Interpersonal Violence and Justice Involvement

Introduction

CMWR’s research on interpersonal violence and justice involvement examines the experiences of military and ex-military women who have encountered sexual and domestic violence, abuse, and the criminal and service justice systems. This theme brings together projects and publications exploring military sexual trauma, the service justice system’s response to sexual offending, and the pathways of female veterans through criminal justice and prison systems, with the aim of identifying where current systems fail victim-survivors and offenders alike, and where meaningful reform is needed.

Violence and abuse within the UK military remains a significant and under-addressed problem. Yet when servicewomen do report these offences, they are too often met with a service justice system characterised by low conviction rates, poor treatment of complainants, and negative consequences for those who come forward. This body of work interrogates that response directly: examining victim-survivors’ first-hand accounts of navigating the service justice system, scrutinising whether the system itself is fit for purpose, and establishing a clearer, shared definition of military sexual trauma so that its scope and impact can be properly understood and addressed by policymakers, practitioners, and researchers alike. Alongside this, PhD research turns to a related but distinct population: female veterans who have themselves become involved in the criminal justice and prison systems. Together, these projects aim to ensure that both victim-survivors and justice-involved women veterans are seen, heard, and better supported by the systems meant to serve them.