By Hayley Boxall and Christopher Dowling and Anthony Morgan

Differences between male and female perpetrated domestic violence are widely acknowledged. However, there is a lack of Australian data on the circumstances of female perpetrated violence. This study analysed 153 police narratives of domestic violence incidents involving a female person of interest (POI). Results were consistent with international studies. Half of the episodes involved either self-defensive or retaliatory violence—otherwise known as violent resistance—meaning the POI had been a victim of prior violence by their partner or the episode involved a male victim who was abusive in the lead-up to the incident. Violent resistance was more common in incidents involving Indigenous women. The findings highlight the different motivations for female perpetrated domestic violence, and the importance of understanding the complex dynamics of violent episodes.

Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, no. 584. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2020.17p.

by Hannah Jeffery, Lucy Slade, and Stephen Whitehead

Victim-survivors of domestic abuse face complex barriers at every stage of the criminal justice system. Subsequently, many withdraw from the process due to experiencing re-traumatisation, personal safety concerns and not being engaged in the process. Specialist Domestic Abuse Courts (SDACs) seek to address these complex barriers through offering a dedicated approach to processing domestic abuse cases. 

This report presents an evaluation of the Westminster Specialist Domestic Abuse Court, identifies the key elements of the SDAC model through conducting qualitative interviews with stakeholders and victim-survivors. It is hoped that these findings can be applied to the replication of the model elsewhere and develop practice in existing SDACs. 

London: Centre for Justice Innovation, 2022. 36p

By Hannah Jeffe

  Victim-survivors of domestic abuse* and harmful practices** who are also in contact with the criminal justice system (hitherto known as ‘victim-survivors’) often either choose to withdraw their case or see their cases dropped by criminal justice agencies. It has been evidenced that Black and Minoritised victim-survivors may face even greater barriers to participating in the criminal justice process than their white counterparts, due to (i) the fear of, or actual reprisals from, community members should they report domestic abuse; (ii) having additional language needs; and (iii) issues with their immigration status. However, it has been recognised that specialist support from advocates can help mitigate these barriers for Black and Minoritised victim-survivors. This research project explored (i) the value of specialist advocacy for Black and Minoritised victim-survivors; (ii) how these advocacy services support Black and Minoritised victim-survivors; and (iii) the barriers they encounter in doing so. The Centre for Justice Innovation conducted a rapid evidence and policy review, along with nine interviews and a workshop with practitioners working in specialist domestic abuse and harmful practices advocacy about their experiences of supporting victim-survivors.

London: Centre for Justice Innovation, 2023. 4p.

by Sheena Webb, Carolyn Lipp, and Hannah Jeffery

Domestic abuse is one of the key drivers of child protection involvement in the UK. But there is a real lack of evidence around effective ways to with domestic abuse perpetrators. Recent research has highlighted the importance of substance misuse and the experience of trauma amongst perpetrators, and suggests that interventions which take these three issues together may be more effective than many of the current strategies. This project aims to contribute to our understanding of how to effectively work with perpetrators of domestic abuse by focussing on Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDACs), a non-adversarial, trauma-informed alternative to standard care proceedings which works with many domestic abuse perpetrators. Parents within FDAC proceedings receive therapeutic support from a multidisciplinary team and have regular review hearings with a dedicated judge. This report compares the lessons learned from a systematic review of the evidence around the links between abuse, trauma and perpetration of abuse with the way that these three issues are understood and responded to by FDAC teams and judges. 

London: Centre for Justice Innovation, 2023. 101p.

By  Danielle Davidson, Bridget Harris and Helena Menih

Young people experiencing homelessness and domestic and family violence have complex needs and encounter extensive barriers when seeking support and assistance. They may not recognise or may normalise abuse, thereby compounding the issue. Unfortunately, non-government and government sectors and agencies can be siloed, further complicating responses and hindering service provision. To overcome this problem, an innovative approach has been employed by some agencies; an embedded worker model. We have conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with agencies in Brisbane, Australia, who employ this model. As we discuss, the embedded worker aims to connect youth and domestic and family violence organisations, potentially addressing abuse better and bolstering youth safety and the capability and capacity of workers.

Canberra: QUT Centre for Justice, 2022. 4p

By United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

  Some 47,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their intimate partners or other family members in 2020. This means that, on average, a woman or girl is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes. Where trends can be calculated, they show that the magnitude of such gender-related killings remains largely unchanged, however, with only marginal increases and decreases over the past decade . However, according to WomenOnGuard an estimated 48,000 women and girls were killed by family members in 2022.

