Staff profile

Nikki is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and works across the department in Criminology, Sociology and Social Work. She is a registered social worker; completing the Master of Social Work Programme at Durham in 2019 with Distinction. Nikki has 16 years experience working and volunteering for various women and children's organisations and embeds this experience in her teaching.

Nikki completed her ESRC funded doctoral research in 2022 whereby she developed a substantive theory of primary-aged child-to-parent violence; using a classical Grounded Theory approach to integrate the perspectives of parents, practitioners, and children themselves. In this work a key focus was that non-intentional forms of harm should be understood through the lens of 'need' and referred to as explosive and harmful impulses.

Research Area

Nikki's research interests include participatory approaches to child and family experiences, expressions, and responses to harm. She is particularly interested in research and practice which aims to conceptualise and frame 'child-to-parent violence', and explores where it may sit on the existing frameworks of child development, domestic abuse, and child safeguarding.

Research Groups

• Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse
• Centre for Social Justice and Community Action
• Criminal Justice, Social Harms and Inequalities

Teaching

Convenor: Practice Education Stage 1- SOCI30220

Convenor: Social Work Practice 1 - SOCI42150

Convenor: PGT Placement - SOCI44215

Convenor: Community Placement - SOCI3511

• • Parent-carer well-being
• • Child-parent violence
• • Neurodivergence
• • Participatory research methodologies

Conference Paper

• Rutter, Nikki (2021), Managing violent behaviours in primary schools – A multi-agency risk assessment model, in Riddle, Sharon & Bhatia, Priyanka eds, Imagining Better Education Imagining Better Education 2020. Durham, England, Durham University, School of Education, 137-150.

Journal Article

• Rutter, Nikki (2023). Rupture, repair, the loss and re-construction of identity: Seeking support in situations of adolescent-to-parent violence and abuse. Frontiers in Health Services 3.
• Rutter, Nikki (2023). “My [Search Strategies] Keep Missing You” A Scoping Review to Map Child-to-Parent Violence in Childhood Aggression Literature. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20(5): 4176.
• Rutter, Nikki, Hasan, Ecem, Pilson, Anna & Yeo, Emma (2023). “It’s the End of the PhD as We Know it, and We Feel Fine…Because Everything Is Fucked Anyway” Utilizing Feminist Collaborative Autoethnography to Navigate Global Crises. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 22.
• Rutter, Nikki, Hall, Kirsten & Westmarland, Nicole (2023). Responding to Child and Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse from a Distance: Remote Delivery of Interventions during Covid-19. Children & Society 37(3): 705-721.
• Banks, Sarah & Rutter, Nikki (2021). Pandemic ethics: Rethinking rights, responsibilities and roles in social work. The British Journal of Social Work 52(6): 3460 - 3479.
• Rutter, Nikki (2021). “I’m meant to be his comfort blanket, not a punching bag” – Ethnomimesis as an exploration of maternal child to parent violence in pre-adolescents. Qualitative Social Work 20(5): 1317-1338.

Report

• Rutter, Nikki (2021). International Delphi study of specialist practitioner and expert parents views: Child-parent violence initiated by children aged under 12. Department of Sociology, Durham University. Durham, University of Durham, Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse.
• Rutter, Nikki & Banks, Sarah (2021). Rethinking Rights, Responsibilities and Risks: Ethical Challenges for UK Social Workers during Covid-19. BASW.