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International Network Addressing Filial Violence

Network contact: Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon

The International Network Addressing Filial Violence will bring together international experts to investigate the commission of violence by children against their parents across the life course. The Network will underpin groundbreaking, systematic and collaborative research into all forms of child to parent violence: childhood violence against parents, adolescent family violence, parricide at all ages, and elder abuse.

Several members of the Network met at the Monash Prato Centre in Italy in September 2018 to discuss their research and explore initial opportunities for collaboration.

The Network is led by experts on filial violence from Australia and the United Kingdom: Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon (Monash University) and Associate Professor Rachel Condry (Oxford University). Dr Fitz-Gibbon is a lead investigator on the Investigating Adolescent Family Violence project, exploring attitudes towards, patterns of, and the impact of adolescent family violence. Associate Professor Rachel Condry conducted the first large-scale UK study of adolescent to parent violence with Network Member Dr Caroline Miles.

Network Members' Research

Bows, H. (2017), ‘Practitioner Views on the Impacts, Challenges and Barriers in Supporting Older Survivors of Sexual Violence’, Violence Against Women [online first].
Bows, H. (2017), ‘Researching Sexual Violence against Older People: Reflecting on the Use of Freedom of Information Requests in a Feminist Study’, Feminist Review, 115 (1): 30-45.
Bows, H. (2017), ‘Sexual Violence against Older People: A Review of the Empirical Literature’, Trauma, Violence and Abuse. DOI: 10.1177/1524838016683455.
Bows, H. and Westmarland, N. (2017), ‘Rape of Older People in the United Kingdom: Challenging the ‘Real Rape’ Stereotype’, British Journal of Criminology, 57 (1): 1-17.
Bows, H. and Westmarland, N. (2016), ‘Older Sex Offenders - Managing Risk in the Community from a Policing Perspective’, Policing & Society [online first].
Brown, K. and Gordon, F. (2018), ‘Older Victims of Crime: Victimisation, Vulnerability and Access to Justice’, International Review of Victimology, [online first].
Calvete, E. and Gámez-Guadix, M. (2014), 'Caracteristicas Familiares Asociadas a las Agresiones Ejercidas por Adolescentes Contra Sus Progenitores', Anales De Psicología, 30(3): 1176-1182.
Calvete, E., Gamez-Guadix, M. and Garcia-salvador, S. (2015), 'Social Information Processing in Child-To-Parent Aggression: Bidirectional Associations in a 1-Year Prospective Study', Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(8): 2204-2216.
Calvete, E., Gámez-Guadix, M. and Orue, I. (2014), 'Características Familiares Asociadas a Violencia Filio-Parental en Adolescentes', Anales De Psicología, 30(3): 1176-1182.
Calvete, E., Gamez-Guadix, M., Orue, I., Gonzalez-Diez, Z., de Arroyabe, E. L., Sampedro, R., Pereira, R., Zuzizarreta, A. and Borrajo, E. (2013), 'Brief Report: The Adolescent Child-to-Parent Aggression Questionnaire: An Examination of Aggressions against Parents in Spanish Adolescents', Journal of Adolescence, 36(6): 1077-1081.
Calvete, E. and Orue, I. (2016), 'Violencia Filio-Parental: Prevalencia y Razones Para las Agresiones Contra Padres y Madres', Behavioral Psychology / Psicología Conductual: Revista Internacional Clínica y De La Salud, 24(3): 481-495.
Calvete, E., Orue, I., Bertino, L., Gonzalez, Z., Montes, Y., Padilla, P. and Pereira, R. (2014), 'Child-to-Parent Violence in Adolescents: The Perspectives of the Parents, Children, and Professionals in a Sample of Spanish Focus Group Participants', Journal of Family Violence, 29(3): 343-352.
Calvete, E., Orue, I. and Gámez-Guadix, M. (2015), 'Reciprocal Longitudinal Associations between Substance Use and Child-to-Parent Violence in Adolescents', Journal of Adolescence, 44: 124-133.
Calvete, E., Orue, I. and Gámez-Guadix, M. (2013), 'Child-to-Parent Violence: Emotional and Behavioral Predictors', Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 28(4): 755-772.
