We are pleased to announce that one of our network members (Kathryn Hinsliff-Smith) has a new co-authored publication along with their PhD student (Agatha Ejiroghene ogigbah Adogho and a colleague from Nottingham University Julie McGarry. You can access the publication here https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijans.2020.100270
blog
blog
Mobile phone generic personal safety applications in domestic violence and abuse scenarios: Empowering or responsibilising victims? A practitioner lens
This is a co-authored blog by Associate Professor Di Turgoose and Dr Ruth E McKie on their work on technology, specifically generic personal safety applications, in domestic violence and abuse scenarios. The focus of this blog is on the international reach of their work in the autumn of 2019 at the European Conference on Domestic Violence.
In September 2019 at the 3rd Bi-annual European Conference on Domestic Violence (ECDV) held in Oslo, Norway, Di delivered a paper on our work on generic personal safety applications and domestic abuse. The ECDV is viewed as the greatest platform for international impact on the conference circuit for domestic violence and abuse. Over 800 delegates from 80 countries were in attendance and our contribution at the event was paramount in sustaining and continuing to build and develop our work in this area.
Our presentation explored our research which was focused on a generic Personal Safety Application adapted for use for domestic violence and abuse victims and adopted by law enforcement in the East Midlands region of the United Kingdom. Our research consisted of a thematic analysis of data from a roundtable and four follow up focus groups that were undertaken with criminal justice and specialist sector practitioners alongside other interested parties (e.g. universities), and the generic personal safety application development team.
While our findings revealed some support for the use of this generic personal safety application by some, many others identified clear problems associated with its use in domestic violence and abuse situations. These included 1) an oversimplified knowledge of the mechanics of how domestic violence and abuse is operationalised 2) security, privacy and male centric design practices. And 3) failures to address intersectional dynamics of ownership and usability of personal safety applications.
A copy of the presentation is available at https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/18968.
We were subsequently invited to write up our findings for publication in a special edition Journal focusing on Technology and Gender Based Violence for 2021.
Dr Ruth E. McKie is a Senior Lecturer in the Community & Criminal Justice Division at DMU. Ruth’s PhD explored climate change denial & criminology. She is subject expert in Environmental Crime & Harm, researching various crimes e.g. environmental crime & animal abuse. Contact Ruth on ruth.mckie@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @ruthmckie1
Di Turgoose is an Associate Professor and Teacher Fellow in the School of Applied Social Sciences at DMU. She is a pracademic with 20 year’s work experience in the Criminal Justice System with perpetrators & victims of crime. She is subject expert in domestic abuse for the MOJ. Contact Di at di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @pracademiccrime
All content posted remains the property of the author(s) and must not be copied. However, quoting some part of the content is allowed provided you link back to the original article.
If you feel you might be interested in submitting a guest blog for us please contact di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk in the first instance to discuss this.
Non-Human Animals at the Intersection of Domestic Violence: The Call for anthropocentricism to GIVE WAY!
This is Associate Professor Di Turgoose and Dr R E McKie’s 6th blog in a series of 6 on their work on pets and domestic abuse. The focus of this blog in on the international reach of their work in the autumn of 2019 at the European Conference on Domestic Violence conference.
In September 2019 at the 3rd Bi-annual European Conference on Domestic Violence (ECDV) held in Oslo, Norway, Di delivered a paper on our work on pets and domestic abuse. The ECDV is viewed as the greatest platform for international impact on the conference circuit for domestic violence and abuse. Over 800 delegates from 80 countries were in attendance and our contribution at the event was paramount in sustaining and continuing to build and develop our work in this area.
The role of animals as victims within the Criminal Justice System (CJS) has come under some scrutiny; albeit the literature is both sporadic and fragmented (e.g. Moore, 2005; Madeline, 2000). Nevertheless, some researchers have also begun to engage in an ontological evaluation of animals as victims of crime in England and wales as have we (see Flynn and Hall 2017 for example).
However, one under explored area is the role of pets and their victim status in domestic abuse ’cases’. At the conference, Di presented the findings of our small empirical research project on undergraduate trainee criminal justice practitioner’s interpretations of agency and victimization with pets in domestic abuse situations. For us, engaging these future and emerging practitioners in this area of research and ascertaining their perspectives is integral for meeting some of the future challenges in research and practice in these areas if change is to be realised.
