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Staff within the School of Law have secured funding from a range of internal and external sources to support their research. Our funded research projects reflect the diverse range of socio-legal and criminological research being undertaken by staff within the School. See below for more information on recent and currently funded projects.
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Funder: Economic and Social Research Council (£719,909)
Investigators and institutional affiliations: Professor Vanessa Munro (PI, University of Warwick), Dr Siobhan Weare (Co-I, Lancaster University), Dr Madeleine Millar (RIA, Warwick University).
Project duration: 01/09/26 – 01/03/29
Project summary
Courtroom initiatives have been introduced to mitigate the stress and trauma associated with giving testimony as a rape complainant, including ‘special measures’ that allow witnesses to give evidence behind a screen, via live-link, or by use of a pre-recorded police interview, which can now be supplemented by pre-recorded cross-examination. Though well-received by many complainants and their supporters, these innovations have been met with concern amongst criminal justice practitioners and some scholars in respect of their impacts on jurors. More specifically, it has been suggested that removing witnesses from the courtroom will make it difficult for jurors to connect with witnesses and assess the credibility of their accounts. These concerns are particularly acute in relation to the most recently introduced special measure that allows rape complainants to also prerecord their cross-examination, under s.28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 (YJCEA 1999). It enables all of a witness’s testimony to be taken ahead of trial, and to be presented via a video recording to jurors who evaluate its content, whilst the defendant (whether or not they give evidence) remains a constant and visible presence to the jury throughout the trial process.
This innovative study will be the first of its kind to use highly realistic mini-trial simulations to explore the impact on mock-jurors of the use of pre-recorded cross-examination under s.28. Trial simulations will involve practising prosecution and defence barristers, a sexual offences-ticketed judge, and actors as the complainant and defendant. Each will be reconstructed in real time and observed by jury-service-eligible volunteers from the local community whose verdict deliberations will be recorded and analysed. Findings from this project will not only inform current debates in England and Wales about the future of the s.28 special measure specifically, but also ongoing debates in other jurisdictions about the use of pre-recorded evidence and, more broadly, about the role and future of juries in serious sexual offence trials.
Funder: Socio-Legal Studies Association (£2866)
Investigators and institutional affiliations: Dr Ou Lin (Lancaster University)
Project duration: 01/03/2026-31/12/2026
Project summary
Food delivery work is often precarious, dangerous, and sometimes degrading. However, in China, women working in food delivery generally report higher job satisfaction than men in the same sector. This project seeks to understand why this is the case, with a particular focus on how labour law affects women’s job satisfaction in food delivery platform work.
The study will examine factors such as gender roles, attitudes toward work, career opportunities, and how workers balance work and family life within China’s specific social and economic context. By doing so, it aims to show how labour law can better protect and support women in platform-based employment. The findings may also contribute to improving labour policies for women in similar roles in other countries.
Funder: British Academy (£290,111)
Investigators and institutional affiliations: Dr Holly Snape, University of Glasgow; Dr Weinan Wang, University of Kent; Dr Ou Lin (Lancaster University).
Project partners: Hanoi Law University
Project duration (start and end month/ year): 08/ 2024 - 30/04/2027
Project summary
The need for care is universal. Its informal provision underpins resilient societies but produces and perpetuates deep, gendered social inequalities. Potentially path-breaking ideas seek to make care sustainable and equitable: economists call for “caring economies” (Himmelweit 2013); jurisprudents use “vulnerability theory" (Busby & James 2020) to critically assess ideas behind the regulation of relationships between informal care and paid work. Yet such innovative theorising lacks attention to the agency of caregivers and the political and socio-cultural norms that bear powerfully in different political and cultural settings. This project privileges caregivers’ experiences while probing not just formal regulations but the politics and socio-cultural norms which shape and are shaped by informal care practices.
Funder: ESRC (£438,634)
Investigators: Dr Siobhan Weare (PI) and Dr Dominic Willmott (Co-I, Loughborough University)
Project duration: 1 September 2023 – 1 March 2026
Project summary
In the year ending March 2020, according to ONS data, 155,000 men aged 16-74 experienced some form of sexual assault (including attempts). Police reported crime data highlights that men represented 15.5% of sexual offence victims recorded over the same period. Despite this, research has never investigated whether juror characteristics and beliefs may impact deliberations and decision-making within jury trials in England and Wales, where men are the victims of a sexual offence. Provisions within the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 prevent researchers from carrying out such studies with genuine trial jurors in England and Wales. Therefore, mock jury trials represent the best method possible to gain valuable insights into jury deliberations.
