By Marina Duane, Storm Ervin, Susan Nembhard, Roderick Taylor

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is one of the most populous counties in the United States, 1 and the sheer number of people who appear in courtrooms and need services there presents several challenges for responding to intimate partner violence (IPV). For example, in the Pittsburgh Municipal Court alone, 10,200 cases were filed in 2018, of which IPV cases constituted 16 percent (or 1,687 cases).2 The same is true for the child welfare system and family court, where IPV is one of the many issues clients face. To tackle this challenge, Allegheny County partners have made several notable strides in responding to IPV, including the following innovations: ◼ creating resource specialist positions in magisterial district judge (MDJ) courtrooms who now help divert aggressors into interventions and otherwise offer expedient connections to social services, which creates more options other than punishment ◼ becoming more trauma informed and family friendly at the family division of the Court of Common Pleas for survivors and families filing for Protection from Abuse (PFA) orders (figure 1 provides an example of a child-friendly playroom available to parents who come to the court to file a PFA order) ◼ initiating early screening for IPV at the Office of Children, Youth and Families and creating IPV specialist positions with the goal of helping families address IPV and reducing its negative impact on children without separating family members from one another From June 2018 to December 2020, researchers from the Urban Institute conducted a systemwide assessment of Allegheny County’s response to IPV. Based on a variety of data collection activities described in this report and in consultation with local partners, we developed the following three priority areas to improve interagency coordination and respond to IPV more effectively and efficiently: 1. Get the county’s top leaders to prioritize IPV over a defined period. Attention to the issue from the top can help mobilize individual agencies, enable IPV experts to turn recommendations into policies and practice, and direct resources where they can make the most impact. 2. Shift the focus from case outcomes to people’s experiences, especially during early encounters with formal services. Focusing on experiences can help overcome hesitancy and increase buy-in among aggressors and survivors. In turn, improved experiences can alleviate many survivors’ reluctance to turn to authorities or aggressors’ hesitancy to get help, through Battering Intervention Programs (BIPs). 3. Reinstitute and sustain IPV-focused fatality reviews and ensure they embrace a nonblaming culture. Moreover, identify the most critical system gaps and get assistance from leaders to implement the changes that the review team recommends. In addition to these interagency priorities, we also recommend that Allegheny County partners consider taking the following agency-specific steps: ◼ Establish a specialized IPV unit in the Allegheny County Public Defender office. ◼ Differentiate IPV from DV in the 911 system, in the PFA office, throughout the family division, and in all IPV-related cases coming through the child welfare system ◼ Record survivors’ information (including full names, date of birth, and other identifiers) consistently, and when possible ensure law enforcement and/or assistant district attorneys can safely and securely share survivors’ information with criminal and family division actors, the probation office, the Department of Human Services, and BIP providers. ◼ Prioritize and improve referrals to BIPs and play an active role in encouraging participants to view them as help (not as admissions of guilt) and in monitoring and encouraging attendance. ◼ Create a mechanism to consistently track aggressors’ and survivors’ experiences at system entry points.

Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2021. 47p.

Elizabeth L. Beck,

Natasha N. Johnson,

Sommer Delgado,

Victoria Helmly,

Susan A. McLaren,

Alice Prendergast,

Leigh Alderman,

Lorenzo Almada,

Brian Bride,

Eric Napierala,

William J. Sabol

Using data from an evaluation of three Second Chance Act grantees, we explore formerly incarcerated people’s (FIP) access to housing. This study is unique in that it includes the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences and the insights of the reentry program providers working to meet their overall needs, including in the area of housing. The data come from reentry programs in three regions of the United States. Although the needs of the people with lived experiences have similarities, regional differences exist, particularly related to housing costs and supply, including the availability of transitional housing. Also, variations exist between FIP who are able to live with family compared with those who do not have this option. The three programs this study examined worked to address housing needs in distinctive ways and explores the housing needs of FIP and the strategies the three programs use to address these needs. Incorporating a two-pronged approach, this article includes analyses of (1) interview data with 31 FIP from 3 months to 3 years post-incarceration and (2) interviews and program materials to support formulative case analyses of the housing-related work that program enacted. Through this work, highlighting program efforts to remove barriers to housing for this population, the study seeks to promote the advancement of relevant policy, practice, and research in this arena.

Cityscape, 25(2): 2023.

By Timantha Goff, et al.

Black migrants are subject to abuse and a disturbing pattern of racism, violence and harm at disproportionately higher incidence than non-Black migrants while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to a groundbreaking report released today by Black-led and immigrants rights organizations.

Authored by the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP), Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), UndocuBlack Network, and Freedom for Immigrants (FFI), the first-of-its-kind study draws on nearly 17,000 call records from FFI’s National Immigration Detention Hotline spanning a six year period.