Our paper was entitled ‘Non-Human Animals at the Intersection of Domestic Violence; The Call for anthropocentricism to GIVE WAY!
Our findings indicated that initially students’ views were challenged by the notion that pets might be considered independent agents of victimization. However, they began to recognise the relevance of considering anthropocentric views in relation to domestic abuse and pets. The themes raised have practice and pedagogical worth which requires further study. At the time of writing we have secured ethical approval for a project to advance our research further in this area.
During the conference Di was invited to meet the Mayor of Oslo at the Oslo City Hall, where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented annually as a thank you for our ground breaking research committed to advancing an understanding of domestic abuse across species.
An outcome of Di presenting our work on the international domestic abuse stage, is the fostering of links to collaborate with academics across countries. It has led to developing key areas of research and impact including the creation and expansion of networking opportunities and the emerging knowledge transfer from our work to others in the field. Importantly, this has set the next step towards our research focused agenda to create an environment for ‘greening’ the domestic violence and abuse agenda addressing speciesism in the research and practice of domestic abuse and pet abuse.
In terms of outcomes/next steps Di and Ruth are working towards achieving the following 3 key targets in 2020-2021.
- Knowledge transfer and the sharing of creative innovations in this emerging cross- field, with the intent of greening the domestic violence and abuse agenda by addressing speciesism.
- The creation and expansion of networking opportunities across disciplines/sectors
- The facilitation of an open dialogue between key stakeholders.
#domesticviolence #domesticabuse #pets #speciesism #anthropocentric #companionanimals
Dr Ruth E McKie 
Di Turgoose
Dr Ruth E. McKie is a Senior Lecturer in the Community & Criminal Justice Division at DMU. Ruth’s PhD explored climate change denial & criminology. She is subject expert in Environmental Crime & Harm, researching various crimes e.g. environmental crime & animal abuse. Contact Ruth on ruth.mckie@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @ruthmckie1
Di Turgoose is a Teacher Fellow & Senior Lecturer in the School of Applied Social Sciences at DMU. She is a pracademic with 20 year’s work experience in the Criminal Justice System with perpetrators & victims of crime. She is subject expert in domestic abuse for the MOJ. Contact Di at di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @pracademiccrime
All content posted remains the property of the author(s) and must not be copied. However, quoting some part of the content is allowed provided you link back to the original article.
If you feel you might be interested in submitting a guest blog for us please contact di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk in the first instance to discuss this
Beyond Domestic Violence, Companion Animals and Independent Agency: Why as criminologists we need to converse beyond speciesism, towards an intersectional approach
This is Associate Professor Di Turgoose and Dr Ruth E. McKie’s 5th blog post in a series of 6 on pets and domestic abuse. This post focuses on the national reach of their work in the summer of 2019 at the ‘Hidden Victims’ panel of the British Society of Criminology (BSC) Annual conference where Di and Ruth were invited to present by the @victims BSC research group. You can access the victims research website here https://www.britsoccrim.org/victims-network/).
We were invited to contribute an academic paper to the Victimology Research Group Annual Panel on our work on pets and domestic abuse at the Annual BSC conference. You can access the British Society of Criminology website here (https://www.britsoccrim.org/conference/2019-bsc-annual-conference/).
The conference is the highlight of the criminologist’s calendar for the year in the UK with delegates travelling from across the world to attend. This provided us with a national platform to discuss our work bridging the boundaries between traditional victimology and a victimology that incorporates animal abuse and domestic abuse. Thus, we relished the opportunity of presenting to this audience which consisted of victimology experts in the domestic violence and abuse field, particularly as they may have been less familiar/unfamiliar with the concepts of speciesism and argumentation on human-animal relationships.
Our paper argued that the concept of denial of agency is equally applicable to the underexplored area of non-human animals namely pets as hidden victims of domestic abuse. We incorporated perspectives from eco-feminism and green criminology to challenge speciesism in the traditional Criminal Justice System and its practices in England and Wales. In doing so, we proposed a theoretical and ontological diversification within the field of domestic abuse studies, to help give voice to non-humans as independent agents that experience domestic abuse.
