Professor in Law (Vice Chancellor Fellow) Vanessa Bettinson

Professor

School: Northumbria School of Law

Vanessa Bettinson is a professor of law and a Vice Chancellor Research Fellow at Northumbria School of Law, Northumbria University, having previously worked at De Montfort University, Leicester. Her research interest and published work has a core theme of embedding understandings of domestic violence and abuse in the criminal law. However, she also explores issues relating to vulnerability more broadly. She has extensive experience in organising interdisciplinary events both nationally and internationally which are forums for academics and practitioners working in domestic violence and abuse. For the most part her approach to research is socio-legal and she collaborates with external partners and academics in diverse disciplines. She is a member of Northumbria University's Gender, Violence and Abuse Interdisciplinary Research Theme.

Her recent funded work includes:

Exploring the use of artificial intelligence to identify perpertrators of technology facilitated coercive control, Home Office Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Fund in 2021-22. The research team consisted of academics based in computer science, criminology and social work.

Place to Call Home Project: Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children and Foster Care Provision, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Lead Partner Leicesteshire County Council, 2020-2022. The research team included academics from law and social work.

Her current research projects focus on sentencing of women whose crimes are driven by coercive control, public perceptions of self-defence where violence is used as a response to domestic abuse and exploring children's experiences of reporting crime within the criminal justice system in England.

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Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Culpability, Defences and Mitigation for the Coercively Controlled Defendant’, Bettinson, V. 10 Dec 2025, Research Handbook for Gender, Violence and Law, Routledge
Public perceptions on self-defence in householder and domestic abuse victim-defendant contexts, Wake, N., Bettinson, V., Crofts, T. 24 Sep 2025, In: Legal Studies
PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS ON SELF-DEFENCE SUGGEST IT MUST BE MADE MORE ACCESSIBLE TO DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS, Wake, N., Bettinson, V., Crofts, T. 2 Jul 2025
A new self-defence framework for domestic abuse survivors who use violent resistance in response, Bettinson, V., Wake, N. 1 Jan 2024, In: Modern Law Review
A One-sided Coin? Attributing Agency and Responsibility in Contexts of Coercive Control, Bettinson, V., Munro, V., Wake, N., Ahluwalia, P. 2 May 2024, Criminal Law Reform Now, London, Bloomsbury
Coercion, Control and Criminal Responsibility: Exploring Professional Responses to Offending and Suicidality in the Context of Domestically Abusive Relationships, Munro, V., Bettinson, V., Burton, M. 1 Jun 2024, In: Social & Legal Studies
Going for gold: Professionals’ perspectives on the design and implementation of transformative coercive control offences in Scotland and England and Wales, Bettinson, V., Munro, V., Burton, M. 25 Jul 2024, In: Criminology and Criminal Justice
Introducing a Criminal Offence of Domestic Abuse in Northern Ireland: Comparative Insights into Criminalising Coercive Control, Bettinson, V., McQuigg, R. 1 Jan 2024, Criminalising Coercive Control, London, Routledge
Introduction to the Research Handbook on Domestic Violence and Abuse, Burton, M., Bettinson, V., Richardson, K., Speed, A. 17 Sep 2024, Research Handbook on Domestic Violence and Abuse, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar
'It isn't just a shove': judicial understandings of domestic abuse and the challenges of recognising and responding to 'coercive control' in the criminal and family courts, Burton, M., Bettinson, V., Munro, V. 1 Mar 2024, In: Child and Family Law Quarterly