CCR Seminar Series: Intersecting Trauma and Justice: Violence Against Women and Families

The Centre for Criminological Research is hosting a series of seminars and events centred around the theme of 'Health, crime and criminal justice'. The links between crime and health are increasingly important for public policy. The new government's missions to prevent ill health and to cut crime overlap when public services deal with the most vulnerable groups. This semester's season of public seminars at the Centre for Criminological Research will bring together researchers, policymakers and practitioners who want to improve the way health services work on issues of crime, and how the criminal justice system works on issues of health.

Our first event on Wednesday 5 March will be a hybrid panel discussion on addressing and understanding abuse and violence against women and families, with Dr Michaela Rogers (University of Sheffield), Dr Moninuola Ifayomi (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Dr Sadiq Bhanbhro (Sheffield Hallam University). The session will be chaired by Professor Parveen Ali.

For further information please contact either of the event coordinators, Professor Parveen Ali or Dr Emily Rose Hay Tea and coffee will be served.

This will be a seminar with three speakers:

Dr Michaela Rogers, University of Sheffield: Women's experiences of repeat victimization: A life course perspective

Abstract
Violence against women is a global public health concern, with high levels of prevalence and debilitating consequences for victims, including a higher risk of revictimization. Quantitative evidence shows a strong association between previous experiences of sexual victimization, particularly in childhood, and future victimization. However, there is limited rigorous qualitative scholarship that advances understanding about revictimization experienced from childhood into adulthood. In this study, we address this gap offering a novel contribution to qualitative insights on revictimization using a life-course perspective. We conducted a rigorous qualitative secondary analysis, adopting a feminist narrative approach, to explore how individuals make sense of their experiences of abuse. Findings showed five main themes about survivors' experiences of repeat victimization across the life-course including: abuse experiences in childhood and adolescence; mental health and 'risky' coping mechanisms; naming abuse in early adulthood; seeking support in adulthood; surviving and a life beyond abuse. Most participants experienced multiple incidents of sexual abuse in childhood, which led to helplessness, shame, blame, and normalization of their experiences, creating a vulnerability to repeat victimization. Childhood abuse had later mental health impacts. Many participants used risky coping mechanisms, such as substance use. Survivors tended to be seen through the lens of their mental health diagnosis and addiction rather than through the lens of how abuse caused complex trauma. To address the impacts of revictimization and complex trauma affecting women across the globe, healthcare policy and services need a narrative and trauma-informed approach, over the short-, medium- or longer-term, enabling survivors to make sense of the connected nature of their experiences and accumulated vulnerability resulting from the abuse by others, rather than factors associated with the individual (their mental ill health, for example, or substance use). This is important as women's individual understanding is critical to processing trauma and abuse, and to longer-term recovery.

Bio: Michaela joined the Department of Sociological Studies in 2019 as a Senior Lecturer in Social Work, having previously taught at the University of Salford following the completion of her PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2013. Before entering academia, Michaela enjoyed many years in social work and social care practice working in both the statutory and voluntary sectors. For the most part, Michaela’s career in practice was spent working in the field of domestic violence and abuse, but she also worked in child protection, foster care, and community development. Her work lies at the intersection of gender-based violence, marginalisation, help-seeking and social care.

Dr Moninuola Ifayomi, Manchester Metropolitan University: An Evaluative Study of Child To Parent Violence And Abuse Programmes

Abstract
Child-to-parent violence and abuse (CPVA), also known as parent abuse, is a pervasive and multifaceted global phenomenon, exhibiting a high prevalence with a detrimental effect at the individual, familial, and societal levels. Responses to child to parent violence and abuse originate from various sectors, including criminal justice and child protection, with practitioners in various fields often delivering inconsistent and improvised responses with little or no effect. A number of interventions and strategies for addressing CPV have shown to be effective; however, there is a dearth of data regarding the theoretical framework underpinning CPVA interventions. The main aim was to evaluate the theoretical frameworks/modalities underlying these interventions, the individual and socio-contextual factors that facilitate or hinder the CPVA programmes, the needs, and outcomes the interventions are addressing, and the implications for future practice.

Qualitative data was collected from 62 practitioners using a focus group and analysed using a thematic analysis design. Findings from this study revealed CPVA from a person-in-context perspective. Three superordinate themes were identified, namely, i) conceptualising CPVA, ii) modalities of CPVA interventions/programmes, and iii) individual and socio-contextual facilitating and inhibiting factors for CPVA intervention. Findings uncover the complexity, nature, and pattern of violence within child-to-parent violence and abuse contexts. Findings show seven fundamental principles that underpin various CPVA interventions and programmes. Individual, systemic and socio-contextual facilitators and inhibiting factors to CPV interventions and implications to practice were identified, highlighting what works and what does not from the perspective of CPVA practitioners. CPVA modalities are influenced by multiple factors, such as the child's and family's identified needs, changes in family dynamics, contributing factors to CPVA, organizational mission, procedures and policies, individual expertise, practice context, and intended programme.

