Summary of the impact

Online dating scams have claimed an estimated 230,000 victims in the UK. This study demonstrates how research by the Unit has substantially increased understanding and public awareness of this relatively new and under-reported crime, and helped the police and the online dating industry to address it more effectively. The major beneficiaries of the research, which has attracted international attention, have been:

- the police, nationally and internationally, through assistance, training and advice received on combating the crime and supporting victims;

- the victims, through improvement in the quality of support available to them;

- the public generally, through heightened awareness of the scam.

Summary of the impact

This case study concerns the research of the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies relating to both individual and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) victims of fraud. It highlights how the underpinning research has influenced major national policy changes, such as the formation of Action Fraud and the services they and other bodies, such as the National Fraud Authority (NFA), Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Office of Fair Trading (OFT), provide to support victims. It also demonstrates how the research has informed policy-makers of the significant impact of fraud on victims, stimulating changes in the services offered; with the Sentencing Council conducting a review of sentencing for fraud related offences.

Summary of the impact

This case study describes how research on the rights of victims of cyberstalking conducted by a CRiL researcher in collaboration with researchers from other disciplines has:

(a) informed the views of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the context of the adoption by the European Parliament of a new directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime;

(b) influenced the formulation of new prosecutorial policies by the UK Crown Prosecution Service in relation to crimes committed through social media; and

(c) made information available to law enforcement agencies within the UK involved in the repression of cybercrimes.

Through its impact on the adoption of new EU legislation and UK prosecutorial policies, and by providing relevant information to UK law enforcement officials, the research has had a positive impact on the protection of individuals — including in particular the most vulnerable - from cyberstalking, both at the national and European level.

Summary of the impact

This case study focuses on Aisha Gill's ground-breaking research on violence against women (VAW) in the UK, Iraqi Kurdistan and India as part of the Crucible Centre for Human Rights Research. Gill's research has had a direct impact on local, national and international policy-making and professional practice, in particular, in relation to `honour' based violence (HBV) and forced marriage (FM). This has underpinned her work as an academic commentator, with a strong media profile, her reports and policy briefings on VAW for UK and international public and third sector agencies, as well as an expert witness for the Crown Prosecution Service on HBV and FM cases.

Summary of the impact

This research has led the field in understanding the hurts involved in acts of hate crime for victims and offenders. Much of the research has been commissioned and funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in the UK. The research has impacted upon:

• The allocation of Open Society Foundations funding for anti-racist organisations in Western Europe for services supporting victims;
• The raising of awareness about the support needs of victims and offenders for governmental and non-governmental organisations at cross-national and country level in the EU and at regional and national level in the UK;
• The direct delivery of support services and interventions against hate crime in Lancashire.

Summary of the impact

Some 77% of victims wait until they have had more than 100 incidents of unwanted behaviour before they tell anyone about it. More than 1.2 million women and 900,000 men are stalked in the UK every year (British Crime Survey.) The research investigated the characteristics of stalkers and has: (i) changed police practice in UK police forces in investigating cases of alleged stalking offences through supporting the adoption of the Domestic Abuse, Stalking, and Harassment (DASH) threat assessment checklist within every police station in England and Wales; (ii) informed public policy debate and the introduction of anti-stalking legislation and raising public awareness of the nature and dangers of stalking behaviour.

Summary of the impact

The research has influenced governments' policy and professional practice in the development of Restorative Justice (RJ) both nationally and internationally, through its evaluation of the effectiveness of RJ schemes in promoting rehabilitation of adult offenders while also considering the views of victims. Policy makers and practitioners have drawn on the research evidence specifically as regards the relative merits of two types of RJ intervention: `conferencing' involving a meeting of victim and offender with their supporters and with a neutral facilitator; and `indirect mediation' involving `shuttling' on the part of the mediator between victim and offender. The research has played a major part in the Ministry of Justice's commissioning of sentencing options in England and Wales, and has directly informed legislation implementing RJ (the Crime and Courts Act 2013).

Summary of the impact

Research in this Unit at NTU has:

(a) Changed the way victimisation is conceptualised, measured, and reported within official crime surveys;

(b) Transformed the methodological evaluation of the impact of security devices upon crime and repeat victimisation through the introduction of multi-level statistical modelling as opposed to bivariate cross-tabulations which constituted the state of the art prior to her work.

Professor Tseloni's research has directly informed the methodological training of crime survey analysts (including those working on the Home Office British Crime Survey), and contributed through the dissemination of Home Office guidelines to the day-to-day crime reduction practices and responses to crime of police forces in England and Wales.

Summary of the impact

My Dangerous Loverboy (MDL) is a film and cross-platform media project about sex trafficking that continues to have significant and varied impact across domains of culture and society, public policy and health and welfare. Its most direct impacts have been to raise awareness among potential victims, change the attitudes of workers in frontline agencies and inform and shape public and political debate. Main beneficiaries: the UK Human Trafficking Centre, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (now the National Crime Agency), the National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Young People, the Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education Association (PSHE), Family Planning Association, and the UN Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking.

Summary of the impact

Bull's research on the legacy of Italian terrorism has enhanced public understanding of the lack of closure around the political violence that convulsed the country in the 1960s to1980s and in doing so has contributed to processes of commemoration, memorialisation and reconciliation. It has benefited communities of interest in civil society, primarily Associations of Victims, school children, and the wider public. Bombing attacks on innocent civilians and an `armed struggle' carried out by ideologically-inspired groups in Italy over the period was responsible for over 15,000 violent acts, resulting in around 500 deaths, and over 1,100 injuries. The Italian Victims' Associations with whom Bull has worked have tried to establish the truth, keep alive public memory, inform the public, and especially the young. They have welcomed the active collaboration and input of informed academics such as Bull.