Calvete, E., Orue, I., Gamez-Guadix, M. and Bushman, B.J. (2015), 'Predictors of Child-to-Parent Aggression: A 3-Year Longitudinal Study', Developmental Psychology, 51(5): 663-676.
Calvete, E., Orue, I., Gámez-Guadix, M., del Hoyo-Bilbao, J. and López de Arroyabe, E. (2015), 'Child-to-Parent Violence: An Exploratory Study of the Roles of Family Violence and Parental Discipline through the Stories told by Spanish Children and their Parents', Violence and Victims, 30(6): 935-947.
Calvete, E., Orue, I. and González-Cabrera, J.G. (2017). Violencia Filio Parental: Comparando lo que Informan los Adolescentes y Sus Progenitores. Revista de Psicología Clínica con Niños y Adolescentes, 4(1): 9-15
Calvete, E., Orue, I. and Sampedro, R. (2011), 'Violencia Filio-Parental en la Adolescencia: Características Ambientales y Personales'. Infancia y aprendizaje, 34(3), 349-363.
Calvete, E. and Veytia, M. (2018). 'Adaptación del Cuestionario de Violencia Filio-Parental en Adolescentes Mexicanos', Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 50.
Clarke, K., Holt, A., Norris, C. and Nel, P.W. (2017), ‘Adolescent-to-parent violence and abuse: Parents’ management of tensions and ambiguities - an interpretative phenomenological analysis’, Child and Family Social Work, 22(4): 1423–1430.
Clarke, A., and Wydall, S. (2015), ‘From ‘Rights to Action’: Practitioners' Perceptions of the Needs of Children Experiencing Domestic Violence’, Child & Family Social Work, 20(2): 181-190.
Clarke, A. and Wydall, S. (2013), ‘'Making Safe’ A Coordinated Community Response to Empowering Victims and Tackling Perpetrators of Domestic Violence’, Social Policy and Society, 12(3): 393-406.
Condry, R. and Miles, C. (2016), ‘Adolescent to Parent Violence and the Challenge for Youth Justice’, in M. Bosworth, C. Hoyle and L. Zedner, Changing Contours of Criminal Justice: Research, Politics and Policy, Oxford University Press.
Condry, R. and Miles, C. (2014), 'Adolescent to Parent Violence: Framing and Mapping a Hidden Problem', Criminology and Criminal Justice, 14(3): 257-275.
Condry, R. and Miles, C. (2012), 'Adolescent to Parent Violence and Youth Justice in England and Wales', Social Policy and Society, 11/2: 241-250.
Del Hoyo-Bilbao, J., Gámez-Guadix, M. and Calvete, E. (2018), 'Corporal Punishment by Parents and Child-to-Parent Aggression in Spanish Adolescents', Anales De Psicología, 34(1): 108-116.
Del Hoyo-Bilbao, J. D., Gámez-Guadix, M., Orue, I. and Calvete, E. (2018), 'Psychometric Properties of the Child-to-Parent Aggression Questionnaire in a Clinical Sample of Adolescents who abuse their Parents: Prevalence and Gender Differences. Violence and Victims, 33(2): 203-217.
Elliott, K., McGowan, J., Benier, K., Maher, J. and Fitz-Gibbon, K. (2017), 'Investigating Adolescent Family Violence: Background, Research and Directions', Context Report, Monash Gender and Family Violence Research Program, Faculty of Arts, Monash University.
Fitz-Gibbon, K., Elliott, K. and Maher, J. (2018), 'Investigating Adolescent Family Violence in Victoria: Understanding Experiences and Practitioner Perspectives', Monash Gender and Family Violence Research Program, Faculty of Arts, Monash University.
Fitz-Gibbon, K. and Maher, J. (2018), 'Explainer: What is Parricide and How Common is it in Australia?', The Conversation, 19 July.
Fitz-Gibbon, K., Maher, J. and McCulloch, J. (2017), 'Long Ignored, Adolescent Family Violence Needs Our Attention', The Conversation, 3 July.
Fitz-Gibbon, K. and O'Brien, W. (2016), 'Protection, Not Public Shaming, is the Way Forward for Child Offenders', The Conversation, 20 October.