Our paper was titled beyond Domestic Violence, Companion Animals and Independent Agency: Why as criminologists we need to converse beyond speciesism, towards an intersectional approach. You can access our paper here https://www.dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/18323
Through this presentation we planned to start a conversation that companion animals/pets should be recognised as victims experiencing domestic abuse and therefore worthy of victimhood status in their own ‘right.’ Following our paper others have contacted us to thank us for highlighting the issue, bringing awareness to it, and inform us of their interest and wish to collaborate. At the time of writing we have subsequently been granted ethical approval for an empirical mixed methods study to progress our work in this area in 2020.
#domesticviolence #companionanimals #pets #hiddenvictims #speciesism #eco-feminism
Dr Ruth E McKie Di Turgoose
Dr Ruth E. McKie is a Senior Lecturer in the Community & Criminal Justice Division at DMU. Ruth’s PhD explored climate change denial & criminology. She is subject expert in Environmental Crime & Harm, researching various crimes e.g. environmental crime & animal abuse. Contact Ruth on ruth.mckie@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @ruthmckie1
Di Turgoose is a Teacher Fellow & Senior Lecturer in the School of Applied Social Sciences at DMU. She is a pracademic with 20 year’s work experience in the Criminal Justice System with perpetrators & victims of crime. She is subject expert in domestic abuse for the MOJ. Contact Di at di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @pracademiccrime
All content posted remains the property of the author(s) and must not be copied. However quoting some part of the content is allowed provided you link back to the original article.
If you feel you might be interested in submitting a guest blog for us please contact di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk in the first instance to discuss this.
Ontological Diversifications: Greening Domestic Violence and Abuse studies on Companion Animals
This is Di Turgoose and Ruth McKie’s 4th blog post of six on pets and domestic abuse. This post focuses on the national reach of their work in the summer of 2019 at the British Criminological Society Annual Conference which was held in June 2019.
We were invited to contribute an academic paper to the Green Criminology panel ‘on deviance and social control in an age of ecological disorganisation’ on our work on pets and domestic abuse at the annual British Society of Criminology (BSC) conference. You can access their website here https://www.britsoccrim.org/conference/2019-bsc-annual-conference/. The conference is the highlight of the criminologist’s calendar for the year in the UK, with delegates travelling from across the world to attend. This invite to present provided us with a national platform to discuss our work.
Commonly in the discipline of criminology, domestic abuse and animal abuse have been regarded as a separate subject area/domain of concern/study. Green criminologists have focused predominantly on the animal abuse area. As a result, we relished the opportunity of presenting to our audience which consisted of ‘green criminologists’ – researchers more familiar with concepts of speciesism and transforming our understanding of human-animal relationships in criminology – but who are not necessarily experts in the field of domestic abuse.
You can access our green criminology panel presentation which was entitled Ontological Diversifications: Greening Domestic Violence and Abuse studies on companion animals. Protection, Prevention and Intervention here https://www.dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/18202
Our paper utilised a common model within Domestic Violence studies: The Power and Control Wheel, (see Pence and Paymar in Johnson 2008). We argued that the concept of denial of agency is equally applicable to the underexplored area of pets as hidden victims of domestic abuse. We incorporated perspectives from eco-feminism and green criminology literature to challenge speciesism within domestic abuse studies and practice. In doing so, we proposed a theoretical and ontological diversification within the field of domestic abuse studies, to help give voice to non-humans as independent agents that experience domestic abuse.
We were contacted by other academics concerned with animals as victims per se both after our immediate presentation and subsequently after our contribution was made a focus of the launch of the green criminology research group by the British Criminology society. We also appeared in the research groups inaugural research newsletter, which you can access here https://spark.adobe.com/page/3iAGYUB92vdcK/
Di Turgoose Dr Ruth E McKie
Dr Ruth E. McKie is a Senior Lecturer in the Community & Criminal Justice Division at DMU. Ruth’s PhD explored climate change denial & criminology. She is subject expert in Environmental Crime & Harm, researching various crimes e.g. environmental crime & animal abuse. Contact Ruth on ruth.mckie@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @ruthmckie1
Di Turgoose is a Teacher Fellow & Senior Lecturer in the School of Applied Social Sciences at DMU. She is a pracademic with 20 years work experience in the Criminal Justice System with perpetrators & victims of crime. She is subject expert in domestic abuse for the MOJ. Contact Di at di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @pracademiccrime
All content posted remains the property of the author(s) and must not be copied. However quoting some part of the content is allowed provided you link back to the original article.