The data reveal a disturbing pattern of abuse perpetrated against Black migrants by ICE, private detention contractors and officials at contracting jails. Key findings include:

28 percent of all abuse-related reports made to the FFI hotline come from Black migrants, despite accounting for only only six percent of the total ICE detention population;

In some detention facilities in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, Black migrants are almost twice as likely to experience abuse inside detention compared to non-Black migrants;

Black non-binary migrants are 3.5 times more likely to experience abuse in immigration detention;

A new FOIA request corroborated a previous study that found that 24 percent of all people in solitary confinement are Black;

Over 53 percent of the most high-intensity and life-threatening cases that FFI intervened on in the six year period were on behalf of Black migrants.

“No one should live in fear or face punishment like this, especially not for the color of their skin or where they were born,” said Moussa Haba, an author of the report and monitoring fellow with Freedom for Immigrants who was previously detained by ICE. “The United States calls itself the land of the free, but for this to be true, Black migrants like me deserve to live in freedom, not from behind bars. What I experienced in detention was the opposite of freedom. Significant trauma was inflicted upon me during this time. I was subject to an unending racism in detention, and our new report demonstrates that I am not alone. It’s clear that detention must end to stop this cycle of abuse—and our fight to abolish detention is really a fight for freedom.”

“Being detained as an immigrant and having to fight for my freedom, I have faced discrimination based on my race,” said Marlissa, a 22-year-old Bahamian woman from South Florida currently detained at the Baker County Detention Center in Florida. “I have faced a lot of racism, a lot of disrespect, and a lot of unfairness in this system. I was threatened with solitary confinement after officers used racial slurs against me. Being detained, it’s like you have no say and you have no rights. It’s as if they look at you like you're beneath them, and the door is just being slammed in your face like you're an animal. Once released and given a second chance, the first thing I want to do is see my family because it's been almost three years. Then I want to continue my enrollment in college to follow my dream, and I want to continue to try to be successful in life and be a role model to my siblings and society.”

“It is not shocking that Black migrants in detention describe their conditions as torture, because detention is torture,” said Ronald Claude, director of policy & advocacy with Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI). “Our report ‘Uncovering the Truth’ makes it clear that the U.S. immigration system is anti-Black. Detention is one of the enduring legacies of this country’s history of slavery and Jim Crow laws. Collecting race and ethnicity data is critical as it makes visible the Black people detained by the U.S. government.”

“The profit-driven mass incarceration system of the U.S. is built on the backs of formerly enslaved Black people and Black migrants,” said Haddy Gassama, policy and advocacy director of UndocuBlack Network. “White supremacist sentiments and anti-Blackness are not only endemic in the current systems of policing and immigration enforcement, they were the driving factors for the existence of these inhumane institutions. The U.S. has the world's largest carceral system, and Black folks bear the heaviest brunt of its cruelty. Immigration is a Black issue, and as long as the practice of detention exists, Black migrants will always face anti-Blackness within the system that was built to uniquely harm them. The findings of this report affirm the call for the complete abolition of all forms of detention.

Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) , 2022. 31p.

By Lisa Cameron, Jennifer Seager, Manisha Shah

We examine the impact of criminalizing sex work, exploiting an event in which local officials unexpectedly criminalized sex work in one district in East Java, Indonesia, but not in neighboring districts. We collect data from female sex workers and their clients before and after the change. We find that criminalization increases sexually transmitted infections among female sex workers by 58 percent, measured by biological tests. This is driven by decreased condom access and use. We also find evidence that criminalization decreases earnings among women who left sex work due to criminalization, and decreases their ability to meet their children's school expenses while increasing the likelihood that children begin working to supplement household income. While criminalization has the potential to improve population STI outcomes if the market shrinks permanently, we show that five years post-criminalization the market has rebounded and the probability of STI transmission within the general population is likely to have increased.

Working Paper 27846

Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2020. 52p.