Fitz-Gibbon, K. and O'Brien, W. (2016) 'Silent Victims: Royal Commission Recommends Better Protections for Child Victims of Family Violence', The Conversation, 1 April.
Gámez-Guadix, M. and Calvete, E. (2012), 'Violencia Filioparental y su Asociación con la Exposición a la Violencia Marital y la Agresión de Padres a Hijos', Psicothema, 24(2): 277-283.
Gordon, F. (2018) Children, Young People and the Press in a Transitioning Society: Representations, Reactions and Criminalisation, Palgrave Macmillan: UK.
Gordon, F. (2016), ‘Publication of Children’s Images, Privacy and Article 8: Judgment in the Matter of an Application by JR38 for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) [2015] UKSC 42’, Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 67 (2): 257-261.
Gordon, F. and Reilly, P. (2018), ‘Digital weapons in a post-conflict society’, in Mair, J., Clark, R., Fowler, N., Snoddy, R. and Tait, R. (eds) Anti-Social Media?, Abramis: London, pp. 29-34.
Heide, K. M. (1999), Young Killers: The Challenge of Juvenile Homicide, Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks.
Heide, K.M. (1995), Why Kids Kill Parents: Child Abuse and Adolescent Homicide, Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks.
Holt, A. and Shon, P. C. (2018), ‘Exploring fatal and non-fatal violence against parents: Challenging the orthodoxy of abused adolescent perpetrators’, Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 62(4): 915-934.
Holt, A. (2017), ‘Parricide’, in J. Turner, P. Taylor, K. Corteen, and S. Morley (Eds.), A Companion to Crime and Criminal Justice History (pp. 167-169). Policy Press: Bristol.
Holt, A. (2017), ‘Parricide in England and Wales (1977–2012): An exploration of offenders, victims, incidents and outcomes’, Criminology and Criminal Justice, 17(5): 568-587.
Holt, A. (2016), Working with adolescent violence and abuse towards parents: Approaches and Contexts for Intervention (Ed.). Routledge: London.
Holt, A. (2016), ‘Introduction: Working with Adolescent Violence and Abuse towards Parents’, in A. Holt (Ed.) Working with Adolescent Violence and Abuse towards Parents: Approaches and Contexts for Intervention (pp. 1-11). Routledge: London.
Holt, A. (2016), ‘Working with Adolescent Violence and Abuse towards Parents: Reflections and Concluding Thoughts’, in A. Holt (Ed.) Working with Adolescent Violence and Abuse towards Parents: Approaches and Contexts for Intervention (pp. 184-191). Routledge: London.
Holt, A. (2015), ‘Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse as a form of Domestic Violence: A Conceptual Review’, Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 17(5): 490-499.
Holt, A. (2013), Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse: Current Understandings in Research, Policy and Practice. Policy Press: Bristol.
Holt, A. and Retford, S. (2013), ‘Practitioner accounts of responding to Parent Abuse – a case study in ad hoc delivery, perverse outcomes and a policy silence’, Child and Family Social Work, 18(3): 365-374.
Holt, A. (2012), ‘Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse and Frontline Service responses: Does Munro matter?’ in M. Blyth and E. Solomon (Eds.) Effective Safeguarding for Children and Young People: What next after Munro? (pp. 91-106). Policy Press: Bristol.
Holt, A. (2012), ‘Researching Parent Abuse: A Critical Review of the Methods’, Social Policy and Society, 11 (2): 289-298 [invited contribution]
Holt, A. (2011), ‘“The terrorist in my home”: Teenagers’ violence towards parents – constructions of parent experiences in public online message boards’, Child and Family Social Work, 16(4): 454–463.
Holt, A. (2011), ‘Responding to the problem of ‘parent abuse’, The Psychologist, 24(3): 186-188.
Holt, A. (2009), ‘Parent abuse: Some reflections on the adequacy of a youth justice response’. Internet Journal of Criminology, November 2009.
Howard, J. and Holt, A. (2016), ‘Special Considerations when working with Adolescent Family Violence’, in A. Holt (Ed.) Working with Adolescent Violence and Abuse towards Parents: Approaches and Contexts for Intervention (pp. 169-183). Routledge: London.
