriarchal structure and systematic and pervasive gender discrimination. Educational programmes addressing this issue are scarce, and cultural barriers often hinder open discussion. The United to End Violence Against Women and Girls campaign aims to break this silence through a series of animated videos in Farsi and English and images designed to inform public discourse and to empower victims to seek support.

 The United to End Violence Against Women and Girls project was led by VISION researchers Ladan Hashemi and Sally McManus, in collaboration with colleagues from other UK universities including the University of Bristol, Goldsmiths University, Animation Research Centre at the University for the Creative Arts, and Leeds Beckett University. 

They worked with an animation production team in Iran, a social media advisor, and two advisory groups. The advisory groups were Mehre Shams Afarid, an Iran-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), and IKWRO, a London-based charity providing services to women victims of violence from the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region—to incorporate culturally specific insights.

Although the project initially focused on Iran, engaging with the UK-based NGO revealed an interest in extending its reach. As a result, English subtitles were added to make the animations accessible to a wider audience. This collaboration helped the content resonate with audiences both in Iran and within the global diaspora community, particularly those from the MENA region.

The animations are grounded in evidence from a survey of 453 women in Iran, which explored the manifestation of various forms of VAWG in Iran and women’s perspectives on how to eliminate it. The survey was designed by Fatima Babakhani, CEO of Mehre Shams Afarid.

Key findings from participants’ open-ended responses to the survey showed that, despite structural inequalities and deeply ingrained societal, cultural, and religious norms that perpetuate VAWG, change is possible through education and legal reforms.

As one survey participant noted: “Unfortunately, many still don’t understand what violence truly is. Raising awareness is the solution.”

The first four United to End Violence Against Women and Girls campaign animations focus on coercive control, economic abuse, technology-facilitated abuse, and active bystander interventions, with two more animations in development.

With guidance from an Iranian social media advisor, a digital strategy was developed to maximise the campaign’s impact. Instagram was chosen as the primary distribution platform, as it is the most widely used social media platform in Iran, with over 47 million users. The animations are also shared on YouTube to further extend the campaign’s reach.

Influencers and women’s rights activists with followings from thousands to millions were partnered with to amplify the campaign’s reach. The online campaign officially launched 25th November, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls.

By leveraging evidence-based content and strategic partnerships, we hope to spark meaningful conversations and drive change across Iran and the diaspora communities from the MENA region.

Join us in raising awareness and advocating for change. Please follow and share the campaign links on your social media to help spread the message.

Link to Instagram page

Link to YouTube channel

This project was funded by City St George’s, University of London Higher Education Impact Fund (HEIF) Knowledge Exchange and by the UKPRP VISION research consortium.

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

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

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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/.

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