Powerful Perpetrators

Welcome to our quarterly project update. It has been an exciting start to the Powerful Perpetrators project and in this inaugural newsletter, you can read about what we have been up to since our May 2024 post. 

Powerful Perpetrators is a 5-year European Research Council awarded/UKRI funded project looking at sexual misconduct and abuse perpetrated by UK professionals, and the regulatory and administrative justice mechanisms used to investigate and sanction their behaviour. In particular, the project focuses on professions that have a guardianship role (the police, the military, barristers, judges and politicians) or a confidante role (the clergy, doctors and psychiatrists) in society.  

Scroll down to read about the latest news, developments, and project activities. You can subscribe here to receive future updates direct to your email.

What we’ve been doing

Here are some highlights since the team was onboarded in Spring 2024:  

• We are pleased to launch our brand-new website. Have a look at it here. 

• We have completed scoping literature reviews for each of the professions. A summary of our findings can be found here.  

• Nate has been drawing together these findings into interactive dashboards that you can access on the website.  

• Emma has shared some of our initial findings from the scoping reviews at various conferences including, the annual BSA Medical Sociology Conference, and the Professional Standards Authority Research Conference.

• We have been carefully planning our approach to data collection and have laid the foundations to begin this in earnest towards the end of 2024… watch this space.  

• We wrote a rapid response to the BMJ’s reporting of Stephen Cox’s case – a GP who has just been criminally convicted for sexual misconduct.
• On 15 October, we hosted Associate Professor Louise Stone from Australia National University, who is currently co-editing an international volume entitled ‘Sexual harassment of doctors, by doctors: Healing medical culture across the world‘.
• We have had a panel paper accepted at the International Studies Association 2025 conference, entitled  Investigating their own: A comparison of the regulatory and administrative responses to sexual misconduct in UK police forces and the military.  Hannah and Nate will be flying to Chicago in March 2025 to meet with international colleagues working on this theme.

• In September, Natasha attended the launch of the Centre for Women’s Justice new report, updating on progress since their 2020 super-complaint on police-perpetrated domestic abuse. She also spoke to a journalist at Glamour Magazine about the issue: I was Raped By A Police Officer – Then He Was Promoted | Glamour UK (glamourmagazine.co.uk)  

• Finally… please join us in congratulating Dr Emma Yapp and Dr Hannah Richards who both successfully passed their vivas over the summer (with no corrections)!

Interesting news

Some of the news stories from over the Summer that have caught our attention include: 

• Doctors: RCS England response to findings of GMC national training survey — Royal College of Surgeons 

• Psychiatrists: Mental health patients ‘raped and sexually assaulted’ in NHS care as ‘national scandal’ revealed | UK News | Sky News 

• Military personnel: Former major general James Roddis admits disgraceful conduct – BBC News  

• Military personnel: British Army racism apology to black ‘poster girl’ soldier – BBC News 
• Military personnel: Royal Navy investigation finds misogyny and bullying – BBC News
• Religious leaders: New abuse allegations emerge against venerated Abbé Pierre – BBC News 

• Barristers: Barrister tries to get disciplinary hearing held in secret – Tortoise (tortoisemedia.com) 

• Police: Thames Valley Police staff sacked for sexual misconduct – BBC News 

Political developments

• This week, NHS England announced their first ever national framework on sexual misconduct.
• Australian health ministers are seeking views on three proposed reforms to laws relating to relating to practitioner sexual misconduct: Proposed reforms to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law | Engage Victoria 

• Progress is reportedly slow in the Canadian Armed Forces’ attempts to implement policy changes in relation to sexual misconduct: ‘Bureaucratic burden’ slowing progress on addressing military sexual misconduct: report | CBC News 

• In Ireland, a tribunal has been tasked with inquiring into how complaints of abuse are dealt with in the Defence Forces, this includes complaints of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct: About the Tribunal – Defence Forces Tribunal – Ireland (toidf.ie) 

• The Bar Council (of England and Wales) has commissioned an independent review of bullying and harassment at the Bar chaired by the Rt Hon Harriet Harman KC: Independent review of bullying and harassment at the Bar (barcouncil.org.uk) 

• The General Medical Council published some new resources to support victims of sexual misconduct by doctors: New GMC resources to support victims of sexual misconduct by doctors – GMC (gmc-uk.org)  

• A new piece published by the Royal College of Surgeons of England discusses what progress has been made one year after the publication of the Breaking the Silence report: Breaking the silence on sexual misconduct in surgery: one year on | The Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (rcseng.ac.uk) 

Upcoming events

• Our colleagues over at SPIN (the Secrecy, Power and Ignorance research Network) are holding their second annual colloquium between 12-13 December, entitled ‘how secrecy (re)makes the world’.  
• The Centre for Military Women’s Research (CMWR) at Anglia Ruskin University is holding its second conference in April 2025, themed around the health and well-being of women in the military community. More information can be found here.
• Next week (21-22 October), the National Police Chief’s Council and the College of Policing will be hosting their Professional Standards and Ethics Conference. This year, the focus is on culture and conduct, more information can be found here.

What we’ve been reading

As a team, we have spent time discussing Jenna Imad Harb, Kirsty Anantharajah, Kanika Samuels-Wortley, and Nadia Qureshi’s incredible article, ‘Back at the Kitchen Table: querying feminist support in the academy’. Reading this piece has encouraged us to think together and talk about how our individual experiences intersect with those we have in academia – and to hold our own team fortnightly ‘kitchen table’. 

Individually, Emma has been reading  Jemma Tosh’s The Body and Consent in Psychology, Psychiatry, and Medicine: A Therapeutic Rape Culture (routledge.com). Hannah has been reading, Stephanie Bonnes, ‘Hardship Duty: Women’s Experiences with Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault, and Discrimination in the U.S. Military’. Natasha has borrowed a 2003 book on inter-library loan called The Sexual Abuse of Women by Members of the Clergy, by Kathryn A.Flynn. 

Thank you for taking the time to read our very first newsletter! 

All the best, 

Natasha, Nate, Emma, and Hannah (The PP team) 

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