Izaguirre, A. and Calvete, E. (2017), 'Exposure to Family Violence as a Predictor of Dating Violence and Child-To-Parent Aggression in Spanish Adolescents',Youth & Society, 49(3): 393-412.
Joling, K.J., O'Dwyer, S.T., Hertogh, C.M. and van Hout, H.P. (2018), ‘The Occurrence and Persistence of Thoughts of Suicide, Self-harm and Death in Family Caregivers of People with Dementia: A Longitudinal Data Analysis over 2 years’, International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 33(2): 263-270.
Miles, C. (forthcoming 2018), ‘Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse’, in The Encyclopaedia of Child and Adolescent Development, London: Wiley.
Miles, C. (2012), ‘Intoxication and Homicide: A Context-Specific Approach’, British Journal of Criminology, 52/5: 870-888.
Miles, C. and Condry, R. (2015), ‘Responding to Adolescent to Parent Violence: Challenges for Policy and Practice’, British Journal of Criminology. 55(6): 1076-1095.
Miles, C. and Condry, R. (2014), ‘Adolescent to Parent Violence: The Police Response to Parents Reporting Violence from their Children’, Policing and Society. 26(7): 804-823. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2014.989158.
O'Brien, W. (2016), 'Children with Sexualised Behaviours Need Support, Not Silence and Stigma', The Conversation, 27 May.
O'Brien, W. (2011), 'Challenges Redoubled: Contexts of Risk and Compromised Access to Services for Children with Sexualised Behaviours', Child Indicators Research. 44(4): 697-706.
O'Brien, W. (2011), 'Youth Justice: Challenges in Responding to Young People Convicted of Sexual Offences', Deakin Law Review, 16(1): 134-164.
O'Brien, W. (2010), Australia's Response to Sexualised and Sexually Abusive Behaviours in Children and Young People, Australian Crime Commission: Canberra.
O'Brien ,W. (2009), Problem Sexual Behaviour: A Review of the Literature, Australian Crime Commission: Canberra.
O’Dwyer, S.T., Moyle, W., Pachana, N.A., Sung, B. and Barrett, S. (2014), ‘Feeling that Life is Not Worth Living (Death Thoughts) Among Middle-aged, Australian Women Providing Unpaid Care’, Maturitas, 77(4): 375-379.
O'Dwyer, S.T., Moyle, W., Taylor, T., Creese, J. and Zimmer-Gembeck, M.J. (2016), ‘Homicidal Ideation in Family Carers of People with Dementia’, Aging & Mental Health, 20(11): 1174-1181.
O'Dwyer, S.T., Moyle W., Zimmer-Gembeck M. and De Leo, D. (2016), ‘Suicidal Ideation in Family Carers of People with Dementia’, Aging & Mental Health, 20(2): 222-230.
Wydall, S., Clarke, A., Williams, J. and Zerk, Z. (2018), ‘Domestic Abuse and Elder Abuse in Wales: A Tale of Two Initiatives’, The British Journal of Social Work, 48(4): 962-981. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcy056
Wydall, S. and Zerk, R. (2017), ‘Domestic Abuse and Older People Factors influencing Help Seeking’, Journal of Adult Protection, 19(5): 247-260.
Examining the Longitudinal Trajectories of Child-To-Parent Violence through Adolescence (Esther Calvete)
The main objective of this project is to examine the level and shape of the trajectory of child-to-parent violence throughout adolescence. The interval between 13 and 17 has been selected and a distinction has been made between violence against the mother (child-to-mother violence) and violence against the father (child-to-father violence), given that previous research has highlighted that the former is more frequent. Likewise, as a second objective, we study to what extent two well-known risk factors for child-to-parent violence (exposure to family violence and drug abuse) predicted the components of the trajectory of the child-to-parent violence over time.
Understanding Child-To-Parent Violence from the General Aggression Model (Esther Calvete)
The general aggression model (GAM; Anderson & Bushman, 2002, 2003) is an integrative model that includes several mini theories on aggression, such as the social information processing theory, the cognitive neoassociation theory, the scripts theory, the social learning theory, excitation transfer, and social interaction theory. It includes both distal and proximal antecedents of aggressive behavior, both personal and situational factors. The objective of this study is to apply GAM as a framework to understand CPV by means of qualitative and quantitative data.