If you would like to write a blog for the SVDV Research Network please contact Di Turgoose at di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk in the first instance
Domestic Abuse and Pets Research: Local Impact June 2019
This is Di Turgoose and Ruth E. McKie’s third blog in a series of six on pets and domestic abuse. This blog details the local reach, influence and impact of their work in the area of Companion Animals and Domestic Abuse in 2019, at a local event on June 21st 2019.
In June 2019, the Institute of Research in Criminology, Community Education and Social Justice (CCESJ) held their annual symposium at Leicester Castle Business School at De Montfort University, where we were invited to present our work by the Institute’s Director Dr Christina Quinlan. You can access more information about the Research Institute here. https://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/irccesj/index.aspx
Here we presented a theoretical paper on our work on pets and domestic abuse to date. Our audience was an auditorium of academics, pracademics and PhD students, whilst none of whom were ‘expert leads’ in domestic abuse, all were specialists from the School of Applied Social Sciences at DMU which includes colleagues from Policing and Criminal Justice, Probation and Community Justice, Social Work, Youth and Community alongside Educationalists who are familiar with domestic abuse as a volume crime.
In our paper we acknowledged an uptick in recognition of the importance of ‘hidden’ victims of domestic abuse as a distinct topic for empirical study and practical policy in recent years. This has increased awareness that previously ‘invisible’ and ‘vulnerable’ victims, such as children as we argued in our poster presentation in an earlier blog (you can access our poster through dora at https://www.dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/18324) should be given independent agency. That said whilst we welcome this progress it does not, we believe, go far enough.
Currently, non-human animal abuse is largely considered as a risk indicator (‘red flag’) for inter-human abuse in the Criminal Justice System and allied fields in domestic abuse relationships. Our aim at the symposium was to start a conversation concerning recognising non-human companion animals (‘pets’) as victims experiencing domestic abuse as worthy of victimhood status in their own ‘right.’ We argue, from this standpoint, that the concept of independent agency considered to apply to children is equally applicable to pets who are victims of domestic abuse. The overarching themes in our paper thus centred around pets, speciesism, , eco-feminism, intersectionality and victimhood.
We concluded our paper by asking our audience to re-assess ‘what should count as domestic abuse’ in light of our presented positionality. You can find our paper ‘realigning the domestic violence planet, bringing speciesism into focus and starting a conversation on a new intersectionality and victimhood’ here at https://www.dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/18321 Our input was met with much interest and we were overwhelmed to see the local impact through personal pledges made to challenge speciesist practice.
This response spurred us on and informed our next steps in terms of planning empirical research on pets and domestic abuse and criminal justice organisational responses to this phenomenon. At the time of writing we are in the data collection stage of a ground-breaking project in this area; we expect to present our initial findings by Mid-2020.
We will be posting further blogs on this site and would welcome contact regarding our work which is continuing at speed.
Di Turgoose is a Teacher Fellow & Senior Lecturer in the School of Applied Social Sciences at DMU. She is a pracademic with 20 years work experience in the Criminal Justice System with perpetrators & victims of crime. She is subject expert in domestic abuse for the MOJ. Contact Di at di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @pracademiccrime
Dr Ruth E. McKie is a Senior Lecturer in the Community & Criminal Justice Division at DMU. Ruth’s PhD explored climate change denial & criminology. She is subject expert in Environmental Crime & Harm, researching various crimes e.g. environmental crime & animal abuse. Contact Ruth on ruth.mckie@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @ruthmckie1
All content posted remains the property of the author(s) and must not be copied. However quoting some part of the content is allowed provided you link back to the original article.