Vienna: UNODC, 2021. 34p.

By Kathleen Manion, et al.

  It is no longer possible to ignore the significant and widespread impact violence has on children. It influences children and young people in the short and long term, but also sometimes across generations. Violence against children and young people happens in schools, in homes, in their communities, and across various systems that touch the lives of children. In South East Europe, violence against children and young people is pervasive. This research project investigates the experiences of violence that children experience at school and enroute to and from school. This study particularly focuses on understanding the social and gender norms impacting school-related, gender based violence (SRGBV), and the role of children and young people in challenging these social norms. With Child Protection Hub South East Europe, Terre des hommes, and the Institute for International Child Rights and Development (IICRD), this study was conducted in eight countries in South East Europe, specifically in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Moldova, Romania, and Serbia. The purpose of the research was: to explore the social and gender norms impacting school related gender-based violence (SRGBV), and the potential role of children and young people in challenging these social norms. This qualitative research project collected data through participatory research activities and focus groups with young people and key supportive adults across two sites within each country.   

Child Protection Hub for SouthEast Europe, 2021. 145p.

By Julia Davidson, Mary Aiken, Kirsty Phillips and Ruby Far

Researching cybercriminality to design new methods to prevent, investigate and mitigate cybercriminal behaviour. This is one of the largest studies to date exploring youth cybercriminality. The survey is informed by 5 key disciplines: cyberpsychology, criminology, psychology, neuroscience, and digital anthropology Results confirm that cybercrime and cyberdeviance is prevalent-survey finds that two thirds (69%) of European youth self-report to 4 have committed at least one form of cybercrime or online harm or risk taking, and just under half 47.76% (N=3808) report to have engaged in criminal behaviour online, from summer of 2020 to the summer of 2021 Survey finds that males are more likely (74%) than females (65%) to selfreport having been involved in at least one form of cybercrime or online harm or risk taking in the last year and results confirm that the majority of cybercrime and cyberdeviant behaviours are gendered. Survey analysis demonstrates that cybercriminal and online harm or risk taking behaviours form a cluster of 11 behaviours that are highly interrelated (CcCd-Cluster) and that cybercrime and online harm or risk taking behaviours represent a spectrum (CcCd-Spectrum) A significant shift from a siloed, categorical approach is needed in terms of how cybercrimes are conceptualised, investigated, and legislated.

London, United Kingdom Institute for Connected Communities, University of East London. 2022. 10p.

By Michele Battisti, Ilpo Kauppinen, Britta Rude

This paper asks whether social movements taking place on Twitter affect gender-based violence (GBV). Using Twitter data and machine learning methods, we construct a novel data set on the prevalence of Twitter conversations about GBV. We then link this data to weekly crime reports at the federal state level from the United States. We exploit the high-frequency nature of our data and an event study design to establish a causal impact of Twitter social movements on GBV. Our results point out that Twitter tweets related to GBV lead to a decrease in reported crime rates. The evidence shows that perpetrators commit these crimes less due to increased social pressure and perceived social costs. The results indicate that social media could significantly decrease reported GBV and might facilitate the signaling of social norms.

Munich: ifo Institute, - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, 2022. 67p.

By Sarah Mason; Brent Allen Miller; Kiera Dressler

As more schools become involved in social media monitoring and response, a variety of logistical, technological, and ethical challenges appear. This resource highlights example 3 practices, concerns, and methods for social media monitoring in a school setting. The main topics discussed are 1) Reasons for considering social media monitoring; 2) What social media monitoring programs do; 3) Evidence base for social media monitoring; 4) Considerations for schools thinking about monitoring social media; and 5) Ethical framework for Introducing social media monitoring. In addition, although there is no consensus regarding the legality of a school partnering with an outside organization to monitor student behavior, this issue is discussed with reference to records developed through a third-party social media monitoring program.

Ann Arbor, MI: National Center for School Safety, 2022. 10p.

By European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs

The study’s overarching aim is to understand the phenomenon of online identity theft and its societal and regulatory implications in the EU. It assesses the nature and scale of the identity theft problem in the EU, describing the prevalent criminal schemes and estimating the number of victims and costs. The study also maps and analyses current legislative, regulatory, and non-regulatory measures to combat online identity theft and identity-related crime across the 27 EU Member States. Based on this mapping it identifies best practices and possible gaps in the identified measures. The findings of the study supported the drafting of recommendations for future measures and actions at EU level

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2022. 231p.