PIPA Project – Positive Interventions for Perpetrators of Adolescent violence in the home (Elena Campbell)
With family violence front and centre of political and policy discussions, the community has rightly called for a proactive policing and justice response. Yet currently this response – designed to address adult intimate partner violence – can have disastrous consequences for children who use violence, as well as for families who have sought the system’s help.
The Centre for Innovative Justice’s PIPA Project – Positive Interventions for Perpetrator of Adolescent violence in the home – has found that current responses to family violence used by young people is often causing more harm than good. This includes propelling young people into contact with the law who are may be victims of family violence themselves, or who may be living with significant disability but received inadequate community support.
What’s more, civil responses may be capturing more vulnerable children than criminal justice mechanisms, because of fewer imperatives to assess risk or the factors driving offending. This means that, in some cases, the justice system is colluding in and perpetuating the harm that children have already experienced.
Through its analysis of over 300 case files and research with over 150 practitioners across three Australian jurisdictions, the PIPA Project unpacks what is currently happening when families living with adolescent family violence seek the justice system’s help. In doing so, it highlights the enormous service system gaps which exist in response to this issue – even in Victoria, where adolescents consistently represent 10% of respondents in police family violence callouts and protection order applications.
Most importantly, the PIPA Project highlights that our attempts to hold those who use violence accountable should not fail to identify risk, nor render victims less willing to call for help. Unless we acknowledge the complexity, diversity, and vulnerability of perpetrators of adolescent family violence, however, this is exactly the result we will achieve. The PIPA Project’s findings will be released in early 2019.
Investigating experiences of violent and abusive behaviour perpetrated towards grandparents (Amanda Holt)
This is a 20-month project funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust. Adopting a life course approach, this project aims to interview grandparents to explore how they experience, manage and respond to such violence, and the impacts that such violence has. The project will also interview practitioners from a range of services to explore how they are currently managing the problem. With little existing knowledge about this specific problem, this project aims to address both the theoretical deficit in our understandings of family violence and the professional deficit by identifying the best ways to respond effectively to this problem.
National Study on Good Practice in Delivering and Evaluating Interventions for Young People with Harmful Sexual Behaviours (Wendy O'Brien)
This project is funded by the Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS) and is conducted in partnership with The Australian Institute of Family Studies.
Legal Responses to Children Convicted of Filial Homicide (Wendy O'Brien)
Contributing to a larger body of research on children's rights and criminal justice, this project examines the role that legal and public discourse plays in dehumanising children convicted of filial homicide.
Investigating Adolescent Family Violence (Kate Fitz-Gibbon, JaneMaree Maher and Karla Elliott)
Investigating adolescent family violence is a project recently finalised by a multidisciplinary team of Monash University researchers from the School of Social Sciences, the Department of General Practice, and the Department of Social Work. It explored attitudes towards, patterns of, and the impact of AFV. The project built on, and complemented, work being conducted in the United Kingdom (titled Investigating adolescent violence towards parents). Associate Professor Rachel Condry , Oxford University, the lead researcher on adolescent violence research in the UK visited and conducted a workshop with Monash researchers in February 2017. The findings will be of relevance to all Australian jurisdictions, and have the potential to inform and reform legal, health and social responses to AFV, and provide a greater understanding of ‘risk’.

Network Leads

Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Law and Social Justice at University of Liverpool. She is the Research Impact Director for the School of Social Sciences (Monash University). Kate conducts research in the area of family violence, legal responses to lethal violence, youth justice and the effects of homicide law and sentencing reform in Australian and international jurisdictions. This research is undertaken with a key focus on issues relating to gender, constructions of responsibility and justice. The findings of her research have been published in high impact criminology and law journals and presented at national and international criminology conferences. Kate has advised on homicide law reform, family violence and youth justice reviews in several Australian jurisdictions.
