Staff profile

Hannah is currently an Associate 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 will be 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. She is currently 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 ten 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 2020-2024 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 2023.

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 is Associate Editor of the British Journal of Social Work. She is also Chair of the British Society of Criminology (BSC) Victims Network, and a member of the executive for the BSC. She is 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

• 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

• Centre for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice
• Gender & Law at Durham

• 2020: From Report to Court: Crimes Against Older People(£126765.00 from The British Academy)
• 2018: Comic relief learning advisor(£16666.67 from Comic Relief UK)
• 2018: Domestic Violoence Risk Assessment for Older People - scoping project(£3388.00 from ESRC Centre for Social and Economic Research on Innovation in Genomics (INNOGEN))
• 2018: Sexual Violence at UK Music Festivals(£9001.00 from The British Academy)

Available for media contact about:

• Crime:
• English Law:
• Gender and law:
• Criminology:
• Sociology:
• Law & Crime:
• Crime:
• English Law:
• Gender and law:
• Social sciences:
• Criminology:
• Sociology:

Authored book

• Bows, Hannah (2019). Sexual Violence Against Older People. Routledge.
• Westmarland, N & Bows, H (2018). Researching Gender, Violence and Abuse: Theory, Methods, Action. Routledge.

Chapter in book

• Bows, Hannah, King, Hannah & Measham, Fiona (2020). Conceptualising safety and crime at UK music festivals. In Gendered Violence at International Festivals. Platt, Louise & Finkel, Rebecca London: Routledge. 86-104.
• Bows, H. & Hackett, S. (2020). Sexual abuse of parents. In The SAGE Handbook of Domestic Violence. Shackelford, T. Sage. 2.

Edited book

• Bows, Hannah (2019). Violence Against Older Women, Volume II Responses. Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology. Springer (Palgrave).
• Bows, Hannah (2019). Violence Against Older Women, Volume I Nature and Extent. Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology. Springer (Palgrave).

Journal Article

• 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.
• Bows, Hannah, Day, Aviah & Dhir, Alishya (2022). “It's Like a Drive by Misogyny” Sexual Violence at UK Music Festivals. Violence Against Women
• Bows, H. & Herring, J. (2022). DNACPR decisions during Covid-19: An empirical and analytical study. Medical Law Review 30(1): 60-80.
• Herring, J. & Bows, H. (2021). Regulating intimate violence: rough sex, consent and death. Child and Family Law Quarterly 311.
• Bows, Hannah (2020). Violence and Abuse of Older People - A review of current proposals for criminalisation. Criminal Law Review 10: 877-894.
• 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.
• Bows, Hannah & Herring, Jonathan (2020). Getting Away With Murder? A Review of the ‘Rough Sex Defence’. The Journal of Criminal Law 84(6): 002201832093677, 525-538.
• Bows, Hannah (2020). The other side of late‐life intimacy? Sexual violence in later life. Australasian Journal on Ageing 39(S1): 65-70.
• Jamie, Kimberly, O'Neill, Roisin, Bows, Hannah & Hackshaw-McGeagh, Lucy (2020). Healthcare Practitioner Relationships, Cultural Health Capital and Breastfeeding Support for Adolescent Mothers. Health Education Journal 79(8): 901-913.
• McGlynn, Clare & Bows, Hannah (2019). Possessing Extreme Pornography: policing, prosecutions and the need for reform. Journal of Criminal Law 83(6): 473-488.
• Bows, Hannah (2019). Domestic Homicide of Older People (2010–15): A comparative analysis of intimate-partner homicide and parricide cases in the UK. British Journal of Social Work 49(5): 1234-1253.
• Bows, Hannah & Penhale, Bridget (2018). Editorial: Elder Abuse and Social Work: Research, Theory and Practice. British Journal of Social Work 48(4): 873-886.
• Bows, H. & Westmarland, N. (2018). Older sex offenders – managing risk in the community from a policing perspective. Policing and Society 28(1): 62-74.
• 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.
• Bows, Hannah (2018). Sexual Violence Against Older People: A Review of the Empirical Literature. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse 19(5): 567-583.
• Bows, Hannah (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.
• Bows, Hannah & Westmarland, Nicole (2017). Rape of Older People In The United Kingdom: Challenging The ‘Real Rape’ Stereotype. British Journal of Criminology 57(1): 1-17.
• 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.