By The Children's Commission of the UK

“Maybe young girls will not post what they want to post or do something they would like to do just in case there’s this fear of ‘Oh I might be abused, this might be turned into a bit of sexual content’ when it shouldn’t have been.” – Girl, 17, focus group Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is transforming the online world. AI models can generate text, images, videos, and hold conversations in response to a handful of prompts and are rightly being seen as a development with huge potential for the enhancement of people’s lives. However, these tools are also being misused at an alarming cost to children’s online and offline safety. ‘Nudification’ tools are apps and websites that create sexually explicit deepfake images of real people, and at the time of writing, this technology is legal in the UK. GenAI, which is often free to use and easy to programme, has supercharged the growth of these tools. Despite this being a relatively new technology, the high risk of harm it presents to children is increasingly evident. Children told the Children’s Commissioner’s Office (CCo) team that the very existence of technology, that could strip people of their clothes, frightened them. In a series of focus groups held with children in their schools (quoted throughout this report), the team heard girls describe how they were trying to reduce the chance of featuring in a sexually explicit deepfake by limiting their participation in the online world- a space which could enhance their social lives, play and learning, if it were safe for them. This report identifies the threat that sexually explicit deepfake technology presents to children. Currently, it is illegal to create a sexually explicit image of a child. Yet, the technology that is used to do so remains legal and accessible through the most popular parts of the online world, including large social media platforms and search engines. After analysing what is known about this new technological threat, assessing what it looks like in the online landscape, and speaking to children about what it means for them, this report has found: • Nudification tools and sexually explicit deepfake technologies present a high risk of harm to children: o Nudification tools target women and girls in particular, and many only work on female bodies. This is contributing to a culture of misogyny both online and offline. o The presence of nudification technology is having a chilling effect on girls’ participation in the online world. Girls are taking preventative steps to keep themselves safe from being victimised by nudification tools, in the same way that girls follow other rules to keep themselves safe in the offline world – like not walking home alone at night. o Children want action to be taken to tackle the misuse of AI technology. One girl questioned what the point of it was, if it only seemed to be used for bad intentions: “Do you know why deepfake was created? Like, what was the purpose of it? Because I don't see any positives” – Girl, 16. • Nudification tools and sexually explicit deepfake technologies are easily accessible through popular online platforms o Search engines and social media platforms are the most common way that users access nudification apps and technologies. o GenAI has made the development of nudification technology easy and cheap. o Open-source AI models that are not primarily designed to create overtly sexually explicit images or videos still present a risk of harm to children and young people The Children’s Commissioner wants GenAI technology, and future AI technology, to be made safe for children, and calls on the Government to: 1. Ban bespoke nudification apps. 2. Bring in specific legal responsibilities for the companies developing GenAI tools to screen their tools for nudifying risks to children and mitigate them. 3. Provide children with an effective route to have sexually explicit deepfake images of themselves removed from the internet. 4. Committo making the online world safer for girls, by recognising sexually explicit deepfake abuse - and bespoke services used to carry this out - as acts of violence against women and girls 

London: The Children's Commissioner, 2025. 34p.

By International Justice Mission (IJM) in partnership with the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) and the Philippine InterAgency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT)

Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) is a complex hidden crime that is particularly challenging for the global community to measure and address. The lack of global OSEC data, the inconsistency in data collection, sharing and analysis across agencies, and the complexity of internet-facilitated crimes has made it almost impossible to accurately study and understand this crime. Yet, accurate information about its nature and scale is critical for informing and measuring the impact of stakeholder interventions to protect vulnerable children from ongoing exploitation and more effectively prevent this crime. To both set a baseline of the existing global data and catalyze future research efforts, International Justice Mission (IJM) brought together leading agencies from across multiple disciplines as well as research experts to collaboratively take on this challenge: examine existing data sources and research methodologies in order to provide meaningful information about this crime that would be valuable for understanding its scale as well as informing interventions to combat it. This report presents the results of a 2019 study into the nature and scale of OSEC in the Philippines. This study was led by IJM, in partnership with the Philippine Government and a variety of stakeholders, under the U.S.-Philippine Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership between the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and the Government of the Philippines. IJM is grateful for the extraordinary participation of the 15 partners representing governments, law enforcement, researchers, and non-governmental organizations, who generously shared their data and case histories, consulted on study methodology, and shared their expertise in the implementation and review of this study. This collaboration sets a strong foundation for future efforts to more effectively study and combat this global and local crime. For the purposes of this study, OSEC is defined as the production, for the purpose of online publication or transmission, of visual depictions (e.g., photos, videos, live streaming) of the sexual abuse or exploitation of a minor for a third party who is not in the physical presence of the victim, in exchange for compensation.

Washington DC: International Justice Mission, 2020. 164p.

By Sierra Smucker, Jirka Taylor, Ivy Todd, Emily Hoch, Monique Martineau, Deven Clark, Meagan E. Cahill, Esther M. Friedman

s the number of older adults in the United States increases, there will be a corresponding increase in the need for services to prevent elder abuse and intervene in cases where it has already occurred. However, there are a limited number of evidence-based interventions to support victims of elder abuse. To encourage the rigorous evaluation of one intervention—Elder Abuse Shelters (EASs)—RAND researchers developed three research designs and assessed the preparedness of the well-established Weinberg Center's EAS in New York to undertake them. Researchers found that the Weinberg Center's EAS is well established, and the program model was organizationally and programmatically ready to be evaluated, though data collection practices should be strengthened before implementing the suggested evaluation designs. These evaluation designs could be generalized and implemented at EASs across the country as the number of shelters continues to grow.

