Staff profile

Hannah is Professor in Criminal Law and Deputy Dean (Research) of Durham Law School. She is Deputy Director of the Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA). Between October – December 2023 Hannah was a visiting fellow at Exeter College, University of Oxford. 

Previously, she has held the positions of Director of Equality and Diversity and Co-Director of the Centre for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. Hannah is an academic member of KCH Garden Square. Between 2022-2024 Hanah was Specialist Adviser to the Women and Equalities Committee on the ‘preventing VAWG’ inquiry. She has previously held panel and advisory roles across a number of public bodies and inquiries including HMCFRS, CPS, and the Law Commission. Between 2019-2020 she was seconded to the Scottish Parliament to examine potential legal responses to ‘elder abuse’. She was a Winston Churchill Memorial Travel fellow in 2019, examining criminal justice initiatives to support victims of ‘elder abuse’.

Over the last twelve years she has conducted research examining different forms of violence against older people, with a specific focus on domestic violence, sexual violence and homicide of older women. Between 2020-2025 Hannah is working on a project examining criminal justice outcomes and decision making in cases involving victims aged 60 and over, funded by a British Academy Wolfson Fellowship.

She is also leading a team conducting secondary analysis of the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) data to examine domestic abuse victimisation among adults aged 60-74. Previously, the CSEW had an upper age limit of 59 on the part of the survey collecting this data. This study is the first to use the data on older adults. The results will be available in Autumn 2024.

Her other recent project include analysis of the so-called ‘rough sex’ defence, a British Academy funded project on sexual violence at music festivals, an examination of DNACPR during Covid and a Home Office study examining safeguarding responses to domestic abuse among older adults.

This work has led to a range of outputs, media interviews and articles, policy and public engagement activity. She has won several awards, including winner of the Emerald Publishing 'Real Impact' prize in the category 'Mobilising Research into Action' (2019-2020). Previously, she was awarded an ESRC Outstanding Impact (runner-up) prize in 2017.

Outside of the university, Hannah was Associate Editor of the British Journal of Social Work between 2019-2024. She is currently Chair of the British Society of Criminology (BSC) Victims Network, and a member of the executive for the BSC. Between 2022-2024 she was a non-executive director of the North East and North Cumbria ICB. Additionally, Hannah sits on a number of external reference groups and official committees on issues relating to crime and (older) age. Hannah is interested in supervising doctoral students who wish to conduct research in the areas of crimes against or by older people, violence against women, criminal law, gender, ageing and feminist or socio-legal theory.

For research, media or consultancy enquiries please contact Hannah by email.

Field of Study

Violence against women

Crimes against, and by, people over the age of 60

Sexual and domestic violence

Justice (including processes and procedures)

Feminist and socio-legal theories

• Crimes against, and by, people over the age of 60
• Feminist and socio-legal theories
• Justice (including processes and procedures)
• Sexual and domestic violence
• Violence against women

Authored book

• Bows, H. (in press). Sexual Violence Against Older People. Routledge
• Westmarland, N., & Bows, H. (2018). Researching Gender, Violence and Abuse: Theory, Methods, Action. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315630618

Chapter in book

• Milne, E., & Bows, H. (2024). Research Methods for Law and Gender. In M. McConville, & W. H. Chui (Eds.), Research Methods for Law. (3rd ed.). Edinburgh University Press
• Bows, H., & Hackett, S. (2020). Sexual abuse of parents. In T. Shackelford (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of domestic violence. SAGE Publications
• Bows, H., King, H., & Measham, F. (2020). Conceptualising safety and crime at UK music festivals. In L. Platt, & R. Finkel (Eds.), Gendered violence at international festivals (86-104). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429344893-7
• Bows, H., King, H., & Measham, F. (2020). Conceptualising safety and crime at UK music festivals: A gendered analysis. In L. Platt, & R. Finkel (Eds.), Gendered Violence at International Festivals An Interdisciplinary Perspective (86-103). Routledge

Edited book

• Nature and Extent. Springer (Palgrave)
• Responses. Springer (Palgrave)

