ICCD research @ Oxford Brookes Uni

Oxford Brookes University research on the position & rights of mothers worldwide, esp those who have experienced DVA in the context of the 1980 Hague Convention

[ICCD research @ Oxford Brookes Uni @SmotheredTweets]

Our Oxford Brookes University website is now live!

Do you want to have your say about the international child custody dispute you're in (including cases of Hagued mothers)?

Visit the website for more information & ways to sign up:
https://t.co/QLx0GZqm6n

[Killed Women @KilledWomennw]

'A data investigation by The House has revealed a rise in violence against women and girls despite Labour’s 2024 pledge to halve it.'
https://t.co/E71Jw16Ll2

'The Labour government is on a mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next 10 years – one of its most ambitious manifesto policies at the last general election. Yet since 2024 VAWG has actually increased in the UK – despite a downward trend before that.'

[Laura Richards BSc MSc MBPsS @thecrimeanalyst]

Callum Peacock beat his girlfriend, hit her with a golf club and broom handle, bit her arm, threw dumbbells and a bottle of bleach and paint over her and attempted to set her on fire in a harrowing three hour attack.

When police arrived he told them she had hit him. He did a Brian Laundrie and rolled the dice. HE tried to DARVO the victim. He then put her through a trial and was found guilty. Judge Stuart Driver gave him an 18 month suspended sentence and rehabilitation order and a five year restraining order. Judge Driver said he was ‘young’ and ill equipped for adult relationships, he had no previous convictions and had been in care.

Poor dear. Vile himpathy yet again. This won’t be Peacock’s first offence or his last.

Facts: Peacock is a risk and danger to girls and women. He knew what he was doing.
Excusing his behaviour because he was 19 is not ok. If anything, it should be seen as MORE serious due to his age.

This isn’t justice. What about the victim?

We will see more dangerous and boys getting away with it with a smack on the wrist due to the revised sentencing guidelines and the focus on diverting boys and men U25 OUT of the criminal justice system. NOT OK:

✍️ SIGN the petition for a judicial accountability framework
ACCOUNTABILITY matters:
Petition · Investigate Judge Nicholas Rowland and Introduce a Judicial Accountability Framework Now - United Kingdom · https://t.co/q9q58d5vZS

✍️ WRITE to your Baronnes Carr, your MP, Justice Secretary David Lammy, PM Keir Starmer and AG Richard Hermer. NEW Template letters:
https://t.co/rDcoYnEaIJ

#accountability #misogyny #CrimeAnalyst #TrueCrime #DARVO
@laurarichards99

[ICCD research @ Oxford Brookes Uni @SmotheredTweets]

This is another insightful substack, full of insights about what is happening with the manosphere and why:

[Professor Michael Flood @MichaelGLFlood]

Men Are in an Epidemic, Just Not the One You Think
The not-so-hidden engine behind male self-optimisation culture
By Katie Jagielnicka
https://t.co/ovkTfcx1j1
1/2

[Jett 🜲 @iky_fwjett]

Women have been saying for years that there is a growing backlash against gender equality, and every time the conversation comes up we’re told we’re imagining it.

Now the United Nations is saying it.

According to a UN report, nearly 1 in 4 countries reported setbacks in women’s rights and gender equality. Hundreds of millions of women and girls are living in conflict zones, violence against women remains widespread, and UN officials are warning about a growing backlash against women’s rights worldwide.

The part that stands out to me isn’t even the statistics. It’s that women have been raising concerns about misogyny, online hostility toward women, violence, and attacks on reproductive rights for years, only to be dismissed as overreacting.

If the UN Secretary-General is warning about the “mainstreaming of misogyny,” maybe it’s time to stop pretending these concerns came out of nowhere.

Do you think women’s rights are genuinely facing setbacks, or do you think organizations like the UN are exaggerating the problem?

[Killed Women @KilledWomennw]

A new report by @Right2Equality shows that victim-blaming and gender bias are rife in family courts, with women regularly discredited and blamed by senior judges.
https://t.co/6fti09IVI5

'Two young girls were separately raped, repeatedly, by three teenage boys. The ordeals were filmed by the boys, and they were convicted of a total of 10 counts of rape between them. But Judge Nicholas Rowland spared the boys from jail, saying that he wanted to “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily”.