By Russell Brewer, Tyson Whitten, Morgan Sayer, Colette Langos

Little systematic attention has been given to the specific digital settings and contexts in which cyberdeviance occurs. As a result, many of the preventative programs developed or recommendations made are not necessarily evidence based. Identifying and articulating evidence-based approaches to developing effective interventions for young people is critical due to the serious social and economic harms associated with increasing levels of cyber-deviance (Brewer et al. 2018; Cale et al. 2019; Livingstone et al. 2010; 2011). Importantly, much research suggests the development of effective interventions relies on the accurate identification of factors known to contribute to delinquency (Andrews & Bonta 2010; Dowden & Andrews 1999; Koehler et al. 2013). A substantial body of research has identified risk factors associated with deviance in offline settings. Dynamic risk factors that are relatively stable across time (including those relating to behavioural functioning, propensity for risk-taking and parenting practices) tend to have a strong influence on the risk of 2 delinquency in offline settings, and may also be a precursor for serious and persistent anti-social behaviours (Farrington, 2010; Moffitt et al. 1996). Fortunately, given that these stable risk factors often first manifest at an early age, vulnerable youth can be prospectively identified early in life, and subsequently prioritised for indicated prevention programs. When it comes to cyber-deviance, however, the evidence base regarding its prevention is far less developed, particularly as it pertains to young people. In addition to not knowing the impact of such risk factors on cyber-deviance, in recent years, researchers have hypothesised that there may be distinctive and divergent criminogenic factors at play whilst online, when compared to offline forms of deviance. This work argued that features of online environments can have profound implications for how adolescent delinquency arises and can therefore make the digital environment a hazardous place from a risk management and mitigation perspective (Goldsmith & Brewer, 2015). Recent studies have begun to account for these criminogenic properties and understand cyber-deviance as driven not only by individual (i.e. dynamic) attributes, but also as a function of exposure to digital technologies, sites and services, and the interactional opportunities afforded as a consequence (e.g. Brewer et al. 2018; Cale et al. 2019). This body of work suggests that in order to fully understand the risk factors online, both idiosyncratic and exposure measures must be accounted for. This report aims to identify whether time-stable dynamic risk factors are associated with adolescent cyber deviance in Australia, as well as better understand the risks associated with exposure across digital environments. This research was conducted for the purposes of developing an evidence base from which researchers can draw upon to design more effective interventions. This was achieved by conducting a cross-sectional study in a South Australian secondary school (n=327) that assessed the factors associated with adolescent engagement in eight forms of cyber-deviance: cyber-hate, cyberviolence, digital piracy, unauthorised access (hacking), cyber-bullying and abuse, online fraud, sexting, and imagebased sexual abuse.

Adelaide: University of Adelaide, 2020. 34p.

By Ofcom

On 14 May 2022, an attack was carried out in Buffalo, New York, which resulted in the death of ten individuals and the wounding of three others. The attack was live-streamed online and versions of the footage were disseminated on multiple online services, potentially exposing UK users to content related to terrorism. As the regulator of UK established video-sharing platforms (VSPs) and the prospective UK Online Safety regulator, we sought to learn from the tragic event by reviewing industry responses to the live-streamed attack and cross-industry collaboration to prevent dissemination of associated content. The Buffalo attack showed that terrorist, violent and hateful content online can play a significant role in radicalising vulnerable users. The attacker was reportedly inspired by, and used a similar modus operandi to, the Christchurch mosque attacks in New Zealand, where 51 individuals lost their lives. Large sections of the Christchurch attacker’s manifesto were copied and numerous references were made to him in the Buffalo attacker’s diary. Such an attack highlights the complexity and challenges associated with terrorist content online. It has been reported that the attacker was radicalised in part through exposure to racist content on the message board 4chan. He also appears to have acted alone and did not belong to any terrorist or other related organisation. Links to his online diary were shared in private servers and through direct messages approximately 30 minutes before the attack; 15 individuals clicked on the link to the diary. The livestream of the attack lasted less than 2 minutes and there were 28 viewers, or fewer, who watched the livestream of the channel at some point during broadcast. Despite this low figure, footage of the attack was spread across platforms and seen by millions of people, and copies of the diary and manifesto were shared mainly through smaller platforms. The potential of harm from such an exploitation of online services is multifaceted: the disturbing and graphic nature of the footage, the (re)traumatisation of communities who have been affected by similar incidents and the risk of radicalisation of vulnerable online users.

