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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.
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.
National and international policy on domestic violence has been strongly influenced since 2008 by a series of studies on domestic violence conducted at the University of Bristol, resulting for example in the piloting of a national disclosure scheme. The studies have also had a positive impact on the practical ways in which agencies such as the police respond to domestic violence as well as influencing the development of a European Police handbook on domestic violence. The criminal justice system, practitioners and victims have benefited from the studies' insights into the `attrition' that can occur between the reporting of an act of domestic violence to the police and the final outcome in court. They have also gained from Bristol's work on the profiles of perpetrators and the behavioural differences between male and female perpetrators.
Impacts of this case study are national, regional and local in government departments and providers of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) services and in lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) specialist services. They include evidencing DVA in same sex relationships as a considerable social problem; identifying and improving understanding about specific vulnerabilities, abusive behaviours and help-seeking behaviours; the development of training across mainstream, DVA and LGBT sectors; the development of existing risk assessment tools to better reflect the experiences of victim/survivors in same sex relationships; and in raising awareness of DVA in same sex relationships in LGBT communities.
Research on combating interpersonal violence carried out by Dr Erica Bowen (Reader in the Psychology of Intimate Partner Violence) has resulted in:
Research conducted in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol from 2006 inspired the Government to commission a series of carefully targeted awareness campaigns on sexual coercion and violence in teenage relationships. These campaigns ran between 2010 and 2013 and reached millions of young people. The research has also underpinned developments in government policy as well as a range of practical interventions by agencies in England and Scotland. In addition, the extensive media coverage of the research has substantially increased public awareness of teenage partner violence and related issues.
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.
Jessica Ringrose's research on young people, social media and sexuality has helped raise awareness nationally and internationally about the implications of new media for young people's relationships, self-image and physical and emotional well-being and safety. Studying digital-age phenomena such as `sexting' and `slut-shaming', Ringrose has attracted substantial but overwhelmingly sensitive press coverage and sparked serious public discussion on difficult issues. She has influenced national and third sector guidelines on sex and relationship education and on internet controls and her work has underpinned resources for schools. She has advised on a series of government reports and inspired a very influential speech by Diane Abbott MP on the sexualisation of society.
Research conducted by the research group `Gender and Law at Durham' (GLAD) has had a significant effect on the enactment and reform of the criminal law relating to the possession of extreme pornography, and on the activities of NGOs lobbying for change in this area. In particular, the research has generated the following impacts:
(1) In Scotland, it has shaped the campaigns of NGOs, recommendations of the Parliamentary Justice Committee, and new legislation by the Scottish Parliament to criminalise the possession of pornographic images of rape.
(2) In England, it was used by Rape Crisis (South London) and the End Violence Against Women Coalition for their campaign to `close the rape porn "loophole"'. This led to a change in Government policy in England and Wales, and a public commitment by the Prime Minister to amend existing English legislation criminalising the possession of extreme pornography to include rape pornography.