In a post-9/11 climate, Islam and Muslims are under siege. Islam is understood as a violent and backward religion and culture, Muslim men are perceived as the embodiment of terrorism and extremism, and veiled Muslim women are viewed as the personification of gender oppression. Veiled Muslim women are also seen as dangerous and threatening to notions of public safety and national cohesion by virtue of being fully covered in the public sphere. Such stereotypes mark veiled Muslim women as ‘ideal’ targets to attack when they are seen in public. Drawing on qualitative data elicited through individual and focus group interviews with veiled Muslim women, individual interviews with key stakeholders and policy-makers as well as an ethnographic approach, this study sheds light on the lived experiences of veiled Muslim women as actual and potential victims of Islamophobia in public places. The study investigates the nature and impact of this victimisation upon veiled Muslim women, their families and wider Muslim communities. It also examines the factors that contribute to the under-reporting of this victimisation and outlines the coping strategies which are used by veiled Muslim women in response to their experiences of Islamophobia. The study demonstrates that Islamophobic victimisation is understood as ‘part and parcel’ of wearing the veil rather than as single ‘one-off’ incidents, and this reflects the tendency of veiled Muslim women not to report such incidents to the police. The study also reveals how repeat incidents of supposedly ‘low-level’ forms of hostility such as name-calling, persistent staring and a sense of being ignored place a potentially huge emotional burden on victims. The threat of Islamophobic abuse and violence has longlasting effects for both actual and potential victims including making them afraid to step out of their ‘comfort zone’. Ultimately, the study offers a model of vulnerability of veiled Muslim women as potential victims of Islamophobia in public places based on the visibility of their Muslim identity coupled with the visibility of other aspects of their identity alongside factors such as space as well as media reports of local, national and international events related to Islam, Muslims and the veil.

This thesis considers research into the 'fear of crime'. It examines common methodological, conceptual and theoretical problems and addresses a number of these concerns. The first of two parts provides a history of the debate surrounding 'fear of crime' that has taken place in academic and policy arenas during the past 20 years. This was informed by in-depth interviews with twenty-eight academic and Home Office criminologists who have researched and written on the subject. Combined with a review of the literature, this afforded a detailed examination of weaknesses in frameworks of many quantitative studies. This articulated the research problems for the second part of the thesis: the common failure to (1) theoretically define the construct 'fear of crime' and empirically validate measurement tools; and (2) apply and test a coherent model of the phenomenon andits shaping factors. The second part of the thesis also had two stages. First, twenty-four in-depth interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of residents in two contrasting areas of London. Cognitive question testing procedures were used to examine standard survey questions. This fed into the development of new measures which were fielded in a postal survey of a pure random sample of residents from the same two areas (a response rate of 27% yielded a sample of 479). These data were analysed and the measures were found to have adequate scaling properties. Second, structural equation modelling of the data allowed the successful assessment of a new psychological model of fear of crime. This built on Ferraro (1995): the one (sociological) study that has avoided many of the theoretical and methodological limitations of other studies. The theoretical framework specified that the frequency of worry about the possibility of victimisation was shaped by the appraisal of threat, which in turn was predicted by perceptions of aspects of the environment hypothesised to symbolise the threat of victimisation.

This research took place over a three-year period, in a small feminist, women-only, voluntary sector, sexual violence support service. The organisation resides at the intersection between policy, therapy, and feminism and the overall aim was to investigate the construction of meaning pertaining to sexual violence in a contemporary cultural, social, and economic context, which simultaneously fears and obsessively consumes stories of sexual violence. The thesis attempts to show what this meant for women who had experienced sexual violence, as well as for the service fighting for survival in a time of austerity and the denigration of feminism. In doing so, identified are moments of ~~tance at an individual, '. , .. organisational, and political level and the notion of identity explored. Research methods included an ethnographic immersion in the organisation and subsequent reflection on field-notes and the researcher's own practice, which included face-to-face, and telephone, helpline support, and participation in regular project work, meetings, training, informal conversations and agency outreach visits. Supplementing this ethnographic data were transcripts from in-depth semi- structured interviews with ten women who had experienced sexual violence, and who were involved in the organisation as either a client or volunteer. Interviews with five members of staff as well as a focus group with the management committee were also undertaken. Simultaneously explored were theoretical analyses and specific examples of local and national policy, and both feminist and mainstream media interpretation of on-going feminist praxis such as Slutwalk, alongside autobiographies, novels and other writing from survivors of sexual violence. Such an approach necessitated an ethical research practice and due consideration was given to the representation of personal and organisational experiences. That is, given these diverse methods, research practice, which maintained confidentiality, avoided sensationalising certain experience and prioritised debates with respondents in the service, enabled the identification of key themes. Findings suggested that national sexual violence policy appropriated feminist language instrumentally to further categorise deserving and undeserving victims based on notions of innocence and risk. The pathologised victim found in policy was contested by respondents through the avoidance of specific terminology, and by the service through the maintenance of a political identity asserting its specialness in response to external and internal pressures. Feminism's reluctance to consider female perpetrated violence was explored in narrative accounts, which suggested an ambivalence that has not been adequately theorised. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. The gendered subjectivity of some feminist theory is troubled as delimiting and partial. Foucault's anti-essentialist ethical critique was employed to reconsider possibilities for social transformation. Feminist praxis has become further divorced from its political history but this has not necessarily lead to negative consequences. Current .,;A feminist reformulations were considered and the main contribution to knowledge is the particular focus on a service, which defines itself as feminist even within this alienating cultural context. Practice and theory are mutually productive but an anti- essentialist position may mean they remain irreconcilable. Although this area .of study requires further consideration, the research is potentially useful to practitioners in the field of sexual violence, academics engaged with theoretical debates relating to power, feminism, and women, particularly those women who have experienced sexual violence.

