BSC Victims Network and Women, Crime and Criminal Justice Network one-day conference on perpetrators of violence against women

The British Society of Criminology Victims Network (BSCVN) and Women, Crime and Criminal Justice Network (WCCJN) are pleased to announce a one-day conference on perpetrators of violence against women.

9.30am-4pm, 21 October 2022.  Followed by a wine reception. City University, London.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

• Dr Michael Flood (Queensland University of Technology (QUT) (Research)
• Jo Todd, CEO Respect (Practice)
• Other TBC

Over the last four decades, significant attention has been paid to men’s violence against women and girls. Much of this has focused on victimisation – studying the prevalence, nature, impacts and consequences of violence against women – which has informed legislative reform and policy implementation with the aim of preventing VAWG and improving criminal justice and support outcomes for survivors. This has informed, and been informed by, feminist theory and research, and Victimology as a specific sub-discipline of Criminology.

By contrast, perpetrators of violence against women and girls have been understudied, perhaps with the exception of child sex offenders where research has been most concentrated. The evidence gaps in relation to perpetrators have recently been acknowledged by the UK Government who have commissioned research and pilot projects on perpetrators of domestic violence to inform the wider Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and forthcoming Domestic Abuse Act (2021) which acknowledges the need to focus on perpetrators both in terms of prevention and responding to violence against women. In Europe, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly has highlighted the importance of focusing on perpetrators of VAWG and called for member states to enhance knowledge to inform perpetrator programmes and prevention work. Over the last decade there has been some research on perpetrator programmes (Kelly and Westmarland, 2014) but this remains fairly limited. Moreover, emerging research on working with men and boys has attested to the importance of conducting work with men generally, as well as those already known as perpetrators (Burrell, 2018; 2019) but there remain significant gaps in this area.

We hope to use the conference as a platform to stimulate discussion and collaboration and intend to submit a proposal for a Special Issue based on some of the papers presented at the conference.

The event is free to attend and you can register here.

Room details to be confirmed closer to the time