London: Ofcom, 2022. 32p.

By Richard Wortley And Stephen Smallbone

From the foreword by Graeme Newman: “…We see from the authors' outstanding review of who the offenders and victims are and how they are connected through the Internet and other technologies that Internet child pornography is the quintessential global crime, bringing with it the increasingly familiar problems of policing-crimes defined differently across multiple countries and jurisdictions, the labyrinthine and decentralized nature of the Internet, the capability to transmit images across borders around the world instantaneously, and the availability of smartphones and other mobile devices to children and those who would exploit them. They remind us that at the shocking end of the continuum of child pornography, it is essentially local because the actual, original production of child pornographic images most often results from contact sexual abuse by adults with close familial or social relationships to the children. It is the international distribution and con- sumption of images that convert the local crimes into global ones…”

NY. Praeger. 2012. 165p.

By The United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG CAAC)

  Each year thousands of children are deprived of their liberty in situations of armed conflict, many because of their actual or alleged association with parties to the conflict or on alleged national security-related grounds. The increasing numbers of children being detained is a concern in itself, but also because child detainees are highly vulnerable to a wide range of human rights violations and abuses, including conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). The vast majority (over 95%) of children detained in armed conflict are boys. So, although all children are at risk of sexual violence in detention settings, and girls are disproportionality impacted by CRSV generally, this discussion paper focuses on how detained boys are exposed to the risk of CRSV in particularly high numbers and examines possible responses to this. Based on available data, rape and other forms of sexual violence against males, including boys, are reported more frequently in situations of deprivation of liberty than in most other settings. Although many, possibly most, incidents are never reported, CRSV against boys deprived of their liberty has been documented in recent years in countries including Afghanistan, Central African Republic (CAR), Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Most documented incidents relate to boys held by state security forces but CRSV against boys deprived of their liberty by non-State armed groups (NSAGs) has also been reported. In both instances, CRSV has been used as a form of torture, to punish, to extract information or to exert authority. In some contexts, it is also committed by other detainees. Chronic under-reporting of CRSV in general, combined with challenges involved in gathering data in detention settings, means that the true scale of the problem is not known and the risks to, vulnerabilities of, and impacts on young detainees are poorly understood. This, by extension, hampers efforts to effectively prevent and respond to it. However, CRSV in detention settings is not a standalone issue, but must be addressed as part of broader, ongoing efforts to protect children in situations of armed conflict. It is also necessarily a collective endeavour, requiring dedicated attention from a wide range of different stakeholders.   

New York: United Nations, 2022. 44p.

By The United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG CAAC)

  In the Central African Republic (CAR), thousands of children have been recruited and used by parties to armed conflict over the last decade, predominantly by non-State armed groups (NSAGs). According to UN reports, many girls have been recruited for a wide range of purposes, including sexual exploitation or otherwise subjected to sexual abuse during their association with the groups, with devastating consequences for the girls. As is the case elsewhere, far less is known about how sexual violence impacts boys associated with fighting forces, such as happens in CAR, and about the needs for care and support that may arise from it. Recognising that conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) disproportionately affects women, including girls, and that all CRSV is severely underreported for all age and gender groups, this discussion note is intended to shed light on the under-discussed issue of how CRSV affects boys, as demonstrated in one of the situations of children and armed conflict (CAAC), specifically in CAR. Its aim is to contribute to building a better understanding of the potential risks to, and vulnerabilities of, boys to CRSV when associated with armed forces or armed groups in CAR, and to explore how existing medical care and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), as well as legal/judicial and reintegration responses, can better take account of the possibility of such abuse. The following analysis and recommendations are not claimed to be exclusively relevant to boys in CAR, but instead to provide greater visibility to a phenomenon that exists in many conflict settings. Based on information gathered between March and July 2022 through interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) with actors involved in efforts to secure the release and reintegration of children associated with armed forces or armed groups (CAAFAG) and respond to CRSV and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) in CAR, a range of gaps in knowledge and other challenges were identified.  

New York: United Nations, 2022. 52p.

By Sheridan Miyamoto ; Cynthia Bittner; Daniel F. Perkins; Lorah Dorn; Cameron Richardson; Hui Zhao; Dennis Scanlon

This is the final report following 4 years of developing and operating the SAFE-T Center, which was launched in 2017 with support from the U.S. Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) as a means of improving access to high quality sexual assault (SA) care by providing expert, live, interactive mentoring, quality assurance, and evidence-based training to less experienced nurses via telehealth technology.