Rachel Condry is an Associate Professor of Criminology and a Fellow of St Hilda's College at the University of Oxford. She has previously been a lecturer in criminology at the University of Surrey, and a lecturer and British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the London School of Economics. Her work focuses broadly on the intersections between crime and the family. She has carried out research projects on the families of serious offenders, prisoners’ families, parenting expertise in youth justice, and adolescent to parent violence. Rachel is the author of Families Shamed: The Consequences of Crime for Relatives of Serious Offenders (Willan, 2007).
Rachel recently completed a three year ESRC-funded research study, with Caroline Miles, on adolescent to parent violence in the UK. This was the first large-scale study of APV in the UK and the findings are published in a number of journal articles and a forthcoming book (2019). More information about the study can be found here: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/adolescent-parent-violence She has also worked with the UK government and a number of other experts to produce the first UK policy guidance on adolescent to parent violence.
In addition to her work on adolescent to parent violence, Rachel is currently working on the topic of prisoners’ families and developing an edited book with Oxford University Press drawing together the work of international researchers working in this field. She is a member of the British Society of Criminology and is on the editorial board of the British Journal of Criminology, the Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, and the ESRC’s Peer Review College.

Network Members

Hannah Bows is an Assistant Professor in Criminal Law at Durham Law School and is Deputy Director of the Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA). Her research interests are broadly located within the areas of violence against women, gender and crime, victimology and feminist socio-legal theories. Over the last six years her work has focused on violence crime against older people in the UK which has included projects examining domestic violence, sexual violence and, more recently, homicide. You can follow her on twitter @Hannah_Bows
Esther Calvete is a senior lecturer of Psychology at the Department of Personality, Psychological Assessment and Treatment of the University of Deusto (Bilbao, Spain). She coordinates the Deusto Stress Research, a research unit focused on vulnerability to stress and several psychological problems. Some of the issues investigated in the team include violent behavior, both from the point of view of the victims and the people who perpetrate violence, and emotional problems such as depression and anxiety. The researchers in the team are interested not only in the factors that contribute to the development of these problems but also in resilience factors against these problems. The studies involve domestic violence (violence against women and child‐to‐parent violence), which are examined through longitudinal designs
Elena Campbell is the Associate Director of Research, Advocacy and Policy at the Centre for Innovative Justice (CIJ). Elena is a lawyer, speechwriter and former political staffer who has worked in legal and social policy for nearly 20 years. Elena’s expertise includes therapeutic justice, equal opportunity and human rights, as well as the prevention and elimination of violence against women.
At the CIJ Elena oversees a program of research which predominantly focuses on family violence. Within this program, the CIJ has developed particular expertise in the area of perpetrator interventions, as well as in the value and operation of Intervention Orders and other court processes which attempt to respond to family violence. In this capacity, Elena has lead projects for Government departments and courts, to support the implementation of recommendations from Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence.
Elena is also Chief Investigator in ANROWS funded projects focusing on interventions with perpetrators of family violence. In particular, Elena is leading the ground-breaking PIPA Project - Positive Interventions for Perpetrators of Adolescent violence in the home - which brings together the CIJ's emphasis on addressing family violence with its focus on ensuring that the justice system functions as a positive intervention in people's lives. Elena is also the author of the CIJ’s influential report: Opportunities for early intervention: bringing perpetrators into view, which was cited extensively in the Final Report of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence has contributed to policy development in jurisdictions around Australia.
Previously Elena worked as a legal adviser and staffer in the Victorian Government for over a decade. Elena has also been employed as a consultant for a range of social policy and justice organisations, including the Australian Human Rights Commission, focusing on gender discrimination. Elena sits on a number of advisory bodies in relation to family violence and also oversees the production of much of the CIJ's written publications.
Professor Heather Douglas researches in the areas of criminal justice and domestic violence. Heather has published widely on criminal justice issues and around legal responses to domestic violence and child protection. In 2014-2019 she was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to research the way in which women who have experienced domestic violence use the legal system to help them leave violence. She was the lead researcher and project co-ordinator with the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration on the development of the National Domestic and Family Violence Bench Book , a project funded by the Australian Commonwealth Government. Between 2012-2015 Heather was the lead chief investigator on the Australian Feminist Judgments Project funded by the Australian Research Council.