This thesis explores the psychological correlates of victim isation and, in particular, the assessment and treatment of psychological distress in victims of crime. The thesis begins with a systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions in reducing psychological symptoms in victims of crime. The focus of the thesis, thereafter, is on the development of a psychometric scale to assist criminal justice practitioners in the assessment of emotional vulnerability in victims of crime. An initial item pool was generated from victims' responses to an open-ended questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis of the preliminary scale, which was administered to a large sample of victims of crime, uncovered two factors, which were labelled Emotional Vulnerability and Crime-Specific Anger. Both subscales demonstrated high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The factor structure of the new scale, labelled the Victim Reactions Scale, was confirmed in a new sample of victims of crime using structural equation modelling techniques. The subscales were found to correlate meaningfully with conceptually similar constructs. The Emotional Vulnerability scale demonstrated strong correlations with measures of posttraumatic stress disorder and anxiety. Crime-Specific Anger was associated with measures of anger and in the subsample of male victims also demonstrated substantial correlations with measures of psychological distress. An experimental study showed that high scores on the Emotional Vulnerability scale were strongly related to an attentional bias towards crime-related threat words. Emotional Vulnerability also demonstrated associations with demographic and victimisation variables, which were consistent with the literature on victims of crime. In conclusion, this thesis presents evidence for the reliability and construct validity of a new victim-specific psychometric scale, which is thought to measure emotional vulnerability and anger in relation to a criminal victimisation experience. The Victim Reactions Scale, in particular the Emotional Vulnerability subscale, could potentially be used within the criminal justice system to identify victims of crime who are in need of more in depth psychological assessment and treatment.

This thesis is a feminist informed, discursive research project. Three studies are presented, each designed to explore reconstructions of sexual harassment incidents. The first and second studies were based upon a corpus of interview data, generated specifically for the research project. The author interviewed six women and encouraged detailed discussion about sexual harassment. The third study was conducted utilising media data. The data includes an initial allegation and description of an incident of sexual harassment, in the form of a magazine article, and a collection of published responses written by journalists, academics and members of the public. The data were analysed utilising a 'hybrid' discursive approach that combined the frameworks of conversation analysis and critical discourse analysis to deconstruct both the interactional and ideological components of the discourse. This thesis makes several distinctive contributions to existing literature. Firstly, whilst hybrid analysis has been advocated by others, it has rarely been applied and therefore this project contributes an example of its application. Secondly, the project offers as its focus a deconstruction of subject positions and the function they serve in the allocation of responsibility and accountability of sexual harassment. This is unique in the field. Thirdly, to feminist action and women's emancipation, the project contributes a knowledge and understanding of women's oppressive and constrained experiences. Through knowledge of oppression women's emancipation can be more easily achieved.

This thesis examines the relationship between victims of political violence and state-driven responses to their needs in contexts of political and social transition, in the interest of motivating better policy practice in this area. The research draws on fieldwork conducted in case studies that demonstrate the impact of victims' policy in both its application and its absence. It examines the development and implementation of policy for victims in Northern Ireland (1998-2012), and explores the circumstances of a dearth of such activity in Zimbabwe (1980-2012). In doing so, it engages directly with the claim that 'there is no blueprint for victims' policy' and proposes a theoretically grounded approach to understanding some of the opportunities and pitfalls involved in developing top-down responses to victims in the fragile context of transition. The central argument is that pol icy for victims is a double-edged sword, both responsive to and constitutive of the challenges that they face . Such policy can have positive consequences; however, it also constructs conceptual frameworks that can reify debates, generate new social conflicts, and create an • artificial distinction between victims and the rest of society. The research concludes that while governments cannot heal victim s, and while their recuperation is not exclusively dependent on top-down intervention, by developing a robust strategy for engaging with political victims, governments can make important contributions to creating an environment conducive to some recovery. The thesis argues that two factors are important for a sense of progress in this regard: first, managing expectations; and second, accepting that, as part of the process of resolving the intractable problems associated with political victim hood, new sites of struggle will inevitably emerge. The research contends that these challenges require a reflective approach on the part of political leaders who, time and again, must commit fresh energy and innovation to the peacebuilding process.

