Professor in Law Vanessa Bettinson

Professor

School: Northumbria School of Law

Vanessa Bettinson is a professor of law, (Vice Chancellor Research Fellow 2023-2026) 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 current funded projects includes:

Jury decision-making in domestic abuse cases involving coercive control (September 2026-2028), ESRC (Project Lead)

Northumbria Teenage Relationship Harm Evaluation of Early Help Referral Pathway (August 2026- 2027), HM Government Evaluation Accelerator Fund - Phase 5 (project Lead)

Maternal Responsibility: Prosecuting 'Failures to Protect' and the Criminalisation of Domestic Abuse Victim-Survivors (August 2026-2028), AHRC (Mentor and Advisory Board Member)

Her current research projects focus on criminal justice experiences of women whose crimes are driven by coercive control, teenage relationship harm (with Northumberland County Council and Northumbria Police) and exploring children's experiences of reporting crime within the criminal justice system in England.

WIth Professor Nicola Wake and Centre for Women's Justice, Vanessa is exploring the potential of introducing Domestic Abuse Contextual Evidence provisions to ensure that all experiences of domestic abuse inform all criminal proceedings.

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Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Anglo-Australian approaches to defences in domestic abuse contexts: embracing social context evidence provisions, Crofts, T., Bettinson, V., Wake, N. 1 Jun 2026, In: Journal of International and Comparative Law
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. 1 Apr 2026, In: Criminology and Criminal Justice
Public understandings of self-defence claims by domestic abuse victim-survivors, Bettinson, V., Wake, N., Crofts, T. 1 Sep 2026, In: Journal of Law and Society
‘Who is even looking for coercive control when you offend?’: Women’s Voices and Institutional Logics in Offending Caused by Coercive Control, Bettinson, V., Baldwin, L., McLaughlan, M. 24 Aug 2026, In: Social & Legal Studies
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. 1 Dec 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