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Legislation, policy and practice surrounding the criminal justice response to rape in Scotland have been profoundly influenced by the work of Professor Michele Burman. Her research directly informed the Sexual Offences (Procedure and Evidence) (Scotland) Act 2002, and continues to influence policy and practice guidance. Her research on rape attrition/conviction rates informed changes to investigative/prosecutorial responses. Her work was drawn on in the Scottish Law Commission's review of the law of rape and informed the subsequent Sexual Offences 2009 Act which introduced radical changes to the definitions of rape and of consent. Burman's research has been adopted by Rape Crisis Scotland in national campaigns, and crucially informed training materials for the judiciary in Scotland and abroad.
A series of inter-related research projects, conducted over the last decade by Amanda Robinson, has contributed to significant changes in the services afforded to victims of domestic and sexual violence. Dr. Robinson's research has produced identifiable national and international policy impacts as organizations and governments have used findings from her work to inform their decision-making about the development, implementation and funding of services for these victims of crime. Consequently, service delivery for victims of domestic and sexual violence is becoming more holistic, efficient, and effective, both in the UK and beyond.
Violence against women is a feature of personal and social life across the globe; ignorance of the nature and extent of this violence is just as widespread. In the UK alone, one in four women experience domestic violence, 60% of which goes unreported; in France, there were an estimated 84,000 rape victims in 2012, although, similarly, there is much under-reporting. Despite fears being focused on attacks by strangers, in 80% of cases, the aggressor is known to the victim, thereby raising questions about social and family structures. This study outlines the impact of the unit's research in raising public and institutional awareness of the issue, through two discrete but complementary initiatives each characterised by a collaborative and transnational approach. The impacts were underpinned by research covering respectively the literary and the socio-political contexts of gender violence.
The research of Prof Jennifer Temkin on rape myths and stereotypes has influenced the way in which rape trials are conducted and drawn the attention of participants in the criminal trial process to the dangers of stereotyping victims and defendants.
The effects of Temkin's research include:
Research conducted at the University of Nottingham has played a key role in developing new guidance for judges giving directions to juries in rape trials in England and Wales. The research explored the influence of providing (mock) jurors with education to counter `rape stereotypes'. Its findings fed into the work of an Expert Panel, convened by the Solicitor-General, and played a key role in supporting the inclusion of `myth-busting' directions in the Crown Court Benchbook. These may alter the ways in which jurors deliberate and ensure greater justice. Beneficiaries include the CPS, judges, jurors, rape complainants, criminal justice practitioners and policy-makers, and the general public.
Digital Television for All (DTV4All), led by Brunel Wireless Network Group, has raised awareness of the need for standardised access services for TV viewers who require or use subtitles or any other audio-visual aids while watching digital TV programmes. They showed the European Parliament how a TV programme (without a sign language translator) could be delivered via internet with an option to use a sign language translator for those who require the service. They also presented at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Joint Workshop on Accessibility, which led ITU, a specialised agency of the United Nations for digital technologies, to set up a Focus Group on Audiovisual Media Accessibility and to commission the report `Making Television Accessible' (2011).
Since January 2011, the regional public broadcaster (radio/television) of Berlin and Brandenburg in Germany, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), has broadcast the digital TV subtitle setting recommended by DTV4All on Channel 1. Through additional investment, RBB has further enhanced the subtitling service and users can now optimise the sizes of the subtitle font or the sign language translator.
Healthy Living Pharmacies (HLPs) represent a new concept in community pharmacy services designed to meet public health needs through a nationally agreed but locally commissioned tiered framework. The White Paper, Pharmacy in England: Building on strengths, delivering the future, published in April 2008 described the role community pharmacy could play in supporting public health: "Pharmacies will become healthy living centres: promoting and supporting healthy living and health literacy; offering patients and the public healthy lifestyle advice, support on self care and a range of pressing public health concerns; treating minor ailments and; supporting patients with long-term conditions". A national framework for HLPs was developed then ratified by the National Public Health Leadership Forum for pharmacy (PHLFP) in January 2010. This was tested in Portsmouth Primary Care Trust. Findings of the project led to the HLP concept being rolled out across England in 2012 to 20 pathfinder sites (areas, regions, site sounds like an individual pharmacy) involving 100 pharmacies. As of March 2013, there were 478 HLPs across 28 areas and presently there are 721 HLPs in over 35 areas. There are a range of impacts that can be demonstrated from this research including changes to community practice and government policy; increase in public use of pharmacies and improved patient outcomes.
This case study focuses on two related areas: the issue of violence against female students and how this is framed by `lad culture' in higher education (HE). It documents five areas where Alison Phipps' research has either directly led or indirectly contributed to change:
The impact of the research has been firstly, in informing the creation of a new kind of domestic violence court and secondly, in alerting domestic and European policy-makers to the problem of women rough sleepers which was previously effectively "invisible."
Short summary of the case study
The case study emerged from research conducted by the Central Institute for the Study of Public Protection and its predecessors (Policy Research Institute and Regional Research Institute). It informed the development of specialist domestic violence courts in the UK and brought to the attention of European and domestic policy-makers the plight of victims of domestic violence many of whom find themselves compelled to sleep rough, but do so in ways that result in them remaining invisible to the authorities.
This case study describes the impact of research by Julie Marshall and Juliet Goldbart on international development; specifically on the lives of people with significant disabilities in Majority world countries. Research on delivering appropriate services to people with speech, language and communication disabilities has led to a Nuffield-funded project to mentor graduates from the first speech and language therapy qualifying programme in East Africa, providing much needed professional input in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Related research on the need for appropriate services, and the form these services might take, has resulted in a model of service delivery in slum areas (bustees) of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), which has now been rolled out to 69 sites across the Greater Kolkata area. In addition to direct impact on rehabilitation services, impact is evident in the development of culturally appropriate training materials and training for health and education workers in East Africa, India and the U.K.