DOMESTIC ABUSE
My research examines how language shapes the way domestic abuse is understood, recorded, and responded to. I research the language used by police officers, court-appointed social workers, and other professionals, paying particular attention to how blame and responsibility are attributed, obscured, or shifted. My work also explores how linguistic choices can centre or sideline perpetrators, and how this can affect the way victims, their experiences, and their credibility are represented.
A selection of my work in this area is outlined below with links to publications
ARTICLES
(2025) [with Kirsty Blewitt] ‘Police gaslighting in UK domestic abuse police reports. Discourse and Society
This research examines victims' and survivors' reports of police interactions relating to domestic abuse. It found that police gaslit victims in their reports and initial responses to domestic abuse. This can reinforce perpetrator abuse for victims and survivors and constitutes institutional betrayal.
(2022) ‘Writing up or Writing off Domestic Violence Crimes: A Transitivity Analysis’, Language and Law 8(2): 48–69.
My article analyses police summary reports for charging decisions and finds patterns of victim-blaming, negative portrayals of victims, and minimisation of perpetrators. It uses the framework of grammatical transitivity to draw those patterns out.
(2021) [with Nick Lynn] 'Additions, Omissions, and Transformations in Institutional 'Retellings' of Domestic Violence cases, Language and Law 8(1): 79–96
In this article we analyse police case summary reports through a relevance framework to show how meaning is carried – what is written is often different from what is implicated. This can have consequences for the progression of cases of domestic abuse.
(2021) ‘Police reporting can undermine domestic violence victims, language analysis shows’, The Conversation.
This piece explores the way that language used in police case reports can impact the credibility of victims of gendered violence.
POLICY REPORTS & NATIONAL GUIDANCE
(2026 In press) (with Superintendent Sharon Baker) Language Matters: Responding to Domestic Abuse. National Centre for Violence against Women and Girls and Public Protection. College of Policing.
Commissioned by the College of Policing (UK), this guidance identifies and evaluates victim-blaming language and offers alternative, more trauma-informed uses of language. The guidance will be implemented by all 43 UK police forces when it is released in the latter part of 2026.
(2024) Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). Ending victim blaming in the context of violence against women and girls: Why language, attitudes, and behaviours matter.
Commissioned by the IOPC, this guidance identifies the link between attitude and language use and supports police to build trust with victims and survivors of gendered violence.