Events — Institute for Social Justice and Crime

Organisers invite abstracts of between 200-300 words, outlining the topic and nature of the contribution, its relevance to combating online harms and promoting digital justice, implications for policy and practice and key messages or takeaways for attendees.

Event coordinators particularly welcome submissions from early career and independent researchers, those with lived experience of technology-facilitated and/or online abuse, and those who are underrepresented in academia, policy and practice spaces, including racially minoritised, LGTBQ+, disabled and neurodivergent individuals.

Conference themes and suggested topics include: 
Policy – Implementation, enforcement and appraisal of the OSA; the Criminal Justice Bill; regulating harmful but legal content; intersections between gendered online abuse and radicalization/terrorism, the Istanbul Convention  
 
Practice and communities – Trauma-informed and culturally responsive practice; coordinated community responses to online harms; peer support and active bystander approaches 
 
Technology – safety by design; trauma-informed and accessible design; generative AI and new frontiers in online and technology-facilitated harms 
 
Experience – research, practice and/or lived experience focused contributions by survivors of online and technology-facilitated abuse 

Coordinators are pleased to be able to offer £150 honorariums for a number of contributors; if you would like to be considered for an honorarium please note this in your email to organisers.

Abstracts, workshop concepts and creative submissions in relation to conference themes, as well as general event inquiries,  can be submitted to the event coordinators Dr Katherine Allen and Dr Megan Hermolle via email by 5pm on 15th April 2024: k.allen3@uos.ac.uk 

January 3 2024

In a new podcast, Professor Miranda Horvath and Politics student Leesha Daniells, discuss Operation Soteria Bluestone; a research programme that transforms police investigations of rape and sexual assault, of which Miranda was a lead researcher. They also discuss the Violence Against Women and Girls Research Network which was created by Miranda, and the ways in which University of Suffolk students can become involved in the university's Insititute for Social Justice and Crime.

Take a listen to their chat on YouTube, or read read more about their work on our website news pages.

26 July 2023

Megan Hermolle, a Research Fellow from the Institute for Social Justice and Crime, has recently submitted their corrected and revised PhD thesis. The thesis is on rape stereotype acceptance and use in the criminal justice system of England and Wales, and her second paper from the thesis (a study exploring professionals' stereotype acceptance) is currently under review. They are awaiting the final feedback from the thesis examiners.

4 May 2023

Dr Katherine Allen, Megan Hermolle and Dr Olumide Adisa have today had an article published in the Journal of Gender Based Violence, titled 'Redefining safety: a narrative review of literature on the underground and open or ‘Dutch’ models of refuge'

19 January 2023

Today Suffolk charity Survivors in Transition and the University of Suffolk jointly hosted a conference to launch their third report into the delayed disclosures which also explores issues, impacts and solutions.

Held from 10.00am to 3.30pm in The Hold, IP4 1LN, this event specifically focussed on the costs of delayed disclosures of child sexual abuse on the NHS in England and Wales.

Fiona Ellis, Co Founder and CEO at Survivors in Transition said: “This is such an important piece of work, which follows on from our previous research reports undertaken in 2015 and 2018 in partnership with the University of Suffolk."

“The costs of delayed disclosure and ultimately effective, specialist support for survivors of child sexual abuse to the NHS in particular is staggering, and despite being anecdotally known for years we hope this new research and report will shine a more proactive light on how we plan to address and improve service provision for survivors of sexual abuse going forward, as well as the critical role specialist VCSE providers like ourselves have to play.”

Dr Olumide Adisa, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Social Justice and Crime at the University of Suffolk said: “Child sexual abuse victims often suffer long-term psychological and emotional damage that have ripple effects on their ability to lead normal lives into adulthood.

“There is no price for the human suffering and pain experienced by child sexual abuse victims, however knowing the costs to the NHS can help make a strong case for supporting early disclosures and cost-effective support.

“This study confirms our suspicions that the health-related costs are significantly high."

21 October 2022

Our amazing Research Fellow, Dr Katherine Allen, won the "Outstanding contribution to Research" Award at the University's Staff Awards ceremony which was held on the Waterfront on Friday 21 October 2022. We are so lucky to have her as part of our Institute Team and this award was truly well deserved! Congratulations Katherine!

"As an early career researcher, it was an honour to have my work recognised by my colleagues. I was delighted to receive the award, which also affirms the value and impact of what we do as an Institute. The ISJC is a welcoming and supportive space for researchers at all stages of their careers, fostering exciting and collaborative work." — Katherine Allen

Tuesday 16th January 2024
12:00 – 1:00pm

This webinar helped participants gain insight into identifying and understanding this complex abuse and enhanced learning and confidence to manage reports or disclosures relating to spiritual and ritualistic abuse.
This event was free and interactive, featuring a Q&A towards the end of the session.