If you feel you might be interested in submitting a guest blog for us please contact di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk in the first instance to discuss this.
Pets and Domestic Abuse Research: Local Impact March 2019
This is Di Turgoose and Ruth E. McKie’s second blog in a series of six on Pets/Companion Animals and Domestic Abuse. This blog details the local reach, influence and impact of their work in this under researched area at a local event on 1st March 2019.
The local event we refer to in this blog is the 3rd bi-annual conference hosted by De Montfort University’s (DMU) Sexual Violence and Domestic Violence (SVDV) Research Network, in partnership with members of the East Midlands Criminal and Civil Justice Working Group. The conference focus was on children as victims of domestic abuse. Children are vulnerable as non-adults in households where domestic abuse takes place, as are pets.
We wanted to explore both the similarities and differences in the complexity of vulnerabilities in domestic abuse relationships by way of discussion with delegates at the conference. We felt that a hard copy visual poster was the best mechanism to enable us to facilitate such a discussion. We entitled our poster ‘Children and Pets: The Hidden Victims of Domestic Abuse: Where Action & Activism merge’
Our poster was discussed by a wide range of delegates and stimulated many conversations and sharing of perspectives (both personal and organisational) regarding perceptions of and attitudes to pets being recognised as domestic abuse victims, in their own right. We are grateful to Dr Christina Quinlan Director of the Institute of Research in Criminology, Community Education and Social Justice (CCESJ) for the funding grant that enabled us to print off our poster in hard copy for the conference. You can access more information about Dr Quinlan’s Research Institute via this link here https://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/irccesj/index.aspx
In essence this event enabled us to raise awareness of the issues of pets as hidden vulnerable victims and explore the steps that need to be taken to draw attention to and develop a research and policy agenda that recognises pets as vulnerable victims in their own right in domestic abuse relationships in the future. As researchers we are calling for a broader theoretical development to help raise awareness and understanding of the dynamics involved by utilising the exceptionally well known ‘Power and Control Wheel’ model (Pence and Paymer cited in Johnson 2006) which has been used solely for human victims previously.
Raising this awareness has important implications for service delivery and community resources which may help professionals and advocates to develop the support mechanisms these victims really need to survive and best recover from the trauma of domestic abuse. This will be the scope of a project we will be undertaking in early 2020 as joint principal investigators.
REFERENCES
Pence, E. and Paymar, in Johnson, M (2008) A Typology of Domestic Violence: Intimate Terrorism, Violent Resistance, and Situational Couple Violence London University Press
Turgoose, D and R. E McKie (2019) Children and Pets: The Hidden Victims of Domestic Violence & Abuse (DVA): Where Action & Activism merge! 3rd biannual SVDV Conference Sexual and Domestic Abuse in the lives of Children and Young People March 1st 2019
All content posted remains the property of the author(s) and must not be copied. However quoting some part of the content is allowed provided you link back to the original article.
Dr Ruth E. McKie (below left) is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Community and Criminal Justice at DMU. Ruth completed her PhD in 2018 exploring climate change denial and criminology. She is a subject expert in Environmental Crime and Harm, conducting research in this field exploring various crimes such as environmental crime and animal abuse. You can contact Ruth on ruth.mckie@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @ruthmckie1
Di Turgoose (below right) is a Teacher Fellow, Aspiring National Teacher Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the School of Applied Social Sciences at DMU. Di is a pracademic with 20 years experience working in the Criminal Justice System with perpetrators and victims of crime. She is a subject expert in domestic abuse alongside being an expert advisor for the Ministry of Justice. You can contact Di on di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @pracademiccrime
If you feel that you might be interested in submitting a guest blog for us please contact di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk in the first instance to discuss this.
Decriminalising Adolescent to Parent Violence
In this blog Bettinson and Quinlan argue that Adolescents below the age of 16 who coerce and control a parent should not be criminalised by the controlling or coercive behaviour offence under s. 76 Serious Crime Act 2015. They call for an amendment to s. 76 Serious Crimes Act that removes young people aged 16 or below from the ambit of the offence, due to their vulnerability thereby de-criminalising coercive and controlling Adolescent to Parent Violence.
