Powerful Perpetrators Project Update: Latest Developments Revealed

Newsletter #5

Published by

hannahkrichards

on

9th June 2026

Welcome to our fifth project update. Scroll down to read more about the latest news, developments, and project activities that have been happening since our last newsletter.

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.

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Launch of ‘how to…’ blogs

From managing ethics applications and data access requests to workloads and website design, there are lots of things to navigate when working on a project as large as Powerful Perpetrators. To support researchers working on similar projects and topics, we have just launched a series of ‘how to…’ blogs on our website. We have published the first few blogs here and will be writing many more over the coming months.  Make sure you check them out and share your insights in the comments section. We also welcome suggestions for future topics

What we’ve been doing

As we’ve mentioned in previous newsletters, our main focus this year is data collection (you can keep track of our progress on this by using this interactive tool), but that isn’t all we have been up to. Some of the other highlights from the past 7 months have included:

In December 2025, Nate and Hannah attended the International Workshop on Sexual Corruption hosted by the Uppsala University Research Environment on Sexual Corruption (UU-RESC). A summary of the event and key takeaways can be found here.
We were given a favourable opinion from the Ministry of Defence’s Ethics Committee to begin interviewing military personnel (more info on this process here). If you work in a role related to sexual misconduct processes in the armed forces and would like to take part in an interview for the project, then please do reach out to Hannah.
Hannah spoke on a panel about sexual harm and the military at Anglia Ruskin’s ‘Serving with Equity: Women’s Voices in the Uniformed Public Services conference 2026’.
After giving evidence in April 2025, Natasha was invited in December 2025 to comment on the Standards of Conduct Committee’s draft proposals for increasing the independence and support into the complaints process in the Senedd. The revised Code went into effect on 18 March 2026.
In April 2026, Natasha was a speaker for the University of Sheffield Centre for Criminological Research seminar series. She spoke on police sexual misconduct and was followed by an excellent presentation from Dr Melanie Sofia Hartvigsen from Aalborg University, talking about police accountability. Thanks to Professor Layla Skinns and Dr Sara Grace for organising the event, and to the discussants from South Yorkshire Police (CI Gareth Thomas) and the College of Policing (Marcus Griffiths).
Also in April 2026, Natasha was a panel speaker at ‘Confronting Workplace Sexual Harassment in the Post-#MeToo Era’, a conference organised by Dr Anna Bull (York) and Ruth Beresford and Bob Jeffery (Sheffield Hallam). Again, a fantastic event bringing together scholars and professionals from UK and US.
In May 2026, Natasha was invited to participate in a Roundtable on Police Misconduct, bringing academics from across the world together to discuss emerging issues and developing joint working. This was organised in association with the British Society of Criminology Police Misconduct Forum.
As a team, we submitted a written response to the Legal Services Board’s consultation on their draft statement of policy on ‘Encouraging a diverse legal profession.’ The responses will be published soon, so keep an eye out for those.
We have put advertisements in numerous professional publications – House Magazine, the BMJ, Policing Insight, The Tablet, Law Gazette, Civil Service World – to recruit participants for the project. See the image below for examples of these out in the world!

New publications from the team

Make sure to check out Emma’s latest article, ‘Normal Trauma and Abnormal Diagnosis: A Discursive Analysis of Sexual Violence Law and Policy in England and Wales’ in Feminist Legal Studies.
Along with Fay Sweeting, Natasha edited a special issue on police perpetrated sexual and violent abuse for the International Journal of Police Science & Management. You can read the introduction to the special issue here and their research article here.
Hannah’s most recent piece, Locating Victimhood: Sexual Violence and Institutional Gaslighting in the British Military, was also just published in Violence Against Women.

Relevant media stories

Policy and practice developments

New Guidance for use in doctors’ hearings – MPTS came into force from November 2025, and specifically mentions sexual assault and harassment as constituting more serious misconduct.
In response to the Independent review of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment at the Bar, the Bar Council appointed Rt Hon Dame Maria Miller DBE as the Bar’s first Commissioner for Conduct in January 2026.
In a similar move, the Defence Secretary has selected an Armed Forces Commissioner. This a new statutory role, and the commissioner will have powers to investigate welfare issues and raise concerns that impact service life, including unacceptable behaviours. 
The House of Commons Defence Select Committee has been running a follow up session on the Women in the Armed Forces inquiry. You can watch a recording of the oral evidence live session and read the written evidence here.
The Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill has also been receiving evidence in relation to the Service Justice System and armed forces legislation. The evidence sessions on the 10^th and 17^th March will be of particular interest to readers of this newsletter.
The MOD has launched a pilot legal support programme for victims of sexual offences perpetrated by military personnel.
The Church Times reported in February 2026 that the General Synod of the Church of England were introducing a presumption that tribunals or courts hearing clergy discipline cases will be held in public. This reverses the stipulation in the new Clergy Conducted Measure, approved in October 2025, that cases would be held in private, unless there was a specific request or need. The change appears to follow concern that hearings in private would not fulfil the requirements of open justice.
In February 2026, the Independent Expert Panel in Westminster, which hears appeals and determines sanctions in cases involving alleged MP sexual misconduct, bullying or harassment, published their annual report for 2025. They note that: “This has been an exceptionally quiet year for the Independent Expert Panel (IEP). Indeed, we have only published one report on a Code of Conduct appeal…” There was additionally a single case from the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) which was not upheld and so not reported to the House. The IEP Chair suggests this fallow period reflects normal ‘fluctuation’ and could be a positive side effect of the effort put into training new Members on the Behaviour Code.
New measures are being implemented through the Crime and Policing Act 2026. These include: Enabling chief constables to appeal disciplinary decisions through the Police Appeals Tribunal (PAT); change to the threshold of IOPC referrals to CPS to better align with charging decisions; changes to IOPC to enable them to refer cases to the CPS without completing their final report on the complaint / conduct; IOPC victim right to review is placed on a statutory footing; and the inclusion of officers from non-territorial forces (such as BTP, CNC etc.) to be included on the barred list and from applying to any other police force.

Upcoming events

Emma is hosting a workshop on the 18^th of June on Rethinking Trauma and Sexual Violence, which will be attended by survivors, professionals, and academics, to discuss the future of trauma-informed mental healthcare.

Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter, and we hope to hear from some of you in due course!

All the best,

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

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