This research will conduct mock jury trials based on cases involving male sexual offence victims. 216 mock jurors (members of the public) will be invited to participate in the mock trials which will take place in the School of Law’s Mock Court Room. All expected Crown Court participants will be present and genuine trial procedures followed as closely as possible. Genuine prosecution and defence barristers will present the case, and it will be presided over by a genuine judge. The project aims to:
1. Understand the extent to which falsehoods and stereotypes surrounding male rape are drawn upon during jury deliberations and group verdict decision making.
2. Understand whether juror attitudes towards male complainants of sexual abuse, alongside broader psychosocial and experiential characteristics, are important determinants of individual juror decision-making in cases involving male complainants,
3. Consider the implications of research findings for policy and practice development in criminal justice organisations including the police, CPS, and courts.
Funder: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office & British Embassy Beijing (£34,488）
Principal Investigator: Dr Lu Xu, with research assistance from Beijing Jiaotong University Law School
Project Duration: October 2021 - March 2022
Project Summary
This project aims to provide a rigorous and structured understanding of the emerging case law system in China. This knowledge has been missing in examining and interacting with Chinese law, which has recently undergone radical reforms in its pursuit of the little-explained goal of ‘a socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics’.
Such knowledge of Chinese law will have profound impact and practical benefits for all who come into interaction with the Chinese system, including those organisations and individuals from overseas. It also feedbacks into this developing legal system that is grappling with competing ideas and approaches for the widening use of case law in its efforts of improving transparency and the rule of law, through providing comparative perspectives from more established systems such as that of English law.
Funder: Nuffield Foundation and a philanthropic donor (£500,000)
Investigators: Dr Helen Whincup (PI, University of Stirling), Dr Linda Cusworth (Co-I, Lancaster University), Dr Maggie Grant (Co-I, University of Stirling), Senior Research Associate (to be appointed, Lancaster University), Jade Hooper (RA, University of Stirling), Adele Laing (RA, University of Stirling), Dr Alison Hennessy (Lecturer, University of Stirling).
Project Partner: Adoption and Fostering Alliance (AFA) Scotland
Project Duration: December 2020 – September 2024
Project Summary
In 2018, 14,738 children were looked after in Scotland (Scottish Government 2019) whilst around 85,000 children were looked after in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (DfE 2018; Statistics Wales 2018; DoH 2018). Until recently, little was known about children’s experiences and pathways through the Scottish care system; the balance of voluntary and compulsory placements, the routes taken and time to permanence (at or away from home), and what influences outcomes and wellbeing.
The Permanently Progressing? study is addressing these gaps by gathering information on all 1,836 children who became looked after in Scotland when aged five or under in 2012-13. This three-phase longitudinal research project is tracking children’s progress at key life stages (early childhood, mid childhood and late adolescence/early adulthood). Phase 1 (2014-18) – Building Secure Futures for Children in Scotland - analysed children’s pre-care experiences, pathways and early outcomes. It used administrative data, surveys of caregivers and social workers, interviews with caregivers, and play and talk sessions with children. We found that a third of the children were not in permanent placements after four years and that adoption generally took over two years. Final project reports are available on the CFJ website.
During Phase 2 (2020-24) the research team will revisit the cohort children in middle childhood (age 7+) to find out where they are living, their legal status, wellbeing, and what services bolster resilience. This will provide important and robust information for families, practitioners and policy makers, in Scotland and internationally, which in turn will result in more effective services and better outcomes for children and families.
Funder: ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (£4,910)
Investigators: Dr Linda Cusworth
Key Partners: Scottish Government, University of Stirling, Adoption and Fostering Alliance (AFA) Scotland. The project is also supported by the ESRC-funded Administrative Data Research (ADR) partnership.