The current study is an evaluation of a voluntary sector service, Victim Support. The focal points of this work are the impact of crime upon victims and the extent to which they feel that Victim Support, as a service provider, has helped to restore their sense of equilibrium. In this way the success of a community response to crime is considered. The research was undertaken between 1998 and 2002 and was largely based upon the work of one local scheme; Victim Support, Plymouth. The study included the views of service users (victims of crime) and those of service providers (paid staff and volunteers). In contrast to earlier studies, my work looks at Victim Support at a much later date in its history, at a time when service provision has become increasingly professionalised and standardised. Furthermore my work examined Victim Support at a time when it is being charged, fairly overtly, with responsibilities alongside other voluntary and state agencies for the governance of crime. At the same time Victim Support is under pressure to provide a service that IS 'community' In nature, whilst meeting the stricter economic imperatives of managerialism. Previous studies do not appear to have considered the value of all types of service provision that Victim Support makes, nor have they directly included victims who, though quite badly affected, were not typically offered assistance. More recent studies of Victim Support have also been undertaken more as a by product of national victim surveys, with only vague references to the contact made with victims, and within which support is offered/provided. The work that I have undertaken seeks to address these gaps in knowledge, making a clear link between the needs of crime victims and the organisational response of Victim Support at the local level.

No description available.

This research aims to examine the experiences of forced displacement arising out of decades of militarisation and land grabbing perpetrated by the Bangladesh Army and Bengali settlers on the indigenous communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh. Situated within the context of the anthropology of violence, displacement, indigeneity and South Asia this is rooted in the paradigm of historical and social anthropology. The approach of the study is multi-sited, discursive, uses qualitative methodology and is based on nine months of ethnographic research between 2012 and 2013 in two districts in the CHT among four indigenous groups. I focus on ordinary (non-activist) indigenous hill women‘s narratives of violence and forced displacement in the pre- and post- peace accord (signed in 1997) periods. Ordinary indigenous people were drawn into the armed conflict between the Bangladesh army and the Shanti Bahini (SB), the armed wing of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS). Women‘s participation was in the form of direct and organised resistance as well as unorganised, everyday resistance and negotiation, yet none of it is acknowledged in the peace process. While there is some work on the narratives of indigenous woman activists there is little documentation of ordinary (often assumed to be passive) indigenous women’s narratives of violence and everyday forms of protest and negotiation. Instead, I argue that the various kinds of non-activist women’s everyday experience of terror as a result of Forced Displacement in the CHT is not a singular experience. Their experience can only be understood through the confluence of their encounter with state and army violence; as well as through interactions with activists, infra-politics in the local community and at the conjuncture of their own various locations. In the process, the ethnography of the ordinary indigenous women interrogates and challenge the concept of indigeneity.

This interdisciplinary thesis explores a key issue in the 'dealing with the past debate' in Northern Ireland - the response to the ‘disappeared'. The responses of a number of key constituencies are analysed. The Republican Movement's framing of the 'disappeared' is examined. It is contended that Republican engagement in the search process is symbolic of the 'Movement's' transition away from violence. The families of the ‘disappeared' are considered as an example of a grassroots movement 'doing' transitional justice. Drawing from the social movement literature, the evolution of the families' campaign for the recovery of their loved ones is examined. In the local communities in which these ‘disappearances' occurred, it is argued that rumour, silence, and whispers of the truth created significant barriers for families. The thesis also explores the role of the state, looking at the 'policing' of the issue and examining the introduction, operation and legacy of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR). The latter part of this thesis uses the issue of the ‘disappeared’ and the responses to it as a prism through which to explore a number of themes relevant to transitional justice. It is contended that a version of 'quiet' transitional justice on this issue helped create a less politicised space that facilitated progress, and has wider implications for the building of trust. The place of apology and acknowledgement is explored, as is the limited ‘truth' that has been established. The thesis also explores the politicisation of the memory of the 'disappeared'. This thesis concludes with an analysis of the utility of the ICLVR as the basis for the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval (IGIR) as outlined in the Stormont House Agreement. It examines what broader lessons are relevant for the ICIR, and for dealing with the past in Northern Ireland more generally.