Vanessa Munro

Professor

Law & Gender; Criminal Justice; Sexual Offences; Domestic Violence; Jury Decision-Making; Asylum & Refugees

School of Law
S1.30, Social Sciences Building
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom

024 765 24484

Scholarship

Vanessa has conducted extensive research into law and policy responses to sexual and gender-based violence, focusing particularly on professional and lay decision-making within criminal, asylum and family justice processes.

Bio

Vanessa graduated with her LLB (1997) and PhD (2000) from the University of Glasgow, and was named 'Young Alumnus of the Year' by that institution in 2007. With funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, Nuffield Foundation, Home Office, Scottish Government, Crown Prosecution Service and British Academy, she has conducted extensive research into law and policy responses to sexual and gender-based violence, focusing particularly on professional and law decision-making within criminal, asylum and family justice processes. She has also published on the topic of University disciplinary responses to sexual misconduct on campus.

Across her various research projects, Vanessa has worked closely with the third sector, policy-makers and practitioners to amplify the social impact of her findings – most recently, she has worked with REFUGE and Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse on major projects exploring the links between domestic abuse and suicidality; with Rape Crisis Scotland on studies tracing the impact on rape complainers of receiving a not proven verdict and documenting the current operation of ‘rape shield’ provisions in Scottish sexual offences trials; and with the Crown Prosecution Service on evaluating initiatives under ‘Operation Soteria’ to improve investigative and prosecutorial responses to rape complaints and complainants in England and Wales.

In 2010, Vanessa was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in recognition of outstanding research achievement, and in 2016 she was nominated as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Vanessa currently sits on the editorial boards of 'Social and Legal Studies', 'Modern Law Review' & 'Current Legal Problems'; and has twice sat on the Executive Committee of the Socio-Legal Studies Association. Vanessa was also a co-ordinator of the Scottish Feminist Judgments Project. She has been a visiting scholar at Universities in Australia, New Zealand and the US, and joined Warwick in 2016, having previously held Chairs at the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester.

Publications Teaching Projects

Funded

Title	Funder	Award start	Award end
Sexual Assault and Abuse (SAA) Mental Health (MH) Needs Assessment	West Midlands Police	01 Mar 2024	31 Jul 2024
Vanessa Munro - (law) RE: CPS - Operation Soteria	Crown Prosecution Service	01 Jul 2022	30 Jun 2023
The Use of Sexual History Evidence and 'Private Data' in Scottish Sexual Offences Trials	Scottish Government	01 Aug 2021	31 Dec 2022
To Improve Understanding and Knowledge of Domestic Abuse-Related Suicide	Home Office	13 Dec 2021	30 Jun 2022
Impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on criminal justice journeys of adult and child survivors of sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault.	ESRC	20 Nov 2020	19 May 2022
Jury research - (IPSOS MORI)	Scottish Government	04 Sep 2017	31 Aug 2019
Understanding, and Evaluating Current Responses to, Domestic Abuse-Related Suicide in England and Wales	Refuge	29 Sep 2017	28 Sep 2018
Leverhulme Prize trf from Leicester	Leverhulme Trust	01 Sep 2016	31 Jul 2017

Highlighted

JICSAV - Justice in Covid for Survivors of Sexual Assault and Violence

Funded by: ESRC. 2021 - May 2022.

Project Leads - Dr Lorna O'Doherty (Coventry University) and Dr Siobhan Weare (Lancaster University)

Jury research - (IPSOS MORI)

Funded by: Scottish Government, Project Start Date 04-09-2017 - Project End Date 31-08-2019

Impact

Legislation

Vanessa has been invited to present evidence to the Scottish Justice Committee on more than one occasion. This was relied upon in the passing of legislation to require judges to provide instructions to jurors in rape cases where there is delay or no evidence of force / injury, as well as in the passing of the Vulnerable Witness Bill, which extended the provision of special measures to adult witnesses. Most recently, Vanessa has presented evidence during the Victim, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill which seeks to remove the not proven verdict, reform the jury process, create specialist sexual violence courts and legislating for independent legal representation of rape complainers in relation to admissibility of records and sexual history evidence.

Policy

Vanessa was an invited member of an Expert Panel, convened by the Solicitor-General, which led to the creation of extended judicial instructions in rape cases. She has since participated in, or given evidence to, the Ministry of Justice's 'End to End Rape Review', The Law Commission's 'Contempt of Court' Report, and the Scottish Review of Rape Prosecution convened by Lady Dorian. In 2017, she was part of an UNHCR Expert Group on the Use of Criminal Law in relation to Gender & Sexuality, and is a Commonwealth Expert for the Human Dignity Trust as well as a member of the Centre for Women's Justice Femicide Group and Institute for Addressing Strangulation Research Advisory Group. Vanessa previously acted as Special Advisor to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into Human Trafficking and to a Scottish Government project on Sex Work. More recently, she has worked with REFUGE to produce research on the prevalence of suicidality amongst its client base, with AAFDA on pioneering work in relation to Domestic Homicide Reviews in suicide cases, and with Rape Crisis Scotland to explore the impact on complainers of rape of receiving a not proven verdict. Her research with colleagues on jury deliberation has been widely cited nationally and internationally.

Public Understanding

Through her work as part of the Scottish Feminist Judgments Project, Vanessa has been involved in numerous public events, as well as artistic exhibitions and a podcast series, designed to raise awareness of the gendered operation of law. Her work with REFUGE on domestic abuse related suicidality also prompted a collaboration that resulted in billboard campaigns in Leicester Square during World Suicide Prevention Day, whilst her work with AAFDA has generated a podcast and short animation. Vanessa has written about or discussed her research in the national print & TV press.

Professional Practice

With colleagues, Vanessa has provided training on assessing credibility in rape cases to police leads, the Crown Prosecution Service, and as part of annual Judicial College training. She has also provided training to Immigration Judges following research into decision-making in asylum cases where female claimants report allegations of rape as part of their persecution. As part of the Scottish Feminist Judgments Project, she has provided training to the Law Society of Scotland, Faculty of Advocates, and to lawyers working at the Scottish Parliament. Her work with the CPS to explore pilot initiatives under ‘Operation Soteria’ has directly informed a new National Operating Model for rape which was launched by the Crown Prosecution Service in 2023. Vanessa has also recently been an invited member of the Scottish Government’s Expert Group on Women in the Justice System, which produced a report in 2023 intended to guide development of a gendered and intersectional approach to justice.

Culture

Research Supervision