Karen Morgan is a Research Fellow in the School of Social and Community Medicine, at the University of Bristol. As well as over 10 years’ research experience mostly in gender-based violence, she also has experience from the voluntary sector of supporting survivors of domestic and sexual abuse.Currently, Karen is working on REPROVIDE, an NIHR-funded pilot trial of a domestic violence perpetrator programme, which is seeking to gather evidence as to the effectiveness of group programmes for male perpetrators.
International Review of Administrative Sciences, 2013
One of the most difficult and under-examined issues in integrity research is understanding whethe... more One of the most difficult and under-examined issues in integrity research is understanding whether regulatory interventions designed to improve the ethical conduct of public bodies actually have any effect on public trust. In this article, we present the results of research which has sought to unpack this issue. Drawing on a large-scale public survey and case study analysis of nine local councils in England, the research examined the relative importance of ethical conduct (whether elected councillors displayed good behaviour) on public trust in local government. We found that contextual factors (such as the size of the population and its social and ethnic diversity) and the ethical standards and behaviour of councillors were among the more important determinants of public trust. The most important variable in explaining levels of public trust was how a council performed. Points for practitioners One of the aims of ethics regulation is to improve levels of trust by promoting changes ...
Background In contrast to evidence for interventions supporting victim/survivors of domestic viol... more Background In contrast to evidence for interventions supporting victim/survivors of domestic violence and abuse (DVA), the effectiveness of perpetrator programmes for reduction of abuse is uncertain. This study aims to estimate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a perpetrator programme for men. Methods Pragmatic two-group individually randomised controlled trial (RCT) with embedded process and economic evaluation. Five centres in southwest England and South Wales aim to recruit 316 (reduced from original target of 366) male domestic abuse perpetrators. These will be randomised 2:1 to a community-based domestic abuse perpetrator programme (DAPP) or usual care comparator with 12-month follow-up. Female partners/ex-partners will be invited to join the study. The intervention for men comprises 23 weekly sessions of a group programme delivered in voluntary sector domestic abuse services. The intervention for female partners/ex-partners is one-to-one support from a safety worker....
While the case for veganism may be argued to be beyond debate, ending the exploitation of nonhuma... more While the case for veganism may be argued to be beyond debate, ending the exploitation of nonhuman animals remains hindered by the ubiquity of speciesism. This paper therefore explores the resilience of the speciesist order in two related contexts: the cultural reproduction of speciesism, including the ridicule of veganism; the applicability of Cohen’s sociological theory of denial to the exploitation of nonhuman animals. In so doing, the paper points towards intersections between speciesism and other forms of oppression, which may in turn help to inform effective vegan activism and prevent veganism from being marginalized as a “single issue."
Our paradoxical relationship with other animals is most apparent in relation to whether we consid... more Our paradoxical relationship with other animals is most apparent in relation to whether we consider them to be ‘food’ or ‘friends’ (Masson 2003; Spencer et al. 2006; Jepson 2008; Cole and Stewart 2010). Rabbits, for example, may be perceived as ‘pets’ or ‘food’, ‘vermin’, ‘entertainment’ or laboratory ‘equipment’, depending on circumstances (Stewart and Cole 2009).1 While some animals are seen as essential parts of our emotional lives and granted subjectivity, others are viewed and treated as objects. This is despite the fact that objectified animals are those with whom we have the most intimate of all relationships: the incorporation of their flesh, eggs or bodily secretions into our own bodies. Consequently, those animals with whom we have our closest relationships are reduced to ‘animal machines’ (Harrison 1964). As individuals, these animals and their conditions of life and death are usually invisible to us although exceptionally, as we will discuss later, ‘farmed’ animals may act in ways that make it harder for us to deny their capacity for individual agency. The difficulty of sustaining a subject-object distinction is also manifest in the attempt to maintain the objectification of ‘food animals’ at the same time as appearing to grant them subjectivity, in the ‘happy meat’ phenomenon (Cole 2011; and see e.g. http://www.happymeats.co.uk/ or http://www.wellhungmeat.com/index.php). This is achieved through allowing selective visibility of the lives and deaths of these animals. In constructing some animals as subjects, or more accurately quasi-subjects who approximate to human subjectivity and others as objects, we categorize them depending on our use for them.
This article examines the way in which discursive knowledge about women victims of violence in th... more This article examines the way in which discursive knowledge about women victims of violence in the UK is shared and circulated through newspaper reports. News reports play an important role in the reproduction and dissemination of notions about who may be seen as more or ...
This article draws on narratives of volunteers working with women who have experienced violence. ... more This article draws on narratives of volunteers working with women who have experienced violence. It explores how institutional discourses nurture a culture of blame and responsibility. Using qualitative data, it examines the ways in which women victims are seen as complicit in their own victimization. An indirect consequence of the blame/responsibility dichotomy is that victims are depicted as deserving their fate. There is, therefore, a culture of resignation in which violence is normalized. It proposes that if institutional practices are embedded in a feminist tradition, they can provide a more sustainable framework for challenging sexual and domestic violence.