Bio: Dr Moninuola Ifayomi is a Lecturer in Nursing at the Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research explores social and public health problems affecting children and young people, including abuse, violence, safeguarding, and child protection practices and policies. This includes exploring the experience of the healthcare profession and exploring ways to improve healthcare services.

Dr Sadiq Bhanbhro, Sheffield Hallam University: Honour-based abuse (HBA) and well-being of women and girls in the UK

Abstract
Honour-based abuse (HBA) or honour crimes involve violence and abuse, including murder, committed by people who want to defend or restore the honour of an individual or a social group, which can be a family, clan, class, caste, community, kinship or tribe. This crime may affect men, boys, lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people, but HBA is more prevalent against women and girls. HBA and honour crimes are umbrella terms that include several types of offences, including forced marriages, sexual, psychological and economic abuse, female genital mutilation, and honour killings.

Cases of so-called honour-based abuse (HBA) are on the rise in England and Wales. Home Office figures show 2,905 HBA offences in 2022-23 – an increase of 1% in the year ending March 2023 from the year before. This is a rise of 10% since 2020-21. It has been mandatory for police in England and Wales to record crimes often referred to as “honour-based” since 2019. Between 2016 and 2020, the number recorded rose by 81%.

This mandatory reporting may be behind some of the increase in offences. But the pandemic lockdowns also provided abusers with greater opportunity to offend. What’s more, there may be many cases of HBA that go unreported. There are a variety of harmful practices categorised as HBA.

HBA is considered a sub-set of gender-based violence, and it has a serious detrimental impact on the health and well-being of women, girls, communities and wider society. As the evidence suggests, GBV is the leading cause of death, disability and illness of women and girls, leading to health consequences including chronic pain and depression. HBA also contributes to it. It can negatively affect the emotional and mental well-being of women and girls if they are directly victimised themselves or they witness it. For example, young girls living in a community affected by honour-provoked abuse and violence may live in constant fear for their safety within households or accessing health care services.

Considerable progress has been made toward understanding the nature of VAWG in general. However, there is little known about HBA beyond its predominantly 'cultural framing', which is inadequate and does not provide sufficient knowledge to develop interventions to prevent HBA. Therefore, since 2016, I have started investigating HBA from a public health perspective, attentive to the intersection of a range of casual and correlational factors and inclusive of a wide range of both proven and promising public health interventions in terms of prevention, as well as to address the causes and consequences of HBA.

My approach is based on the premise that framing and presenting violence of any sort as a cultural issue does not help prevent it. Other, more practical ways are required to analyse its nature, roots, and spread. A public health approach to the issue could include creating an unprejudiced and inclusive definition of the problem. This is because if it is seen as a problem that can affect anybody rather than just one part of a community, it will be treated more seriously by the police, judiciary, social, and healthcare professionals.

Bio: Dr Sadiq Bhanbhro is a Senior Research Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University. He is an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural researcher with over 17 years of academic experience in the UK and abroad. Sadiq’s expertise spans anthropology, public health, gender studies, and sociology. This has informed his PhD on the political economy of honour and honour killings of women and girls in the UK and Pakistan. His research in Global Public Health focuses on intersections within gender, health, culture and violence, particularly honour-based abuse (HBA), honour crimes and honour killings across the world. Sadiq has significantly contributed to improving understanding and addressing honour crimes, particularly within abuse and killings of women and girls. His projects have generated empirical knowledge of how communities view honour and its implication in honour crimes. Sadiq has created a framework, case studies, and tools to investigate sensitive topics like HBA. In 2023, he also submitted HBA evidence to the UK Parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee. The committee accepted the evidence and published it on its website to promote a nuanced understanding of honour crimes. Dr Bhanbhro advises the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). This independent administrative tribunal is responsible for refugee protection and immigration appeals in Canada concerning honour-based violence issues. He has published and appeared in the media discussing honour crime and delivered a well-received TEDx talk in 2022. Sadiq has published 25 peer-reviewed research papers in international journals and five book chapters and has presented his research at over 35 conferences worldwide. Beyond academia, his influence extends to the public through his insightful contributions to platforms like Conversation UK, The Express Tribune, the Friday Times, and other media outlets. Sadiq is a co-editor of the book ‘Anti-Racist Nursing and Midwifery: A Guide for Students, Practitioners and Educators (Critical Publishing June 2025).

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