Content warning: This blog discusses themes of sexual assault
In recent years, the #MeToo social movement has focused attention on powerful men who have abused their position to sexually groom and to violate. Unsurprisingly, the impact in the media and film industries, and among ‘celebrities’, has received particular attention, but ripples from the movement have extended across other sectors.
In 2022, University of Bristol researcher, Dr Natasha Mulvihill, was awarded ERC/UKRI funding to explore the nature of and responses to sexual misconduct and abuse perpetrated by professionals. Specifically, Dr Mulvihill and her team are focused on six groups of UK professions who act as expert confidantes and healers (doctors and religious leaders) and those who provide protection and justice (police, judges and barristers, military personnel, and politicians).
Here, the team explain more about the aims and methods of the ‘Powerful Perpetrators’ project.
The Legal Services Board Strategy 2021-2031 identifies the importance of good regulation in dismantling barriers to a diverse and inclusive profession at all levels, and that sexual misconduct can inhibit the progress of this key objective.
Why these professions?
We selected these groups as they are established professions who have a single regulator, professional code of practice, or are regulated in law. They are professions which would be generally recognised as having authority in society and which require a level of public confidence, esteem or support, to operate effectively.
We understand them to be ‘powerful’ precisely because of this public standing and esteem, that derives from their professional position. This may be compounded by other forms of social capital and privilege.
Our aim is not to single out one profession, but rather to bring together a group of high status and high trust professionals, who are subject to a professional code, as a collective focus for analysis.
What exactly is the project looking at?
We are primarily interested in what happens when individuals from these professions are reported to their employer or regulator and/or when they are referred to disciplinary spaces. We term these spaces ‘administrative justice’ to distinguish them from ‘criminal justice’.
We are not investigating whether reported instances are ‘true’, but rather how professional employers, bodies and regulators understand and respond to the perpetration of sexual misconduct and abuse, alleged or proven.
We also want to analyse the characteristics of individuals who are reported, and the context of their behaviour. We plan to map and understand the activity that occurs from the point of alleged harm through to any disciplinary outcome. This may also require understanding what happened next, including where individuals are reported again.
Most research on these professions has so far focused on the abuse of children. There is also work on workplace sexual harassment, in general. However, we want to look at where a professional targets this behaviour towards adults aged 18 and over, this also includes sexual misconduct and abuse that started at the age of 16 and 17, for example, and continued into adulthood.
We recognise that the term ‘sexual abuse’ is less often used in relation to adults, but we think it is helpful in recognising misuse of power, and mistreatment or harm to another person. We also recognise that the term ‘misconduct’ tends to refer to behaviour in relation to someone’s job role. We are using the collective term ‘sexual misconduct and abuse’ to try and capture all of this.
Finally, this research takes a ‘360 degree’ view of harmful behaviour by professionals: within work, social, family, or intimate relationships. This is because we understand that such behaviours may be reproduced in non-work domains, or they may manifest through other ‘boundary-pushing’ practices.
How you can get involved
If you are interested in sharing your thoughts or insights into sexual misconduct within the legal profession, then there are a few ways to get involved.
- If you are someone who has (or has previously had) a role that relates to professional regulation or misconduct, disciplinary processes, or professional standards OR if you are (or were formerly) legal counsel engaged in such cases, then we would be really interested in doing an interview with you. More detail about the interviews can be found here.
- In addition, we want to hear from individuals who have experienced and witnessed abuse. This may include someone disclosing to you their experience or seeing the impact of that experience on someone. While the focus of this project is on perpetrators and institutional processes, the voices of those who have experienced and witnessed abuse are central to understanding whether and how justice processes work in practice. For this reason, we are circulating an anonymous online survey and speaking to individuals, advocacy and support groups.
- If you have any general observations or questions about the project, you can send us a message via our website by clicking here.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Dr Natasha Mulvihill is Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on sexual violence, abuse of power and institutional harm.
Dr Hannah K. Richards is Research Associate at the University of Bristol. Her recent research has focused on institutional and individual responses to sexual violence within the British military justice system.
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