Spotlight on Gender-Based Violence Research

16 Days of Activism Against GBV

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence (GBV) is an international, annual campaign designed to raise awareness and initiate action for the eradication of violence against women and girls in communities all around the world. During this time, Glasgow Caledonian joins a global network of organisations, including many of our colleagues within the tertiary education system, to deliver a range of activities that support our ongoing wider gender-based violence prevention and response programme of work.

Universities can have a large and lasting impact on combating GBV not only as institutes of teaching and learning but as instruments for research and analysis.

In recognition of the vital part research plays, Glasgow Caledonian presented a spotlight on GBV research for 16 Days in 2023. Each day, a research project designed to answer long-standing questions around GBV such as the causes, consequences and possible solutions were shared here and across our social media platforms. The research projects contained within this spotlight are a snapshot of the work being conducted at Glasgow Caledonian across multiple disciplines around GBV, including law, criminology, sociology and health sciences. The research showcases the power of collaboration and academia as a vehicle for change.

Research projects

Researchers: Prof Nancy Lombard and Dr Kate Butterby

The ISEDA project (Innovative Solutions to Eliminate Domestic Abuse) is a collaboration between 15 partners from nine European countries, with the main objective to combat and eliminate domestic abuse via modern technological tools and practices. Overall, the ISEDA project, employing multidisciplinary expertise and addressing the different aspects of domestic abuse, has the potential to significantly challenge domestic abuse on a European level and contribute to the establishment of the necessary robust long-lasting structures to eliminate it.

Tools to be developed (all in-progress):

Chatbot: will be designed to support victim-survivors to find information about domestic abuse, such as local support services and information on the different types. It will also be designed as a tool to store evidence such as photos and videos, which can be used in court to support a victim-survivor’s case.
Police training: interactive training will be developed for police to support them to improve their recognition of and response to domestic abuse. This will be done via ‘serious game-play’, where police can respond to real-life situations, making decisions throughout the training which influence the overall outcome for a victim-survivor.
Campaigns and education programmes: campaigns will be developed via informational guides, posters and videos, and education programmes for schools will focus on deconstructing toxic gender stereotypes and promoting healthy relationships.
Perpetrator programmes: promotion and implementation of perpetrator programs as an alternative to imprisonment and a chance for positive change.

GCU is involved across the work packages We have conducted focus groups and interviews with victim-survivors, third-sector organisations and police to explore the potential uses for technology (such as a chatbot) to support victim-survivors.

We have completed a literature review exploring the use of technology within the gender-based violence field, which is being used to inform the development of the chatbot. Part of this task involved developing protocol relating to the ethics of using technological tools We also developed an evaluation protocol which will be rolled out to chatbot users during the pilot.

Researcher: Naomi McGookin

Key findings:

The co-parents of internet-based child sex offenders are usually women who are subsequently categorised as the “non-offending carer” or NOC in the existing literature base and by statutory services such as police and social work who become involved with the family following the arrest of an alleged offender.
These women are unaware of their partners offences until the “Knock” whereby the police raid their houses for technology and make arrests. Where there are children in the house, social work will often investigate for potential sexual abuse and the children are usually subject to child protection proceedings. These events are traumatic for the whole family and it is the mother (i.e the non-offending carer) who is responsible for facilitating these investigations and ensuring her children are protected from potential harm at the hands of her (ex)partner.
Women who have children with online child sex offenders serve a parallel sentence along with their co-parent through no fault of their own as they experience post-traumatic stress symptoms, reduced income, community and familial isolation, fear of vigilante activity, threats to personal safety and doxxing.
Statutory support for family members of online offenders is minimal and social work services often are suspicious of partners. There is no national guidance for practitioners to consistently and accurately assess the risk to the children of online offenders and so the “non-offending carer” is often given sole responsibility of supervising all contact between their (ex)partner and their children until the children turn 16.

This Participatory Action Research project was co-produced alongside four women with lived experience of co-parenting with online offenders. We used a mixture of research methods such as Photovoice, poetry and vignette to capture the experiences of “The Knock”, the aftermath and the continuing impact their (ex)partners offending has had on the lives of them and their children. These entries were displayed at two separate exhibitions for MSPs, policy makers, practitioners and educators. It is hoped that these exhibits were able to raise awareness of the experiences of family members and that the stories shared by these women will continue to generate conversations and changes in practice with those working with and around family members of sex offenders.

Researchers: Prof Lesley McMillan (GCU) Professor Deborah White (Trent University, Canada)

This project analyses sexual violence initiatives such as awareness raising campaigns, self-defence training, promotion of technologies such as rape alarms, and education-based efforts such as bystander intervention and consent workshops. It explores how perpetrators are represented within these efforts concluding they are often missing, and when they are present, they are imagined in particular ways.

Prevention initiatives:

Self-defence: While self-defence may be empowering for individual women, particularly feminist-informed self-defence, it is largely women who have to develop self-protective physical capabilities, psychological, emotional and social transformations to prevent sexual violence against them, rather than perpetrators being the focus.
Bystander Prevention: Bystander intervention largely targets the behaviours and responses of the community as a whole, and while it is the case that everyone has a role to play in prevention, it does not directly address the behaviour of the perpetrator themselves. The message most often is not ‘do not commit sexual violence’ but ‘stop others from committing sexual violence’.
Anti-rape technologies: The majority of so-called anti-rape technologies target women and responsibilise them for their own protection. These include anti-rape nail polish, wearables with communication technology such as jewellery, and mobile phone apps. These are mainly marketed to women, and often represent perpetrators as strangers in public spaces which is not representative of the most common assault situations which is known men.
Public Safety Campaigns: Campaigning is a key part of the anti-sexual violence movement, seeking to raise public awareness, and feminist campaigns challenge prevailing myths. However a number of campaigns target women’s behaviours rather than perpetrators’ actions, suggest women should alter their behaviour to prevent sexual assault. While a range speak to the behaviours of perpetrators, these are often the minority.

Prevention work needs to target the behaviour of perpetrators, and raise awareness among the public of the forms it can take and the harms it causes. Any awareness raising aimed at victim-survivors need to focus on helping people name the harms they have experienced and providing support.

Course of conduct research: 'Gemma's story'

Watch this animation made from the testimonies of many women gathered for a Glasgow Caledonian research on Gender-based violence.

Further information, advice and support

The University is dedicated to identifying and tackling inappropriate behaviour, whenever it arises. No one in our community should ever be the focus of gender based violence, sexism, racism, discrimination, assault, bullying, harassment or any other offensive conduct.

Students and staff can find out about more gender-based and sexual violence support within the University and externally.

Fearless Glasgow

The Erase the Grey campaign - launched by GCU - has key messages which challenge stereotypical attitudes and behaviours and reiterates a zero-tolerance policy towards gender-based violence.

Learn more arrow_forward

Erase the Grey

The Erase the Grey campaign - launched by GCU - has key messages which challenge stereotypical attitudes and behaviours and reiterates a zero-tolerance policy towards gender-based violence.

Learn more arrow_forward