Journal Article

• Bows, H., & Herring, J. (2024). Non-Fatal Strangulation: An Empirical Review of the New Offence in England and Wales. Journal of Criminal Law, 88(5-6), 332-346. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220183241277005
• Bows, H., Bromley, P., & Walklate, S. (2024). Practitioner Understandings of Older Victims of Abuse and Their Perpetrators: Not Ideal Enough?. The British Journal of Criminology: An International Review of Crime and Society, 64(3), 620 - 637. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azad057
• Bows, H., Day, A., & Dhir, A. (2024). “It's Like a Drive by Misogyny”: Sexual Violence at UK Music Festivals. Violence Against Women, 30(2), 372-393. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012221120443
• Bows, H., King, H., & Measham, F. (2023). Perceptions of safety and experiences of gender-based violence at UK music festivals. Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 7(1), 74-92. https://doi.org/10.1332/239868021x16439111624553
• Bows, H., & Herring, J. (2022). DNACPR decisions during Covid-19: An empirical and analytical study. Medical Law Review, 30(1), 60-80. https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwab047
• Herring, J., & Bows, H. (2021). Regulating intimate violence: rough sex, consent and death. Child and family law quarterly, 311,
• Jamie, K., O'Neill, R., Bows, H., & Hackshaw-McGeagh, L. (2020). Healthcare Practitioner Relationships, Cultural Health Capital and Breastfeeding Support for Adolescent Mothers. Health Education Journal, 79(8), 901-913. https://doi.org/10.1177/0017896920915945
• Jamie, K., Hackshaw-McGeagh, L., Bows, H., & O'Neill, R. (2020). "I just don't think it's that natural": Adolescent mothers' constructions of breastfeeding as deviant. Sociology of Health & Illness, 42(7), 1689-1708. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13157
• Bows, H. (2020). The other side of late‐life intimacy? Sexual violence in later life. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 39(S1), 65-70. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajag.12728
• Bows, H. (2020). Violence and Abuse of Older People - A review of current proposals for criminalisation. Criminal law review, 10, 877-894
• Bows, H., & Herring, J. (2020). Getting Away With Murder? A Review of the ‘Rough Sex Defence’. Journal of Criminal Law, 84(6), 525-538. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018320936777
• McGlynn, C., & Bows, H. (2019). Possessing Extreme Pornography: policing, prosecutions and the need for reform. Journal of Criminal Law, 83(6), 473-488. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018319877783
• Bows, H. (2019). Domestic Homicide of Older People (2010–15): A comparative analysis of intimate-partner homicide and parricide cases in the UK. The British Journal of Social Work, 49(5), 1234-1253. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcy108
• Bows, H. (2018). Sexual Violence Against Older People: A Review of the Empirical Literature. Trauma, Violence, and Abuse, 19(5), 567-583. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838016683455
• Bows, H. (2018). Practitioner views on the impacts, challenges, and barriers in supporting older survivors of sexual violence. Violence Against Women, 24(9), 1070-1090. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801217732348
• Bows, H., & Penhale, B. (2018). Editorial: Elder Abuse and Social Work: Research, Theory and Practice. The British Journal of Social Work, 48(4), 873-886. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcy062
• Bows, H., & Westmarland, N. (2018). Older sex offenders – managing risk in the community from a policing perspective. Policing and Society, 28(1), 62-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2016.1138476
• Bows, H. (2017). Researching sexual violence against older people: reflecting on the use of Freedom of Information requests in a feminist study. Feminist Review, 115(1), 30-45. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41305-017-0029-z
• Bows, H., & Westmarland, N. (2017). Rape of Older People In The United Kingdom: Challenging The ‘Real Rape’ Stereotype. The British Journal of Criminology: An International Review of Crime and Society, 57(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azv116
• Jamie, K., Bows, H., & Gill, J. (2016). Integration of pharmacogenetic principles as a core thread in the undergraduate pharmacy curriculum. Pharmacy education, 16(1), 64-66

Report

• Bows, H., Jobe, A., & Westmarland, N. (2014). Sexual Violence Preventative Work with Young People. A Feasibility Study. Report for Darlington and Co. Durham Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre. [No known commissioning body]