Based on empirical work funded by the N8 PRP during 2022-23, this paper will explore the complex ways in which victim-survivor experiences of coercive control and policing responses to those experiences converge and diverge, and the questions an appreciation of this complexity raise for the role of victim-survivors voices for what might count as justice. In order to do so, this presentation falls into three parts. The first provides a brief overview of the experiences of policing responses to coercive control provided by the 10 victim-survivors who participated in this project. These voices articulated the ongoing presence of ideal victimhood, the presence of alcohol and incident-based responses, resulting in a loss of faith in the police. The second provides a brief overview of the views of 13 police officers who participated in this project. These voices point to the need to prioritize safe-guarding and the need to ‘dig deeper’. Where these voices converge is in recognizing the manipulation of the system by perpetrators and the problem of mis-identifying the primary perpetrator. Where they diverge is in relation to mis-understanding what actions have or have not been taken by the police and in mis-communicating those actions. However there is another layer to this complexity. When police officers ‘dig deeper’ they can bring patterns of perpetrator behaviour to the surface not recognized as problematic by the victim-survivor. This finding raises questions about the role of the police and the role of victim-survivor voices in informing each other alongside criminal justice responses to coercive control.

The sentencing of sexual offences is a controversial and emotive issue with profound implications for victims/survivors of sexual violence. Yet, research has rarely engaged with victim/survivor voices on this aspect of the criminal justice process. This paper draws upon a qualitative study that explored victim/survivor views and experiences of sentencing for rape and other sexual offences by drawing upon in-depth interviews with adult victim/survivors whose cases resulted in a recent conviction and (custodial) sentence in Scotland. While punitive views may be anticipated amongst those who have been subjected to sexual violence, and who opted to engage with the criminal justice system, victim/survivor narratives reveal a more complex picture. Participant perspectives on sentencing were underpinned by philosophies of deterrence and rehabilitation, and to a lesser extent retribution, alongside a range of aggravating and mitigating factors particular to sexual offending. Further, while achieving a conviction and sentence may be perceived publicly as ‘having won’, victim/survivor accounts point to a troubled relationship with both the sentencing process and the sentence imposed. For some, a custodial sentence provided safety, solace, and space to recover. However, consistent with exisiting research undertaken with victim-survivors about their experience of criminal justice proceedings, participants also highlighted their lack of voice and their sense of being marginal to the sentencing process. It is argued that despite their sustained engagement in the criminal justice process and the apparent ‘success’ of their case, survivors who reach sentencing face heightened marginalisation and become superfluous to a process that ‘no longer needs them’.

On the evening of 3 March 2021, 33-year-old Sarah Everard was kidnapped in South London, as she was walking home from a friend's house near Clapham Common. Six days later, Wayne Couzens, a serving Metropolitan police officer, was arrested and charged with her kidnapping, rape, and murder. The killings of Sarah and other women including Aisling Murphy and Sabina Nessa, have reignited the debate about women’s safety, or lack thereof, in modern day Britain. Sadly, the attention has led to little change, as since Sarah’s death, at least 125 women have been killed by men every year. The result is that women’s trust in police and faith in the wider criminal justice system is at an all-time low, evidenced by the continual decline in the likelihood of reporting sexual violence to the police. This research draws on data collected from X (formerly Twitter) in the weeks following Sarah’s death. Through the analysis of ~1000 tweets/posts using the hashtags #SheWasJustWalkingHome and #SarahEverard, the paper explores women’s reactions to the killing, the police and government response, fear of crime and confidence in the wider criminal justice system.

Research on gender-based violence has predominantly focused on urban areas, while rural areas have been overlooked for many years. Nevertheless, in the last three decades, there has been a growing body of literature on gender-based violence in rural areas, with a substantial surge in research in the last decade. Despite the significant body of research on gender-based violence in Scotland, little is known about gender-based violence in rural communities. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with victim-survivors and support service providers in rural communities in Scotland, this paper explores victim-survivors’ experiences of gender-based violence and help-seeking in rural and island communities, adopting a feminist intersectional approach. In this paper, I highlight the ways that rurality differentiates and exacerbates gender-based violence experiences and poses additional and/or peculiar barriers to accessing support and services. I also discuss in experiences of gender-based violence how rurality relates to and/or intersects multiple and intersecting power relations and inequalities.