Thursday 15th February 2024
09:00am – 02:20pm 

The Institute for Social Justice and Crime was delighted to host a conference titled  “Celebrating Trauma-Informed Practice”. The event celebrated good trauma-informed practice, discussed challenges and barriers in implementation across public services, and explored avenues and next steps for improvement in training and provision, based on the learning from collaborations between the University of Suffolk (UoS), Suffolk County Council (SCC) and Survivors in Transition (SiT). 

21 June 2023 | 9.15am–4.15pm
The Hold, Fore Street, Ipswich. 

This social justice conference explored the work carried out by 10 top up shops which are organised and managed by the Anglican Church in Ipswich and supported by volunteers across Ipswich town. 

23rd March 2023

At a time when the boundaries between public and private spheres are increasingly blurred and contested, questions about how we define and frame different forms of gender-based violence in relation to space are more pressing than ever.

The historic ‘privatisation’ of domestic abuse and sexual violence perpetrated in the confines of the home contrasts sharply with still-prevalent myths linking rape and child sexual exploitation to deviant – and often socially/culturally Othered –  strangers. Equally, although the global #MeToo movement brought renewed focus to sexual violence as a shared problem that must be collectively confronted, neoliberal discourses of individual prudence and safekeeping continue to silence victim-survivors and suppress reporting.

This event will explore themes relating to gender-based violence and space. 

28 March 2023

Institute Visiting Senior Fellow Dr Jeffrey Demarco will be speaking at an online webinar event organised by the Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies. The Centre launched the project 'Invisible risks: Combating secondary trauma to safeguard children' in November 2021 in partnership with INHOPE. Join the team and listen to distinguished speakers disseminating their exciting findings via this online event on the 28th of March.

19 January 2023 | 10.00am–3.30pm
The Hold, IP4 1LN

Survivors in Transition and the University of Suffolk held their third #focusonsurvivors conference and report launch. 

This was the third conference jointly hosted by Suffolk charity Survivors in Transition and the University of Suffolk and specifically focussed on the costs of delayed disclosures of child sexual abuse on the NHS in England and Wales.

Fiona Ellis, Co Founder and CEO at Survivors in Transition said: “This is such an important piece of work, which follows on from our previous research reports undertaken in 2015 and 2018 in partnership with the University of Suffolk."

“The costs of delayed disclosure and ultimately effective, specialist support for survivors of child sexual abuse to the NHS in particular is staggering, and despite being anecdotally known for years we hope this new research and report will shine a more proactive light on how we plan to address and improve service provision for survivors of sexual abuse going forward, as well as the critical role specialist VCSE providers like ourselves have to play.”

Dr Olumide Adisa, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Social Justice and Crime at the University of Suffolk said: “Child sexual abuse victims often suffer long-term psychological and emotional damage that have ripple effects on their ability to lead normal lives into adulthood.

“There is no price for the human suffering and pain experienced by child sexual abuse victims, however knowing the costs to the NHS can help make a strong case for supporting early disclosures and cost-effective support.

“This study confirms our suspicions that the health-related costs are significantly high."

8 December 2022 | 9.00am–5.00pm
Waterfront Building, IP4 1QJ

A conference aimed at bringing together academics and practitioners, sparking conversations between research and practice and fostering innovative, evidence-based approaches to perpetrator accountability and rehabilitation.

24 November 2022

In-person event at London Metropolitan University.

Authored by Dr Sebastian Cordoba who recently left the University of Suffolk to join London Metropolitan University. Sebastian did great work for the Institute during his employment at Suffolk so please join us in celebrating his achievement.

19 October 2022

The Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law together with the RHUL Gender Institute invite you to Prof Miranda Horvath’s lecture. Miranda is Director of the Institute for Social Justice and Crime at the University of Suffolk.  It’s the first time we’ll be hearing about this unique project and work to change the way police investigate rape and sexual offences.  This will be an online talk (MS teams) from 1 to 2pm on Wednesday 19th of October 

Operation Soteria Bluestone combines academic learning with professional practice, bringing together leading academics from across the UK to work alongside police officers. The research informed pillars pinpoint specific areas for improvement which will form part of the new national operating model for investigating rape and other sexual offences: 1) suspect-focused investigations; 2) disrupting repeat suspects; 3) victim engagement as procedural justice; 4) promoting better learning, development, and wellbeing for police officers; and 5) using data more effectively in RASSO investigations and 6) Digital forensics (Hohl & Stanko, 2022). In this talk Professor Horvath, Pillar 1 lead, will outline the underpinning evidence base for suspect focused investigations (including what we know about sex offenders and the effects of ingrained cultural attitudes on investigative decision making) as well as providing insights into how (including the use of case reviews conducted by officers themselves) we have conducted deep-dives in 5 constabularies to establish where they are with how they investigate rape. The talk will conclude with the next steps for the work and reflections on the project to date.

5 October 2022

The official launch of the Institute for Social Justice and Crime at the Hold, Fore Street was well attended by delegates from a variety of local and regional bodies and organisations, as well as Institute partners and visiting academics from further afield.  Watch the event.