 When a SA examination is performed at one of the partner hospitals, one of SAFE-T Center’s expert Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) (teleSANEs) provides real-time support to both the on-site nurse and the patient, ensuring best practices, proper evidence collection, and a supportive environment for the patient. For the current project, detailed progress reports were completed on a biannual basis throughout the funding period (2017-2021). Given the level of detail in prior progress reports, the current report focuses instead on a high-level overview of project goals, the philosophy and approach to the work in advancing goals, and key outcomes. A critical part of this effort was to determine whether the solutions envisioned and created had the positive impact intended. Much of the report addresses reflections on program effects and lessons learned. Overall, it was evident that comprehensive hubs of expertise can increase equitable access to quality SA care in a field with chronic shortages of expertise. Community partners in eight diverse and unique communities value the resources provided. Policy and legislative initiatives are needed to establish minimum standards of SA care and to provide incentives and support to ensure hospitals that are not able to offer expert comprehensive SANE-led care can provide expertise through telehealth programs.

State College, PA: Pennsylvania Sexual Assault Forensic Examination and Training (SAFE-T) Center, 2022. 64p.

By The U.S. Library of Congress, Federal Research Division

The goal of this report is to provide SMART and other interested stakeholders with a global list of country legislations and statutes pertaining to sex offender registration and notification. This report contains a main narrative section and an appendix. Divided into a main report and an appendix, this report first presents the laws and regulations of forty-one countries found to have sex offender registration and notification systems, or something comparable. The appendix lists another forty-two countries found to have had notable movement regarding sex offender registration laws; for example, those that have proposed legislation on the subject matter, or, that have attempted, but failed, to pass relevant bills. Countries for which researchers did not find relevant information are excluded from this report. Countries within the main report are organized into six geographic regions: Africa [Sub-Sahara], East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, Near East [North Africa and Middle East], South and Central Asia, and the Western Hemisphere. Associated territories, states, and in the case of the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and colonies, that have distinct local legislation or regulatory language pertaining to sex offender registration and notification, are included as well.  

Washington, DC: U..S. Library of Congress, 2022, 225p.

By Alexis Jay, Malcolm Evans. Ivor Frank and Drusilla Sharpling  

In this investigation, the Inquiry considered the sexual exploitation of children by organised networks. Department for Education guidance recognises that child sexual exploitation is a form of child sexual abuse. It is said to occur “where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into sexual activity (a) in exchange for something the victim needs or wants, and/or (b) for the financial advantage or increased status of the perpetrator or facilitator”.1 A ‘network’ was defined for the purposes of this investigation as “two or more individuals (whether identified or not) who are known to (or associated with) one another”. Offender networks are often loosely interconnected rather than formally organised and older children or teenagers may also be involved in grooming victims. The sexual exploitation of children by networks is not a rare problem confined to a small number of areas with high-profile criminal cases. It is a crime which involves the sexual abuse of children in the most degrading and destructive ways, by multiple perpetrators. The Inquiry therefore chose to base this investigation on areas which had not already been the subject of independent investigation (such as Rotherham, Rochdale and Oxford). The intention was to obtain an accurate picture of current practice at a strategic level and through examination of individual cases, as well as drawing on wider knowledge about child sexual exploitation in England and Wales. Six case study areas were chosen: Durham, Swansea, Warwickshire, St Helens, Tower Hamlets and Bristol. Eight themes were examined in each area: • problem profiling and disruption of child sexual exploitation; • empathy and concern for child victims; • risk assessment, protection from harm and outcomes for children; • missing children, return home interviews and children in care; • male victims; • children with disabilities; • partnership working; and • audit, review and performance improvement.

London: Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse,   2022. 193p.

By Vic F.. Wiener

Placing youth on sex offender registries fails to advance public safety and has devastating consequences for registered youth and their families. While 38 states place youth adjudicated delinquent on sex offender registries, Florida’s laws are some of the harshest in the country—children as young as 14 can be placed on the public registry for life, subject to residency restrictions limiting where they can live or work, and prevented from wearing Halloween costumes. Any failure to comply exactly with the complex 6,000-word registration law places children at risk of large fines and years of imprisonment. This report examines Florida’s youth registration laws and their history, city and county ordinances that affect registered youth, and data on registered youth in Florida.

Philadelphia: Juvenile Law Center, 2022. 52p.