In many countries, an important driver for concern about public values arises from falling trust ... more In many countries, an important driver for concern about public values arises from falling trust in public institutions. One widely identified explanation has been the conduct of politicians, to which governments around the globe have responded by creating systems of ethics regulation and reform. This includes England, where measures instigated by the 2000 Local Government Act took a particularly centralised approach to improving conduct in local government, consisting of a standardised and formalised code of conduct with which ...
International Review of Administrative Sciences, 2013
One of the most difficult and under-examined issues in integrity research is understanding whethe... more One of the most difficult and under-examined issues in integrity research is understanding whether regulatory interventions designed to improve the ethical conduct of public bodies actually have any effect on public trust. In this article, we present the results of research which has sought to unpack this issue. Drawing on a large-scale public survey and case study analysis of nine local councils in England, the research examined the relative importance of ethical conduct (whether elected councillors displayed good behaviour) on public trust in local government. We found that contextual factors (such as the size of the population and its social and ethnic diversity) and the ethical standards and behaviour of councillors were among the more important determinants of public trust. The most important variable in explaining levels of public trust was how a council performed. Points for practitioners One of the aims of ethics regulation is to improve levels of trust by promoting changes ...
Background In contrast to evidence for interventions supporting victim/survivors of domestic viol... more Background In contrast to evidence for interventions supporting victim/survivors of domestic violence and abuse (DVA), the effectiveness of perpetrator programmes for reduction of abuse is uncertain. This study aims to estimate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a perpetrator programme for men. Methods Pragmatic two-group individually randomised controlled trial (RCT) with embedded process and economic evaluation. Five centres in southwest England and South Wales aim to recruit 316 (reduced from original target of 366) male domestic abuse perpetrators. These will be randomised 2:1 to a community-based domestic abuse perpetrator programme (DAPP) or usual care comparator with 12-month follow-up. Female partners/ex-partners will be invited to join the study. The intervention for men comprises 23 weekly sessions of a group programme delivered in voluntary sector domestic abuse services. The intervention for female partners/ex-partners is one-to-one support from a safety worker....
While the case for veganism may be argued to be beyond debate, ending the exploitation of nonhuma... more While the case for veganism may be argued to be beyond debate, ending the exploitation of nonhuman animals remains hindered by the ubiquity of speciesism. This paper therefore explores the resilience of the speciesist order in two related contexts: the cultural reproduction of speciesism, including the ridicule of veganism; the applicability of Cohen’s sociological theory of denial to the exploitation of nonhuman animals. In so doing, the paper points towards intersections between speciesism and other forms of oppression, which may in turn help to inform effective vegan activism and prevent veganism from being marginalized as a “single issue."
Our paradoxical relationship with other animals is most apparent in relation to whether we consid... more Our paradoxical relationship with other animals is most apparent in relation to whether we consider them to be ‘food’ or ‘friends’ (Masson 2003; Spencer et al. 2006; Jepson 2008; Cole and Stewart 2010). Rabbits, for example, may be perceived as ‘pets’ or ‘food’, ‘vermin’, ‘entertainment’ or laboratory ‘equipment’, depending on circumstances (Stewart and Cole 2009).1 While some animals are seen as essential parts of our emotional lives and granted subjectivity, others are viewed and treated as objects. This is despite the fact that objectified animals are those with whom we have the most intimate of all relationships: the incorporation of their flesh, eggs or bodily secretions into our own bodies. Consequently, those animals with whom we have our closest relationships are reduced to ‘animal machines’ (Harrison 1964). As individuals, these animals and their conditions of life and death are usually invisible to us although exceptionally, as we will discuss later, ‘farmed’ animals may act in ways that make it harder for us to deny their capacity for individual agency. The difficulty of sustaining a subject-object distinction is also manifest in the attempt to maintain the objectification of ‘food animals’ at the same time as appearing to grant them subjectivity, in the ‘happy meat’ phenomenon (Cole 2011; and see e.g. http://www.happymeats.co.uk/ or http://www.wellhungmeat.com/index.php). This is achieved through allowing selective visibility of the lives and deaths of these animals. In constructing some animals as subjects, or more accurately quasi-subjects who approximate to human subjectivity and others as objects, we categorize them depending on our use for them.
This article examines the way in which discursive knowledge about women victims of violence in th... more This article examines the way in which discursive knowledge about women victims of violence in the UK is shared and circulated through newspaper reports. News reports play an important role in the reproduction and dissemination of notions about who may be seen as more or ...
This article draws on narratives of volunteers working with women who have experienced violence. ... more This article draws on narratives of volunteers working with women who have experienced violence. It explores how institutional discourses nurture a culture of blame and responsibility. Using qualitative data, it examines the ways in which women victims are seen as complicit in their own victimization. An indirect consequence of the blame/responsibility dichotomy is that victims are depicted as deserving their fate. There is, therefore, a culture of resignation in which violence is normalized. It proposes that if institutional practices are embedded in a feminist tradition, they can provide a more sustainable framework for challenging sexual and domestic violence.
In many countries, an important driver for concern about public values arises from falling trust ... more In many countries, an important driver for concern about public values arises from falling trust in public institutions. One widely identified explanation has been the conduct of politicians, to which governments around the globe have responded by creating systems of ethics regulation and reform. This includes England, where measures instigated by the 2000 Local Government Act took a particularly centralised approach to improving conduct in local government, consisting of a standardised and formalised code of conduct with which ...
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