Charlotte Marino

Thesis Title: Towards Victim-Centred Justice: Understanding Women's Experiences in Specialist Domestic Violence Courts in the West Midlands

Funded by a 1+3 ESRC DTP studentship, this socio-legal research project is concerned with hearing the perspectives of women victim-survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), domestic abuse that occurs in a romantic relationship, about Specialist Domestic Violence Courts (SDVC) in the West Midlands. Whilst SDVCs were designed to improve victim support and satisfaction, no research has specifically investigated how SDVCs understand coercive control and their impact on the experiences of victim-survivors – a gap that this research will fill. It will make an original contribution to the literature by analysing SDVCs using victim-survivors’ perspectives. This will involve observing the SDVC process through site visits to court and triangulating these observations with questionnaires and interviews with victim-survivors and court personnel, adding to the evidence base to improve policy and practice. Ultimately, this research aims for victim-survivors to enter a court that is attentive to gender inequalities and power imbalances that underlie IPV.

Biography

My research interests include tackling men's violence against women; intimate partner violence; victim-centred justice; law’s ability to enact or frustrate justice; gender norms and inequalities; feminist social movements; masculinities and engaging men in violence prevention; and qualitative empirical research methods.

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Socio-Legal Studies

University of Warwick

2020 Cohort, 1+3

charlotte.marino@warwick.ac.uk

Supervisory Team

Prof Vanessa Munro

Dr Laura Lammasniemi