Key Findings

The Weinberg Center's client numbers have fluctuated over time but are typically between 16 and 34 per year. Clients mostly identify as women, are ethnically and racially diverse, and are from the New York City area. Many clients have cognitive impairment and limited financial resources.

The COVID-19 pandemic corresponded with a decrease in the number of clients by decreasing potential clients' desire to stay in long-term care facilities and increasing turnover in referring agencies.

The Weinberg Center has a clear program logic model that connects inputs and outputs with measurable short- and long-term outcomes.

Organizationally and programmatically, the Center is ready to embark on an evaluation, with scores of 77 and 84 percent, respectively, in those areas of the evaluability assessment.

However, a low score for evaluation readiness of 43 percent, driven largely by currently insufficient data collection processes, indicates that the Center would need to strengthen its data collection capacity to complete a rigorous evaluation.

Three evaluation designs could help the Weinberg Center's EAS and other EAS models rigorously evaluate its impact: (1) a quasi-experimental design using non-random self-selection into the program, (2) a propensity score matching design that pairs clients with Adult Protective Services, and (3) a robust pre- and post-evaluation design.

When conducting an evaluation of an EAS, researchers must consider equity, data safety, and consent. The experience of elder abuse and the tools needed to help someone heal will differ across individuals depending on their background and cultural expectations.

Recommendation

Because the Weinberg Center is largely ready to embark on an evaluation, its leadership should review the proposed designs and consult with partners and potential evaluation teams as needed to decide how to proceed. Federal and state partners interested in protecting victims of elder abuse should consider funding one of these evaluation designs to determine whether EASs should be supported and encouraged to proliferate as the population ages.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2023, 77p.

By Emily Grant, Lena Dechert

Wyoming is home to a little over 16,000 Indigenous residents, who make up nearly 3% of the state's population. However, Indigenous people in Wyoming continue to experience disproportionately high rates of homicide and disappearances compared to White residents. This means they go missing and are killed more often than their population size alone would predict. The Wyoming Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Task Force is dedicated to tracking and sharing data on these cases. This fifth-annual publication includes the latest available information on Indigenous homicide victims and missing persons in Wyoming, along with updates on efforts to improve law enforcement protocols for missing person cases.

Laramie: Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center, University of Wyomingm 2025. 7p.

By Emily Grant, Lena Dechert, Laurel Wimbish, Andria Blackwood

HOMICIDE 105 Indigenous people (34 females, 71 males) were victims of homicide between 2000 and 2020. Indigenous homicide victims were 21% of the total homicide victims in Wyoming between 2000 and 2020. Between 2010 and 2019, the homicide rate per 100,000 for Indigenous people was 26.8, eight times higher than the homicide rate for White people. The homicide rate for Indigenous females was 15.3 per 100,000, 6.4 times higher than the homicide rate for White females. MISSING Between 2011 and September 2020, 710 Indigenous persons were reported missing. Some Indigenous people were reported missing more than once during the time period, resulting in a total of 1,254 missing person records for Indigenous people. Eighty-five percent were juvenile, and 57% were female. They were reported missing from 22 counties in Wyoming. Ten percent of missing Indigenous people are found within the same day they are reported missing, 50% are found within one week. One-fifth of the Indigenous people reported missing were missing for 30 or more days, which is a higher percentage than White people missing for 30 or more days (11%). Currently, 10 Indigenous people are listed as missing (3 females and 7 males). MEDIA COVERAGE Only 30% of Indigenous homicide victims had newspaper media coverage, as compared to 51% of White homicide victims. Indigenous female homicide victims had the least amount of newspaper media coverage (18%). MEDIA PORTRAYAL The newspaper articles for Indigenous homicide victims were more likely to contain violent language, portray the victim in a negative light, a nd provide less information as compared to articles about White homicide victim COMMUNITY BARRIERS Lack of trust in law enforcement and the judicial system, no single point of contact during an investigation, and lack of information during the investigation and after the final outcome were seen as barriers in the community related to the reporting and response to MMIP. RECOMMENDATIONS Develop consistent protocols and data systems for MMIPs to inform both law enforcement and families. Pay particular attention to documenting tribal affiliation in official records, coroner reports, and vital records. Create an Indigenous advocacy position/response team to help families navigate the reporting and investigation process. The advocate can serve as a communication point person, helping to reduce the emotional burden for families of repeating incident details to multiple agencies. Raise community awareness about the prevalence of MMIP, contributing risk and protective factors, and available resources. Distribute a list of community resources and efforts

Laramie: Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center University of Wyoming , 2021. 51p.