Dr Karla Elliott is a Gender, Violence, and Social Inequalities Research Fellow with the Centre for Health Equity, in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Her work focuses on the shifts and challenges in contemporary society surrounding gender and masculinities, as well as family violence prevention. Key research interests include feminist theory, critical studies on men and masculinities, adolescent family violence, men and caring, and men and alcohol use. Karla was a Chief Investigator on the projects Investigating Adolescent Family Violence and Identifying and Understanding Men's Risky Drinking Subcultures and Settings.
Dr. Faith Gordon is a Lecturer in Criminology at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Faith established and is the Director of the Interdisciplinary International Youth Justice Network. She is a Research Associate at the Information Law & Policy Centre, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London and a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster. She has expertise and research experience in youth justice; media representations; post-conflict and transitioning societies; children’s rights; older victims; aging prisoners; inquests; media regulation and privacy law.Faith was lead researcher on the ESRC Knowledge Exchange Project: Identifying and Challenging the Negative Media Representation of Children and Young People in Northern Ireland and Co-I on a research project on Older Victims of Crime and Crime Clearance Rates, funded by the Commissioner for Older People in Northern Ireland. Faith has also been a researcher for The Hillsborough Independent Panel; the Childhood, Transition and Social Justice Initiative; Save the Children and the Children’s Law Centre in Northern Ireland. The findings of her research have been published as a monograph, book chapters and also in high impact criminology and law journals, as well as paper presentations and as part of invited plenary sessions at national and international criminology, socio-legal and journalism conferences. Faith has hosted knowledge exchange events on ‘youth violence’ and socio-legal responses in London. Her research and recommendations on media representations of children and young people ‘in conflict with the law’ have been referred to by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and in legal submissions for several Judicial Review cases in Northern Ireland.
Kathleen M. Heide, Ph.D., is Professor of Criminology at the University of South Florida, Tampa. Professor Heide is an internationally recognized consultant and lecturer on homicide, particularly as it pertains to juvenile defendants and individuals who kill parents (parricide). She is the author over 100 scholarly publications and four books, including two on parricide (Why Kids Kill Parents: Child Abuse and Adolescent Homicide and Understanding Parricide: When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents). Dr. Heide, a licensed mental health professional and a court-appointed expert, has evaluated adolescents and adults charged with murder across the United States and in Canada. Dr. Heide has been honored on many occasions for her instructional activities, research accomplishments, and service to the community and to the profession. Professor Heide lists among her top accolades as being invited by Queen Sofia of Spain to present her research on juvenile homicide at an international conference held on youth violence in Valencia, Spain. Dr. Heide recently gave the opening address on her work on parricide (kids killing parents) at an international conference in homicide sponsored by Griffith University and the Australian government.
Amanda Holt is a Reader in Criminology at the University of Roehampton, London. Her research work focuses on issues concerning families, young people and harm and she is a Trustee of Family Lives, the national family support charity. She has published widely on the issue of adolescent family violence, including the book Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse: Current Understandings in Research, Policy and Practice (2013: Policy Press) and the edited collection Working with adolescent violence and abuse towards parents: Approaches and Contexts for Intervention (2016: Routledge). Her more recent research has focused on the problem of parricide and she is currently leading on a research project funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust that is investigating violent and abusive behaviours towards grandparents.
Professor Jane Maree Maher is Professor in the Centre for Women’s Studies and Gender Research, Sociology in the School of Social Sciences. Jane Maree’s research is focused in two key areas of gendered social science: women’s work and family, and gendered violences. Her research critically examines how social institutions such as families and the criminal justice system create gendered inequalities and inequities. She holds an Australian Research Council grant (with Jude McCulloch and Kate Fitz-Gibbon) that examines patterns of intimate partner homicide, and how gender impacts on the operation of criminal justice and security in the context of family violence. She is also involved in a number of Australian National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety funded projects addressing the experiences of women with disability and perpetrator interventions and has recently released a report on adolescent family violence. She is also lead Chief Investigator on another Australian Research Council grant: Children as health advocates in families: assessing the consequences which asks how neo-liberal discourses of health and consumption impact on family relationships, especially childhood obesity discourses.
