Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology

This book explores how neoliberal consumer capitalist ideals of meritocracy, competitive individualism, and responsibilisation have shaped trans people’s subjectivity and lived experiences of harm. The book critiques the adequacy of legal constructs of hate crime to acknowledge the social harms experienced. The deep ethnographic data illuminates a variety of social harms that result from the failure of social structures and systems to acknowledge gender identities beyond the binary. The book offers a historically grounded theorisation of anti-trans sentiment to produce a persuasive argument for understanding the harms of hate as recognitive harms. In this sense, the book opens up a path to theorizing the empirically documented emotional and psychological harms of both transphobia and transnormative ideals, as rooted in a binary gender order that has been invigorated by the hyper individualism and competitiveness of capitalist neoliberalism. 

This open access book contributes to ongoing discussions about how societies should respond to children who have experienced violence and abuse by delving into the Barnahus model: a multidisciplinary and co-located model whose aim is to provide both justice and recovery to victimised children. The promising model was first implemented in the Nordic region and is currently being diffused across Europe, although scientific knowledge about the model remains scarce: the Barnahus model’s potential for delivering holistic services, the various tensions and dilemmas involved in the model, and how dual mandate of Barnahus can be managed all require further research. Continuing from the volume Collaborating Against Child Abuse (2017) which examined the process of Barnahus’ diffusion in the Nordic countries, the current book digs deeper into the intrinsic institutional tensions of the model, as well as those that might arise during collaboration, in order to advance our understanding of what can be achieved through the model and thus improve the situation of child victims of violence and abuse. An institutional perspective is used in the book which is structured in four parts. The first three parts explore different types of institutional tensions –legal, organisational, and professional-ethical, while the fourth focuses on how these tensions may be balanced. The book’s authors chart this new phase in the diffusion and translation of the Barnahus model. Their analyses will provide valuable guidance to countries that are currently considering or are already implementing the model.

This book emphasises the importance of difficulties identifying victims of human trafficking. It is often challenging for trafficked victims to be identified, for victims to self-identify, and for victims to be distinguishable from other groups of vulnerable people such as economic migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and smuggled persons. This book examines the environments where difficulties of identifying foreign victims exist or identification is overlooked entirely. It argues that a victim-centred approach is required to recognize them for who they are, a trafficked victim. This lies in opposition to the justice system which often takes the oath of prosecuting victims rather than identifying them as victims, criminalising them for offences as part of their exploitation, forced upon them under duress from their exploiters. Drawing on a range of subjects, this book contributes to existing academic work and speaks to anti-trafficking organisations, charities, public authorities and staff within the UK’s National Referral Mechanism to play a pivotal role in spotting, referring and identifying more foreign trafficked victims, despite the current negativity surrounding immigration.

This edited book brings together a range of expert voices – academics, researchers, practitioners, activists, and policy leads – who are responding to domestic and sexual violence (DASV) in various settings. The chapters are united in the need to embed systemic responses to these social issues within a broader accountability and support system. It provides a timely and refreshing take on tackling a pervasive social issue at a time of increased complexity and crisis while exploring the real-world consequences and impacts of service provision at a systems level, emphasising the need for greater coordination and alignment.