Kelly Johnson

• PhD
• Senior Lecturer at University of Glasgow

Procedural justice is recognized as being of substantial value to policing and, increasingly, victim-survivors. However, little research has engaged with the meaning of procedural justice theory in sexual violence, and none have developed an understanding with and for survivors. We conducted consultations with 42 survivors via five diverse expert-b...

Research on risk assessment for domestic abuse has focused primarily on the predictive validity of specific tools; less attention has been paid to implementation of risk tools by practitioners. This paper presents findings from a mixed methods study in England and Wales. Multi-level modelling reveals an ‘officer effect’ whereby victims’ responses t...

This article presents evidence from a mixed-methods study examining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on frontline police responses to domestic abuse, with a particular focus on ‘positive action’, across seven police forces in England. Statistical analysis of police-recorded domestic abuse administrative data is combined with 73 semi-structured...

This article introduces and evaluates ‘scrapbooking’ as a critical pedagogic approach to gender-based violence (GBV). This approach is inspired by the rapid development of conceptual and methodological tools for researching violence and abuse and the need for their translation into transformative teaching. Drawing on a feminist methodology of ‘rese...

In 2015, legislation was enacted in England and Wales to criminalise coercive control. While there has been considerable debate on the merits of the law, there has been little empirical study of its use in practice. This paper presents findings from a focused ethnography conducted in two police forces in England. Field observations with first respo...

Scholars and practitioners increasingly acknowledge the ways that abusive partners create, distribute, or threaten to distribute intimate images without consent, yet little empirical research has comprehensively explored image-based sexual abuse within intimate partner contexts. This article responds to this gap and reports on the findings of a stu...

In England and Wales, public trust in the police has been damaged by a series of police failings in rape and sexual assault investigations, officer sexual offending, and a police culture of misogyny. Feminist scholars have analysed why police investigations of rape and sexual assault cases rarely result in a charge and documented the poor experienc...

It is the same as physical exposure and it should be treated as such. (Gail, quoted in Gallagher, 2019a) While English criminal law struggles to bring cyberflashing within existing offences, the situation is different in many other countries. Scotland, for example, has longstanding sexual offences legislation which is sufficiently broad that it ext...

People are still treating this as if it's something to laugh off, a bit of fun, but it's not. (Dawn, quoted in Gallagher, 2020) Cyberflashing is non-consensual sexual conduct which intrudes on women's privacy, autonomy and everyday lives. It can induce fear, alarm and significant other harms. It can also interfere with daily life on a more mundane...

Cyberflashing has been on the rise since the Covid-19 pandemic. This book provides new analysis into the harms of cyberflashing. This timely and unique study considers recent laws in several countries and sets out proposals to criminalise cyberflashing in English law.

The law needs to catch up. The government needs to catch up with the times and implement something that stops people thinking it's okay. (Lisa, quoted in Gallagher, 2019e) In her pathbreaking book Sexual Harassment of Working Women, Catharine MacKinnon (1979, xii) stated: ‘I hope to bring to the law something of the reality of women's lives’. In do...

I was terrified as to who was watching me, and knowing there was a sexual predator within a few metres … I actually called a friend while I was getting off the train and walking to my car so I wasn't alone … On the way to my car, I was 100 per cent terrified. What if this person is following me? (Leecie, quoted in Precel, 2019) Cyberflashing is oft...

I would still feel more safe with a law. (Natalie, quoted in Gallagher, 2018a) I would completely support [a law] and think it is absolutely necessary … We need women to feel safe in public spaces and this will be a crucial step forward. (Jenny, quoted in Gallagher, 2018a) Cyberflashing is a sexual intrusion that infringes sexual autonomy and can i...

Despite apparent political concern and action—often fuelled by high-profile cases and campaigns—legislative and institutional responses to image-based sexual abuse in the UK have been ad hoc, piecemeal and inconsistent. In practice, victim-survivors are being consistently failed: by the law, by the police and criminal justice system, by traditional...

The limits of inter-agency understandings of risk in the context of intimate partner violence are well documented. Informed by Hester’s (2011) ‘three planet’ analogy and using empirical data in one police force area in the south of England, this paper offers an exploration of intra-agency operations, focusing on police risk assessment practices. Ex...

Cyberflashing has been on the rise since the Covid-19 pandemic. This book provides new analysis into the harms of cyberflashing. This timely and unique study considers recent laws in several countries and sets out proposals to criminalise cyberflashing in English law.

In this article, we examine the phenomenon of cyberflashing, outlining its prevalence, harms, and victim-survivors’ experiences. We then consider the extent to which English criminal law currently applies to this form of sexual abuse. We argue that although cyberflashing can be prosecuted in England and Wales, this is only in very limited circumsta...

Beyond ‘scandals’ and the public testimonies of victim-survivors, surprisingly little is known about the nature and extent of the harms of ‘image-based sexual abuse’, a term that includes all non-consensual taking and/or sharing of nude or sexual images. Accordingly, this article examines the findings from the first cross-national qualitative study...

There is growing international interest in translating Stark’s concept of coercive control into criminal justice policy and practice. In December 2015 an offence of coercive control was introduced in England and Wales. This paper offers an empirical investigation of the problems and possibilities associated with the translation of this offence into...

The suitability of 'out of court resolutions' (restorative justice and community resolutions) in cases of domestic abuse is theoretically contentious and empirically under-researched. This study investigated the nature and extent of out of court resolutions for domestic abuse using the Freedom of Information Act. Out of court resolutions were used...

This article addresses the issue of police officers’ use of discretion when responding to domestic violence. With reference to Ericson and Haggerty’s theory of risk-oriented policing, we collected data direct from information management systems in an English police force and conducted field observations with attending officers to explore the degree...