Caroline Miles is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Programme Director for the BA Criminology programme in the School of Law, University of Manchester. She is currently working on an ESRC-funded project, ‘Understanding and improving risk assessment in domestic violence’ (with Juanjo Medina-Ariza, University of Manchester) and an N8 funded project, ‘Early identification of honour-based abuse’ (with Claire Fox, University of Manchester, and West Yorkshire Police). She is also collaborating with Rachel Condry (University of Oxford) to research serious and fatal violence towards parents. This research builds upon their previous ESRC-funded project ‘Investigating adolescent violence towards parents’. Caroline completed her ESRC-funded PhD, ‘Substance-related homicide in England and Wales’, at the University of Manchester in 2008. Prior to this she worked as a Research Assistant for the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness and as a Resettlement Officer for Nacro. Caroline’s research interests broadly focus on violence and homicide, with specific interests in child to parent violence, risk assessment in domestic violence and abuse, honour-based violence and abuse, domestic homicide, parricide, and homicide trends.
Dr Wendy O’Brien lectures in criminology, and conducts research on children's access to justice. Focusing on the legal and therapeutic responses to violence against women and children, Wendy also conducts research on the practical implementation of public policy, including evaluation of social sector service delivery for children. Recent publications include scholarly articles in the International Journal of Children’s Rights, the British Journal of Criminology and the Human Rights Law Review.
Dr Siobhan O’Dwyer is a Senior Lecturer in Ageing and Family Care at the University of Exeter Medical School (UK) and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Griffith University (Australia). She leads an international program of research on suicide, homicide, and self-harm in family carers. Her research has been published in leading academic journals, profiled in national and international media, influenced practice and policy in Australia, the Netherlands, and the UK, and informed the theatrical work, Yielding. Several new projects are currently in development and Dr O’Dwyer has recently been named as the Guest Editor for a special issue of Behavioral Sciences on suicide, homicide, and self-harm in family carers.
Eldra Solomon is a licensed psychologist, a biologist, and an author. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of South Florida. Her clinical practice and research has focused on the effects of personal violence and other traumatic experiences, and on the effective treatment of trauma survivors. She specialises in working with individuals who have developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), dissociative disorders, and other forms of distress as a result of experiencing traumatic events, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, criminal victimization, and childhood maltreatment. Dr. Solomon has served as a court-appointed psychological expert and has evaluated many individuals, particularly women, charged with murder and other violent crimes. Many of Dr. Solomon’s publications and presentations focus on the interface between biology, psychology, and criminology. Dr. Solomon has been a member of the Graduate Faculty at the University of South Florida where she taught courses in the psychological aspects of criminology. Dr. Solomon also taught college biology and human anatomy and physiology for more than 20 years. She has written several leading college textbooks, including books on biology and human anatomy and physiology. Biology, her textbook for biology majors and premedical students, now in its 11th Edition, was published in 2018.
Sarah Wydall is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Centre for Age, Gender and Social Justice at Aberystwyth University, Wales. For the last five years, Sarah has undertaken research in the area of older people, domestic violence and abuse. Sarah is a Principal Investigator on Dewis Choice a four-year Big Innovation funded project on domestic abuse, older people and justice. The project used community-based participatory action research to design and implement a service for older victim survivors in Wales. The project adopts prospective longitudinal research to capture the lived experiences of older victim-survivors at different stages in the help-seeking journey. In 2016 Sarah won the Audrey Jones Memorial Award for feminist scholarship for ‘Undertaking transformative research with victim-survivors in Wales: Dewis Choice, a story of feminist praxis’ Sarah’s publications on gendered harms focus three research studies, the Making Safe initiative – a programme which rehouses perpetrators whilst supporting victim-survivors to remain in their homes. A New Ideas Welsh Government funded research study examining multi-agency responses to children and young people experiencing domestic abuse in rural Wales and a Police Crime Commissioner’s funded study examining agency responses to help-seeking in very high risk complex cases involving victim–survivors experiencing domestic abuse. Sarah’s twitter site is @wydall69