We (Vanessa Bettinson and Christina Quinlan) published an article in November 2019 exploring the appropriateness of including adolescent to parent violence (APV) within the elements of a criminal offence designed to criminalise domestic violence and abuse (DVA). The offence, s. 76 Serious Crime Act 2015 prohibits controlling and coercive behaviours towards a person personally connected to the defendant. This spans on-going intimate relationships and a wide range of family relationships, which contrasts with the domestic abuse offence introduced in Scotland by s. 1 Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2019. The Scottish offence applies only to those in a current or former intimate relationship. Interestingly, Fiona Cairns (2017) criticises the Scottish exclusion of other family relationships from the ambit of the offence arguing that further debate is needed to justify placing abusive behaviours towards intimate partners above other forms of family relationships. She queries whether there is enough difference between abuse taking place in different family relationships. For our part, we believe that APV is sufficiently different for it to be excluded from s. 76 Serious Crime Act 2015.
We conducted a small-scale research study that looked at practitioner’s understandings of APV, and found that many cases of APV that we looked at could satisfy the s. 76 offence. The initial study was funded by Leicester City Council and the final report is available on the svdv.org website at: https://www.svdv.org.uk/apv-project/ Our article examines the correlation between the concept of coercive control and APV, noting that there are significant differences that justify treating adolescent-perpetrators of APV differently to adult-perpetrators of intimate partner coercive control in the criminal law. These factors concern the unique vulnerabilities of both the parent-victim and the adolescent-perpetrator in APV and human rights law requires the equal protection of both parties on the basis of their vulnerability.
Parent-victims have limited capacity to escape the behaviour of the adolescent-perpetrator as they have parental responsibility and emotional bonds towards them and consequently are unwilling to pursue the criminalisation of their child. There is a stigma attached to a parent’s inability to control their child’s behaviour and to ideas of abandoning your child. For the adolescent-perpetrator, whilst their behaviour overlaps with the abusive behaviour of an adult, their position is different in that they are unable to completely breakdown a parent’s autonomy as the parent controls the child’s finances, food and shelter. However, this depreciates as the child matures and the justification for excluding the child from criminalisation who abuses their parent diminishes. We suggest that the domestic violence and abuse policy definition (Home Office circular 003/2013 Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-government-domestic-violence-and-abuse-definition) that states domestic abuse can occur from the age of 16, informs the coercive and controlling behaviour offence enabling children and adolescents below that age to be excluded from its parameters.
The full text of the article is available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018319879845
Reference
I.C.M. Cairns, ‘What counts as ‘domestic’? Family Relationships and the proposed criminalisation of domestic abuse in Scotland’ (2017) 21(2) Edinburgh Law Review 262
Dr Christina Quinlan (left) is a VC2020 Senior Lecturer in Criminology at DMU. Her email is Christina.Quinlan@dmu.ac.uk
Professor Vanessa Bettinson (right) is an Academic located in the Law School at DMU. Her email is v.bettinson@dmu.ac.uk
Domestic Violence and Abuse, ‘Pets’ and Agency: A conversation we need to have and a call for action 2019
In this first blog in a series of six co-authors Di Turgoose and Dr Ruth E. McKie outline their recent (2019) work on pets/companion animals and domestic violence and abuse. In essence Ruth and Di have started a conversation about, and have called into question the idea of ‘persons’ specifically who and what counts as a victim/survivor in domestic violence and abuse ‘cases’.
Pets/companion animals now play an important role in a western society household. Indeed, there are more households in the UK that have a pet/ companion animal, than have children. In 2018, a total of 45% of 13 million households in the United Kingdom had a pet/companion animal (https://www.pfma.org.uk/pet-population-2019) ). 26% of these were dogs, 18% cats, and the rest included horses and/or other forms of small animals, reptiles and birds. Unfortunately, pets/companion animals also make up households/families where there is evidence of domestic violence and abuse. It is at the intersection of pets and domestic violence and abuse where our research interest as activist, pracademic, victimologist, criminologist and feminist scholars located in the domain of social sciences and criminal justice practice lies.