By The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)

Introduction The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) has developed 13 indicators on intimate partner violence and domestic violence to guide the data collection efforts of the police and the justice sector. EIGE’s indicators support EU Member States to measure intimate partner violence and domestic violence and to assess the progress made to combat and monitor these forms of violence. Ultimately, the indicators enhance the comparability of national administrative data on intimate partner and domestic violence in alignment with the minimum requirements of Directive (EU) 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence; Directive 2012/29/EU on establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime; and the Council of Europe convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention). Between 2018 and 2020, EIGE used the 13 indicators to measure intimate partner violence across the EU. Between 2021 and 2022, EIGE revised and simplified the 13 indicators, the data collection tool used to populate the indicators and the data collection methodology. Between 2023 and 2024, EIGE conducted a new EU-wide data collection exercise to measure intimate partner violence and domestic violence using the updated indicators, data collection tool and methodology. This document describes the methodological approach for the 2023–2024 data collection exercise. The structure of this report is as follows. • The following section provides an overview of EIGE’s data collection exercise, indicators and data collection tool and provides general methodological details. • The remaining sections provide indicator-specific details on the methodological approach used to collect data on EIGE’s 13 indicators on intimate partner violence and domestic violence. • The annexes present mapping tables with further information on the availability and comparability of the data collected, and the sources of the data.

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, 152p.

By The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

This report presents the findings of research conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) on existing child protection systems across all EU Member States. The 27 national reports, commissioned from Franet, the agency’s multidisciplinary research network, are available online on the agency’s website. These reports offer a wealth of additional data beyond what is included here. In April 2024, the European Commission adopted a Recommendation on developing and strengthening integrated child protection systems in the best interests of the child. It calls on authorities at all levels of government, civil society and other stakeholders to cooperate to protect children from violence by means of better-integrated systems. Its aim is to enforce a ‘culture of zero-tolerance for violence against children’ (recital 7) while also emphasising ‘Child protection as a global priority of the Union’ (p. 21). In developing the Recommendation, the Commission consulted children by means of the EU Children’s Participation Platform, and more than 1 000 children provided their views. Based on these data and the Commission Recommendation, this report suggests practical me

Vienna: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights ,2025. 118p.

By Thorn in partnership with Burson Insights, Data & Intelligence

Since 2019, Thorn has focused on amplifying youth voices to better understand their digital lives, with particular attention to how they encounter and navigate technology-facilitated forms of sexual abuse and exploitation. Previous youth-centered research has explored topics such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — including that which is self-generated (“SG-CSAM”) — nonconsensual resharing, online grooming, and the barriers young people face in disclosing or reporting negative experiences. In recent years, young people have been encountering sexual interactions involving money and other items of value in their digital lives at an alarming rate, and may, at times, be advertising personal imagery. Technology has previously been recognized as a key enabler in the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) — facilitating unprecedented access to minors, enabling novel “advertising” models, introducing new forms of abuse (e.g., live-streamed child sexual exploitation), and strengthening illicit market networks for CSAM. However, the apparent commodification of sexual interactions involving minors, without clear third-party facilitator, points to an evolution within technology-facilitated forms of sexual exploitation.

Thorn explored this new development as part of its recent Emerging Threats to Young People survey, which examines emergent online risk areas to better understand how current technologies create and/ or exacerbate child safety vulnerabilities and to identify areas where solutions are needed. This report sheds light on some of the ways in which the intersection of technology and romantic or sexual relationships impacts young people and increases their risk for exploitative interactions. These risks include commodified and/or commercial exchanges for nude imagery and/or involvement in sexual acts. Other reports from the series address additional issues, including the emergence of deepfake nudes6 and the evolving nature of sextortion.7 Drawing on responses from a survey of 1,200 young people aged 13-20, this report examines their lived experiences with technology-facilitated sexual solicitations and involvement in commodified exchanges. Three key findings emerged from this research:. It’s common for young people to receive sexual solicitations8 online, often after only a brief period of connection between users. One in 3 (36%) young people reported they had received a solicitation to send sexual imagery of themselves from an online-only contact while they were under the age of 18. Most (79%) of these solicitations were received within a week or less of connecting with the other user.

For some young people, technology-facilitated sexual experiences have been commodified, with young people receiving both monetary and non-monetary (e.g., social opportunities) forms of compensation. One in 7 (15%) young people reported engaging in at least one form of transactional sexual experience while under the age of 18. And 33% of those who had indicated they received social opportunities, like invites to parties or more online followers, as part of their compensation. . Markets for the commercial sexual exploitation of children appear to be expanding, driven, in part, by emerging buyer dynamics that capitalize on vulnerabilities linked to technology-facilitated sexual exploration among young people. Among young people who had a commodified sexual experience as a minor, 25% indicated they never received a solicitation to sell their content, 59% indicated they exclusively knew their buyers online, and 42% indicated they had a buyer who was another minor.

El Segundo, CA: Thorn, 2025. 33p.