Project Duration: September 2019 – May 2020
Project Summary
The main objectives of this project are:
- to bring together key academic, policy, analytic and practice partners in relation to the issue of infants becoming looked after in Scotland, strengthening existing relationships
- to share learning from work done by the Centre on newborns entering care proceedings in England and Wales, and from the ‘Permanently Progressing?’ project
- to discuss implications of the research findings for policy and practice in Scotland
- to explore commonalities and differences between legal systems, and between the availability, scope and structure of the administrative data
- to discuss the opportunities for future collaborative work. Contact: For further details contact Linda Cusworth: l.cusworth@lancaster.ac.uk
Funder: UKRI-ESRC Covid Funding Call (£213,785)
Investigators: Dr Lorna O'Doherty (Coventry University - PI), Dr Siobhan Weare (Lancaster University), Dr Grace Carter (Coventry University), Professor Vanessa Munro (University of Warwick), Dr Emma Sleath (University of Leicester), Dr Michelle Cutland (University Hospital Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust), Concetta Perôt and Professor Sarah Brown (independent consultants).
Project partners: The Survivors Trust, Avon and Somerset Police. Male Survivors Partnership, representatives from the Judiciary and Crown Prosecution Service.
Project duration: November 2020 - May 2022
Project Summary
Over 150,000 sexual offences were recorded by police in year ending March 2020 (ONS, 2020), and there are indications that lockdown increased some sexual offences (e.g. online-facilitated abuse, or sexual abuse perpetrated by family members) and may have decreased others. For example, there was a 24% reduction in rapes reported to the police in the period April to June 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 (ONS, 2020), However, there has been no research into the specific effects of Covid-19 on criminal justice system (CJS) policies and practices relating to sexual offences, nor on the journeys of survivors through the CJS during this period.
Prior to the pandemic, there were significant challenges for the investigation and prosecution of sexual offences and conviction rates were extremely low. Some of these challenges may well have been exacerbated by Covid-19 and lockdown e.g. further delays to investigating cases, postponement of Achieving Best Evidence interviews. At the same time, however, Covid-19 has generated significant innovation within the CJS, e.g. the introduction of a video platform within the courts enabling all parties in a criminal hearing to engage securely and remotely, and this may sow the seeds for improvement in survivors’ journeys through the CJS.
Drawing on the perspectives and experiences of CJS stakeholders, including complainants and families, police, Crown Prosecution Service, HM Courts and Tribunals Services, the Judiciary, Sexual Assault Referral Centres, and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors, this research will provide unique insights into the impact of the pandemic on the CJS in sexual offence cases. Changes to procedures precipitated by Covid-19 might offer longer-term benefits for survivors and stakeholders and we aim to identify these and promote their implementation.
Funder: Nuffield Foundation (£2.2m)
Research team:
Lancaster University - Professor Karen Broadhurst (PI), Dr Linda Cusworth (Co-I), Dr Bachar Alrouh, Dr Claire Hargreaves, Dr Miriam Abouelenin, Dr Stefanie Doebler, Shelley Watson (project manager)
Swansea University - Professor David Ford (Co-PI), Dr Lucy Griffiths, Ashley Akbari, Dr Laura North, Dr Laura Cowley, Simon Thompson, Jon Smart, Professor Kerina Jones
Project Duration: January 2019 – November 2023
Project Summary
A key message from stakeholders in the family justice system is that there is insufficient intelligence about how the system is working, including knowledge about outcomes for children and families involved with the family courts. Limited knowledge reflects limited capacity among the family justice research and analytic community, but also that access to sensitive data produced routinely by agencies is difficult.
To address these obstacles a programme of work will draw on the combined expertise of the Centre for Child and Family Justice Research at Lancaster University and the infrastructure and expertise of the SAIL Databank at Swansea University, forming a Data Partnership with the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory.
The over-arching aims are to ensure a consistent supply of timely, accessible outputs for the new Observatory, whilst at the same time building capability in the use of administrative data and demonstrating its value for the Family Justice System. Cafcass England and Cymru are supporting this work, given the value of national data held by both organisations and the role they play in frontline decision-making.
A comprehensive programme of work is organised around 4 objectives: a) to increase access to and capability in the use of administrative data; b) to improve intelligence about how the family justice system is working through routine and specific issue analyses; c) to demonstrate the value of data harmonisation and data linkage, through the delivery of bespoke linkage projects, and d) to increase the capacity of policy and practice stakeholders to understand, interpret and apply data for policy and practice development.