Evidence has existed for decades including Fitzgerald’s initial and subsequent research in the early noughties indicating that domestic violence and abuse survivors (if they do indeed survive) do not leave, have delayed leaving, or have returned to a domestically abusive and violent relationship because of a concern for their companion animals/pets’ safety and welfare (You can read some of Fitzgerald’s work here e.g. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/016059760703100405) This means that for many victims/survivors, they feel that they cannot leave/escape/flee violence and abuse. This in part, is because of a lack of appropriate protection and intervention strategies and resources for their beloved pets/companion animals, despite the best efforts of both the specialist domestic violence sector and animal welfare agencies. It is evident to us in our own observational practice that the situation today remains relatively constant and unchanged.
This poses some important research questions that remain unanswered or underdeveloped. These we have felt compelled to pursue since we the authors of this blog first met as academics working at the interface of criminology and victimology in the Community and Criminal Justice Division at De Montfort University. One important question is why when we appear, especially given the above figures, to be a ‘nation of pets lovers’ in the ‘UK,’ that the provision for the safety and well- being of pets is not given more priority per se? Moreover, why are companion animals/pets appear to be largely relegated to a ‘risk flag’ indicator of inter-human abuse in agencies with responsibility for ‘dealing with’ domestic violence ‘cases.’ This is especially problematic given what we know about the heightened risk of homicide (given the gendered nature of domestic violence and abuse read femicide) when a victim/survivor is considering leaving/fleeing? Vexed and perplexed about the lack of co-ordinated attention to the issue of pets/companion animals and domestic violence and abuse, we have embarked on a number of research projects and organised engagement events on the phenomenon in an effort to call for the starting and the re-starting of conversations locally, nationally and internationally on the issue of pets/companion animals and domestic violence and abuse.
From the outset, it is important for us to be clear that what we call for in domestic violence and abuse studies, practice and thinking is not to merely shift the concept of family domestic violence and abuse/coercive control to include pets/companion animals. Rather we contend that, we must in fact shift towards seeing animals, and thus pets/companion animals, as ‘somebody’ that can/should be treated as an independent being. In our view, animals possess agency and person hood in their own right, not simply the property of or as secondary to humans as a speciesist lens would afford. This will require a pivotal paradigm shift in the way society currently thinks and acts about our relationship with animals, if we are to achieve a whole system change to end violence against animals, and in this specific case, pets/companion animals which includes in domestic violence and abuse settings.
To this end, we will be exploring over the course of three further blogs the development of our ideas which demonstrate our success locally, nationally and internationally with regard impact and reach this summer about our work on pets/companion animals and domestic violence and abuse. A journey that started with a conversation in the office concerning the poster (see insert above) on display on one of our desks by Juno Women’s Aid (previously known as Women’s Aid Integrated Services W.A.I.S.) and has culminated, thus far with an invite from the Mayor of Oslo in Norway to the City Hall, the location of the prestigious Nobel peace prize presentation each year and towards some potential collaborative working with others.
We will be posting further blogs on this site and would welcome contact regarding our work which is continuing at speed.
Di Turgoose is a Teacher Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the Community and Criminal Justice Division at DMU. Di is a pracademic with 20 years direct experience of working within the Criminal Justice System with perpetrators and victims of crime especially related to sex offending and domestic abuse. She is a subject expert in domestic abuse and lead on related research informed modules alongside guest lecturing for colleagues on her specialism. Di co convenes the Sexual Violence and Domestic Violence Research Network at DMU. You can contact Di on di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @pracademiccrime
Dr Ruth E. McKie is a lecturer in the Division of Community and Criminal Justice at DMU. Ruth completed her PhD in 2018 exploring climate change denial and criminology. She is a subject expert in Environmental Crime and Harm, conducting research in this field exploring various crimes such as environmental crime and animal abuse. You can contact Ruth on ruth.mckie@dmu.ac.uk or via twitter @ruthmckie1
All content posted remains the property of the author(s) and must not be copied. However quoting some part of the content is allowed provided you link back to the original article.
If you feel you might be interested in submitting a guest blog for us please contact di.turgoose@dmu.ac.uk in the first instance to discuss this.