By Michele Burman | Ruth Friskney | Jane Mair | Richard Whitecross 

This Report presents the findings of the Domestic Abuse and Child Contact: The Interface Between Criminal and Civil Proceedings research project, funded by the Scottish Government. The study set out to examine the relationship between civil and criminal law in the context of child contact proceedings which raise issues of domestic abuse. The impetus behind the study is to better understand how, if at all, developments in domestic abuse proceedings and changing definitions in the context of criminal law in Scotland, inform the handling of child contact cases which are conducted within the scope of civil justice. Scotland has seen several major policy and legislative developments aimed at reforming responses to domestic abuse, most recently the introduction of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. These developments have been primarily situated within the context of criminal law and the criminal justice process. There has been relatively less attention paid to civil law. The negative impact of domestic abuse on children is well-recognised in Scotland (see, e.g., Callaghan et al 2018). Growing awareness of the nature and impact of domestic abuse is reflected to some extent in the explicit statutory obligations, introduced by the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006, on the civil courts to consider domestic abuse in the context of actions for child contact. In further recent debate and reform of child law and family justice, domestic abuse has been highlighted and children placed at the heart of the decision-making process. Decisions in respect of child contact generally, and in particular where there are allegations of domestic abuse, continue to present significant challenges. Relatively little is known of how these provisions of Scots family law work in practice; of the extent to which the treatment of domestic abuse in the civil courts reflects criminal practice, or of the ways in which individual child contact cases may (or may not) interact with criminal justice proceedings. How child contact, more generally, works in practice in Scotland, is an under-researched area with Wilson and Laing’s (2010) study a rare exception. The significance of the interaction of the criminal and the civil, in the context of domestic abuse and child contact, was clearly identified by the Scottish Government in the commissioning of a significant scoping project: Contact Applications Involving Allegations of Domestic Abuse: Feasibility Study (McGuckin & McGuckin 2004) but the planned Phase 2 did not follow. Much of the research evidence we have on this specific issue in Scots family law derives from two doctoral theses (Mackay 2012; Morrison 2014). Overall, there is limited research evidence on the operation of family law in child contact cases, and whether and how the interpretation and application of the civil law statutory provisions are informed by contemporary understandings of domestic abuse and changing definitions or practices in the criminal law. The research which has been published has consistently stressed the need for further, large scale (e.g., McGuckin & McGuckin 2004; Wilson & Laing 2010) and longitudinal study (e.g., Mays & Christie 2001). Through a focus on the interrelationship between the investigation and prosecution of domestic abuse in criminal justice and parallel child contact proceedings advancing through civil justice processes, this research study contributes to addressing the current knowledge gap. The key stated aims of the study are: a. to understand the ways in which domestic abuse proceedings may inform the handling of and decision-making in child contact cases; b. to explore family law practitioner understandings of the impact and relevance of a course of conduct of domestic abuse and its implication in contact cases under s.11 7A – C of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995; c. to identify and explain perceived impediments or obstacles to communication and information exchange in such cases; and d. to examine the links or lack thereof between domestic abuse criminal proceedings and Child Welfare Hearings (contact). 

Edinburgh: Scottish Civil Justice Hub, Scottish Centre for Crime & Justice Research, 2022. 78p.

By Thi Hoang and Livia Wagner

This report examines the prevalence of online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) in West Africa, specifically in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cape Verde, highlighting key risk factors. Data on OCSEA is scarce due to under-reporting and weak reporting mechanisms, but preliminary data indicates an acceleration in uploads since 2019. Case studies in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Cape Verde reveal gaps and shortcomings in victim identification, protection and prosecution. Urgent action is required to prevent devastating consequences for individuals in West Africa. Key points l Risk factors for OCSEA are prevalent and increasing across the ECOWAS region. l Limited evidence exists regarding the regional prevalence and trends of OCSEA, but preliminary findings suggest that it is more widespread than official data indicates. l Global trends indicate that regions with weak OCSEA identification processes and under-reporting tend to have higher prevalence of OCSEA. l Addressing the challenges of detection, investigation, prosecution and victim support requires sustained political will and greater prioritisation of OCSEA in the policy agenda. l This is an opportune moment for ECOWAS states to take action and implement practical measures to prevent the expansion of OCSEA and strengthen identification and follow-up processes 

OCWAR-T Research Report 7 | August 2023, ENACT Africa, 2023. 48p.

