Reconciling the Needs of Victims of Stalking with Effective Interventions for Perpetrators

This ESRC Case Studentship will provide a research base to guide the development of a Multi-Agency Stalking Intervention Programme (MASIP) for Greater Manchester. The PhD will answer the question of whether the needs of victims of stalking can be reconciled with efforts to reduce reoffending among perpetrators. The project will also deliver an evaluation framework to inform an independent appraisal of the MASIP and to support its professional partners in building an evidence base to inform the intervention.

Supervision will be provided by Professors David Gadd (Criminology) and Filippo Varese (Psychology) at the University of Manchester alongside at Jessica Phoenix, Principal Researcher at GMCA. The student will benefit from attendance at the MASIP's development group, which includes representation from Greater Manchester Police, the Pankhurst Centre, Police and Crime Commissioners Office, Probation and Health and Social Care Partnership.

The successful candidate will adopt a model of incremental learning that builds on the findings of earlier pilot projects conducted elsewhere in the UK to brief key stakeholders. The PhD student will 1) assist the MASIP to establish best practice; 2) conduct qualitative research with victims and survivors to uncover what they were promised by service providers and what they want service providers to deliver 3) scoping the shape and nature of the offending population.

The PhD student will have access to statistical data about the size and profile of victim and suspect populations, as well as a small sample of anonymised criminal records and psychological assessments pertaining to offenders convicted of stalking offences. The candidate will need to critically analyse these datasets to provide recommendations pertaining to the criminogenic needs of the population who commit stalking offences in Greater Manchester.

Applications should evidence the skills sets candidates have - or need to acquire - to successfully deliver this programme of research and knowledge exchange.