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Research on combating interpersonal violence carried out by Dr Erica Bowen (Reader in the Psychology of Intimate Partner Violence) has resulted in:
Child protection policy and practice has largely ignored young people's experiences of child sexual exploitation (CSE) and peer-on-peer violence. Law enforcement and child protection responses are not integrated, resulting in oversimplified interpretations of young people's victimhood and criminality. As the only research centre in Europe exclusively targeting these problems, The International Centre: Researching Child Sexual Exploitation, Violence and Trafficking has had direct impact on:
At a time when youth gangs were high on the UK and Scottish governments' agendas and a focus of media concern, this research was instrumental in changing understandings of the origins of youth gangs, and why they engage in violent conflict. A key insight was that significant gang behaviour had its origins in extreme forms of place attachment. The impact encompassed changes in policy direction and programmes aimed at tackling youth violence, including policies in Scotland such as `No Knives Better Lives'. Through very substantial publicity, including coverage on 2 primetime TV documentaries, the research informed public understandings, and challenged conventional wisdom on the nature, organisation and behaviour of youth gangs.
Our evaluation of gang member rehabilitation and violence reduction programme in Glasgow has had considerable and enduring policy impact. Scottish Government policy is built on the principals our research espouses. Homicide rates in Scotland are now at a thirty-year low. The Prime Minister and national newspapers cited the initiative as a solution after the London riots and the UK Government incorporated the ethos of this program into their policy and practice. Working jointly with the WHO, we are having impact in South Africa, Jamaica and Lithuania. For example, the Western Cape Province of South Africa has, following our involvement and for the first time, initiated a violence reduction strategy. The most important impact of our work, however, is the change it creates in young people's lives, transforming their prospects from those of a lifetime of intermittent imprisonment to one of useful and meaningful societal involvement and contribution.
The University of Huddersfield's School of Education and Professional Development has produced an extensive body of research addressing the experiences and needs of educationally marginalised young people. This work has developed understanding of the experiences of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), learners in alternative education and those on low-level vocational programmes. Responding to stakeholder demands for a more nuanced insight into these problems and their possible solutions, research has been disseminated to practitioners, policymakers, voluntary organisations, local authorities and the wider public through conference presentations, keynote addresses and the media, benefiting user communities at local, regional and national levels.
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.
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 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:
National and international research findings were utilised to raise professional, political and faith-based awareness of the impact of abuse and exploitation on the educational, social and emotional development of children and young people considered to be `at risk'. The impact of the case study lies in its ability to portray, through the use of participatory research methodologies, the experiences of young people who have been the victims of abuse, neglect and human trafficking. Evidence collated indicates that the work has significantly increased national and local awareness and understanding, and led to specific organisational changes in policy and practice.
This case study demonstrates the impact generated through research studies at Plymouth University into `sexting', the self-generation and distribution of explicit images, by children and young people. The findings have informed briefing material for Ofsted inspectors, been used to develop material for schools, and led to schools developing new curriculum based support and peer mentoring. The research has also extended the understanding of the emerging issues and helped inform national debate and public discourse.