By Kylie Butler and Jasmine B. MacDonald

This policy and practice paper describes what we know about the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and violence against family animals. It covers: (a) the forms of violence against family animals in an IPV context; (b) why perpetrators of IPV use violence against family animals; (c) how violence against family animals affects victim-survivors; and (d) implications for practice including tips for supporting clients who may be experiencing violence against family animals in an IPV context. Key messages ƒ Some evidence suggests that violence against family animals may be an indicator of frequent and severe IPV patterns. ƒ Perpetrators may threaten, harm or kill family animals with an intention to control victimsurvivors, cause emotional distress and/or control animals. ƒ Violence against family animals has negative effects on the physical and psychological wellbeing of victim-survivors, including children and family animals. ƒ Many victim-survivors report staying with, delaying leaving or returning to perpetrators due to fears for the safety of family animals left with the perpetrator. ƒ Actions at the practitioner, service and systemic levels to strengthen support for victimsurvivors of IPV who have experienced violence against family animals include: − screening for violence against family animals and providing support with animal-inclusive safety planning − increasing access to animal-inclusive crisis accommodation ƒ strengthening relationships between IPV support services, animal welfare services and law enforcement

Southbank VIC 3006 Australia Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2024. 16p

By Kristin Lees Haggerty; Olanike Ojelabi; Randi Campetti; Kathy Greelee

The authors of this paper report on a research project aimed at addressing unreported cases of elder abuse, and specifically exploring what guidance policy and decision-makers need in order to address barriers to reporting. Specifically, the authors’ research sought to improve understanding of elder abuse reporting pathways, facilitators, barriers, and outcomes. Over the course of their research, the authors report achieving three main objectives: conducting an environmental scan of policies and practices across states; conducting an in-depth case study of policy changes made in the state of Massachusetts; and developing recommendations for improving communication between Adult Protective Services (APS) and reporters based on findings from the first two objectives. The project was guided by two main research questions: what the legal, ethical, and practical barriers and facilitators are to establishing feedback loops about reported cases of potential elder abuse; and how regulations are interpreted and put into practice at the state and local levels in Massachusetts. The authors discuss their research design, methods, and analytical data analysis techniques, expected applicability of the research, limitations, outcomes, and recommendations.

Waltham, MA: Education Development Center, 2023. 67p.

By Thorn and Burson Insights, Data & Intelligence

Since 2019, Thorn has focused on amplifying youth voices to better understand their digital lives, with particular attention to how they encounter and navigate technologyfacilitated forms of sexual abuse and exploitation. Previous youth-centered research has explored topics such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM)1 —including that which is self-generated (“SG-CSAM”)—nonconsensual resharing, online grooming, and the barriers young people face in disclosing or reporting negative experiences. Thorn’s Emerging Threats to Young People research series aims to examine emergent online risks to better understand how current technologies create and/or exacerbate child safety vulnerabilities and identify areas where solutions are needed. This report, the first in the series, sheds light specifically on young people’s perceptions of and experiences with deepfake nudes. Future reports in this initiative will address other pressing issues, including sextortion and online solicitations. Drawing on responses from a survey of 1,200 young people aged 13-20, this report explores their awareness of deepfake nudes, lived experiences with them, and their involvement in creating such content. Three key findings emerged from this research: CSAM Any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a person less than 18 years old 1. Young people overwhelmingly recognize deepfake nudes as a form of technology-facilitated abuse that harms the person depicted. Eighty-four percent of those surveyed believe that deepfake nudes cause harm, attributing this largely to the emotional and psychological impacts on victims, the potential for reputational damage, and the increasingly photorealistic quality of the imagery, which leads viewers to perceive—and consume—it as authentic. 2. Deepfake nudes already represent real experiences that young people have to navigate. Not only are many young people familiar with the concept, but a significant number report personal connections to this harm—either knowing someone targeted or experiencing it themselves. Forty-one percent of young people surveyed indicated they had heard the term “deepfake nudes,” including 1 in 3 (31%) teens. Additionally, among teens, 1 in 10 (10%) reported personally knowing someone who had deepfake nude imagery created of them, and 1 in 17 (6%) disclosed having been a direct victim of this form of abuse. 3. Among the limited sample of young people who admit to creating deepfake nudes of others, they describe easy access to deepfake technologies. Creators described access to the technologies through their devices’ app stores and accessibility via general search engines and social media

El Segundo, CA: Thorn, 2025. 32p.

By Childlight (Global Child Safety Institute)

The sexual exploitation and abuse of children is a global health crisis. This report – presenting a diverse set of studies into the nature of the crisis – underscores the need for urgent action, provides solutions and shines a light on the financial networks that fuel child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). The theme – who benefits? – asks a critical question: who is making money from this vile trade? The answer is as disturbing as it is clear. Organised crime groups profit, of course, but so do mainstream technology companies. 

The report shows that advertising revenue increases when platforms attract high volumes of traffic, including traffic generated by offenders engaging in CSEA. The exploitation of children is not just an atrocity — it is an industry, generating billions of dollars in profits. This is a market, structured and profitable, designed to generate revenue off the backs of vulnerable children. But markets can be disrupted, and that is where change must begin. Governments, businesses and communities must shift to a prevention-focused approach that stops CSEA before it begins.