Giving a Royal voice to gender – based violence and sexual violence
This is a guest blog written by Dr Kathryn Hinsliff-Smith who is a Senior Research Fellow at De Montfort University in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. The blog discusses the important focussed work Kathryn has been involved in with colleagues on raising the profile of gender – based violence within South Africa, which has received Royal approval. Should you wish to contact Kathryn about her work you are welcome to do either via twitter #@HinsliffK or via email at Kathryn.hinsliff-smith@dmu.ac.uk
During September 2019 it was impossible to miss the news that British Royalty were visiting Southern Africa including South Africa (see BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/49812846). Whether a Royal follower or not it was during their time in Cape Town that Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, engaged with a local NGOs (see https://www.justicedesk.org/) who provide programmes for young people and victims of sexual violence and rape. As anticipated the international press reported every word and recorded many pictures of the Duke and Duchess visiting and talking about the rise in sexual violence in South Africa.
As a Senior Research Fellow academic at De Montfort University I am aware of the consequences of domestic violence having been involved in research and developing evidence-based healthcare interventions since 2012.
The statistics speak for themselves. Gender based violence (GBV) – which includes sexual violence (SV) – is a significant global public health and societal problem. It has also been recognised as a global human rights issue by the World Health Organisation. Global estimates indicate that 1 in 3 women experience physical/sexual violence in their lifetime. GBV/SV exerts a detrimental impact not only on the lives and health of women, but also those who witness abuse – especially children. GBV/SV has been identified as a large – scale problem in South Africa with recorded estimates that a woman is raped every seventeen seconds. While up to one half of all women have experienced a lifetime history of GBV/SV from a partner.
The impact of GBV/SV on the physical and psychological well being of those who experience abuse is wide ranging. It includes the immediate physical effects for example, physical injury as well as longer term chronic ill health as a result, acute and enduring psychological trauma, mental ill-health, substance and alcohol misuse, self-harm and suicide alongside secondary physiological health issues such as gynaecological, sexual health and gastro-intestinal health problems. For those who experience sexual violence this may include significant harms such as unwanted pregnancy and as such health care professionals (HCPs) are well placed to respond to those affected by GBV/SV.
Whilst South Africa is not the only country to experience forms of gender based violence, including sexual violence, it is clear from the report published in 2002 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/ that actions are still required if the continuing rise in violence, including sexual violence is to be addressed.
In July 2019 I was privileged to visit Pretoria in South Africa along with academic colleagues from The University of Nottingham.
Please see picture from left to right my colleagues on our project which include Associate Professor Julie McGarry (Julie’s contact details are supplied at the foot of this post) Gill Langmack whom can be contacted via twitter at #@gill_langmack, Dr Heike Bartel and myself (front right).
As part of a prestigious Global Challenges Research Fund we secured a research grant to develop digital resources to support healthcare professionals providing care to women and girls who have experienced sexual violence. You can read about this on this link https://www.ukri.org/research/global-challenges-research-fund/)
Working with women survivors of sexual violence supported by a local NGO (https://www.tears.co.za/), healthcare students and academics from Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU) (https://www.smu.ac.za/) was a true privilege. During our visit we began to understand the issues of sexual violence for survivors but also the issues that healthcare care professionals and local authorities face in order to provide the right support, at the right time. What was abundantly clear is that sexual violence needs to be everyone one’s concern. This was echoed when the Deputy Minister of Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities of South Africa Professor Hlengiwe Buhle Mkhize (https://www.gov.za/about-government/contact-directory/hlengiwe-buhle-mkhize-prof) attended our programme and gave an impassioned speech about the rights of women and children and the need for greater understanding of approaches to support victims.
We are delighted that in some way this new digital resource, to be launched in December 2019, will raise the profile of the issues around gender based violence and sexual violence. Further details can be located on the project From Silence 2 Voice https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/toolkits/play_21204
I would welcome contact about this blog/our work on the contact details supplied earlier.
You might also wish to contact Kathryn’s colleague Julie McGarry who was also instrumental in the project. Julie is Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, School of Health Sciences and is the Safeguarding Research Lead – Sexual Safety for Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Julie can also be contacted via twitter at #@DrJulieMcGarry or via email at Julie.McGarry@nottingham.ac.uk
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Best Di and Vanessa
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