Key findings

• Offenders are evolving, adapting and exploiting gaps in legislation and regulations.

• Offenders groom single parents via dating apps to access their children.

• Offenders target displaced children in conflict zones like Ukraine.

• Images are traded using sophisticated payment methods, including cryptocurrencies, to evade detection.

Key solutions

• Law enforcement and financial institutions can use tell-tale digital breadcrumbs to track and dismantle CSEA networks.

• Tech companies must be held accountable, pro-actively detect and remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and make more effective use of tried and tested tools, like blocklists, to shut down access to CSAM.

• Policymakers must act decisively, as the United Kingdom has begun to do, by criminalising AI-generated CSAM and banning so-called ‘how-to’ manuals for paedophiles. 

Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, Childlight, 2025. 15p.

By Jacki Tapley, David Shepherd, Veronika Carruthers, Jennifer Grant, Chloe Hawkins, Michelle McDermott, Megan Thomas 

  The Victim Contact Scheme (VCS) requires the Probation Service to offer contact to victims of specified sexual and/or violent offences to provide information about the offender’s sentence and release. The VCS applies to cases where the sentence is 12 months or more, or where the offender is made subject to a hospital order. The 2021 Target Operating Model for the unified Probation Service highlighted the desire to provide a similar service to victims of stalking, harassment and coercive and controlling behaviour, where the length of sentence is less than 12 months. The Victim Notification Scheme (VNS) differs from the VCS; it is a non-statutory scheme and due to the nature of the shorter sentences there is a need to contact victims more quickly. The VNS was initially trialled from April 2022 in three Probation regions: Hampshire and Thames Valley, Northumbria, and the whole of Kent, Surrey and Sussex. This report provides findings from a process evaluation of the VNS. The aim of the research was to explore the process by which the VNS has been rolled out in the pilot areas, and its perceived impact on those criminal justice professionals responsible for its delivery, as well as the perceived impact on victims’ experiences and the specialist support services assisting them. It also aimed to identify parts of the new process that are working well and areas where further improvements are required, particularly in relation to the shorter timescales required for VNS cases.   

 Ministry of Justice Analytical Series, London: UK Ministry of Justice, 2025. 71p.

By Sukhwant Dhaliwal

This knowledge review is the first to provide an up-to-date overview of published research in relation to the sexual abuse of African, Asian and Caribbean heritage children. It sets out what this research says about the nature of that abuse, its impacts, the barriers that prevent children talking about it, and how concerns about it are identified and responded to – both within communities and by services. Equally importantly, it identifies significant gaps in knowledge and understanding, and recommends how these can be addressed. Commissioned by the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (the CSA Centre) and Barnardo’s SEEN Centre for children and young people of African, Asian and Caribbean heritage, the review was conducted by the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) at London Metropolitan University. In addition to examining 79 publications (including research studies, journal articles, book chapters and ‘grey’ literature) which related to 59 distinct research or evaluation projects, it collated information on ongoing research and convened four focus groups involving African, Asian and Caribbean heritage people with knowledge of child sexual abuse as academics/researchers, practitioners and ‘experts by experience’. Overview of the research literature The publications reviewed dated from between 1988 and 2023. There is a shape to their content and quantity, with recent years seeing rapid growth in the number of publications. Only a small number of studies were published up to the early 2000s. The period between 2010 and 2015 focused principally on the sexual exploitation of African, Asian and Caribbean heritage children; subsequently, there was a shift towards talking about child sexual abuse and sexual violence more widely. Most of the published studies were based on qualitative research and were small in scale. They typically focused on a particular ethnic group or on abuse in particular settings such as religious institutions, with an emphasis on the experiences of women and girls; the distinct experiences of boys were largely absent. Very few included quantitative analysis of larger samples. As a result, the literature tells us about the nature of the sexual abuse experienced by African, Asian and Caribbean heritage children, and the contexts in which it takes place, but not its scale. The review found that the sexual abuse of Asian heritage children, primarily those of North Indian and Pakistani heritage, received more research attention than the sexual abuse of African and Caribbean heritage children: only four studies focused solely on African victims/survivors, and another four on Black Caribbean victims/survivors. Moreover, children of African, East Asian and Southeast Asian heritage received hardly any attention. There was little research engaging directly with African, Asian and Caribbean heritage children; most relied instead on accounts from adult victims/survivors or practitioners, or on analysis of children’s case files. Studies involving the greatest direct engagement with children as research participants were those on gang-associated sexual violence, one on intra-familial child sexual abuse, and two on the experiences of unaccompanied asylumseeking minors. Although many of the studies included discussion of service responses to the sexual abuse of African, Asian or Caribbean heritage children, there were only three evaluations of support services or interventions.

Barkingside<Ilford: Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, 2024. 112p.