The public outcry against the outcome of the case – where the needs of the boys were clearly prioritised over those of the girls – has resulted in the prime minister stating that the case will be sent to the Court of Appeal.

But this is by no means the only case in British courts where judges have made decisions and statements that appear to be completely misaligned with the needs of girls and women. A report from Right to Equality has found that gender bias and victim-blaming language are found in 72 per cent of analysed family court judgments containing domestic and sexual abuse – primarily from judges.

The report found that the most prevalent form of victim-blaming was discrediting (233 instances), followed by behavioural blame (173) and trivialisation (99), with the behaviour of mothers scrutinised and criticised, while fathers’ conduct was contextualised or minimised. Women were far more likely to be described by judges as “emotional” – a well-documented gender stereotype.'

[Amy Diehl, Ph.D. @amydiehl]

Abusive men "drag women through costly, invasive, humiliating...legal ordeals in retaliation for coming forward – lawsuits that preserve a man’s contact w/ the woman he allegedly abused, preserve his power over her & drain her resources." @MoiraDonegan
https://t.co/A2pIJQbFed

[The Road Jess Travelled @JessPected]

Women are "unhappy" because we're oppressed, men are unhappy because women said we don't want to be oppressed. But sure, we're both "unhappy."

[goma @soigomaa]

No woman is born of a man’s rib. Every man is born of a woman’s womb. One of the patriarchy’s oldest lie is crowning the father as the lifegiver.

[ICCD research @ Oxford Brookes Uni @SmotheredTweets]

People don't see sexism as a legitimate form of violence because they believe men are naturally superior to women, rather than a result of systemic oppression. In order for men to thrive, a whole lot more women have to barely survive.

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

People don’t see classism as a legitimate form of violence because they believe being poor is indicative of people’s character rather than a result of systemic oppression. In order for rich people to thrive, a whole lot more people have to barely survive.

[ICCD research @ Oxford Brookes Uni @SmotheredTweets]

@SamaHoole "Neoliberalist policies are bad, that's why we can't have net zero" is a bad conclusion.

[ICCD research @ Oxford Brookes Uni @SmotheredTweets]

Including: when you're fleeing relentless domestic abuse abroad and are wanting to return to your home country.

[MP Arizona☀️🏳️‍🌈💙🌵🐕🐕‍🦺🫂💦🏜🐟🌴🎙🌎🌻♍️🌊 @AzPetrich]

When people say "I'd do anything for my child," everyone praises them, but when a parent risks crossing a border to save their child from war, poverty, or danger, suddenly they're treated like criminals.

[ICCD research @ Oxford Brookes Uni @SmotheredTweets]

@RashidSunook @DrJessTaylor You want to use ONS data? Sure thing! I will even actually cite my sources: https://t.co/YlzABnCKhD

[ICCD research @ Oxford Brookes Uni @SmotheredTweets]

This matters:

[THE NERVE @thenerve_news]

A leaked letter signed by 400 female writers has criticised the corporation for what it calls the ‘silencing of women’s voices’ in women’s stories for commissioning a male writer for a drama about the Met police and the Sarah Everard murder.

Read it in full on the Nerve, link ⤵️

[Kelly @broadwaybabyto]

It’s terrifying that boys this young are already raping little girls.

It should be considered an emergency.

It should anger everyone that rape culture is so pervasive and normalized that children are doing it.

Sadly our society doesn’t care about women and girls.

[ICCD research @ Oxford Brookes Uni @SmotheredTweets]

All of this linked Substack 🙌

[Professor Michael Flood @MichaelGLFlood]

No One Told Men the Floor Was Made of Women
On decentering men, loneliness, men's desire for recognition, and why persistently misdiagnosing men's crises is making everything worse for everyone
By Soraya Chemaly
https://t.co/to847cGjo4

[Hannah Summers @hansummers]

Thrilled to have won Campaign of the Year with @louisetickle for our reporting on the case of Sara Sharif and our Court of Appeal challenge to the ban on the naming of judges. Huge thanks to our barrister Chris Barnes KC and to @tortoise and @lawforchangee for funding our appeal.

[Sally Sands🟧💜🤍💛 @LooneeLuna]

"And ladies, that right there is how abusive men minimize harm—they define abuse by the worst thing they didn’t do."

[ICCD research @ Oxford Brookes Uni @SmotheredTweets]

An underrecognised aspect of leaving an abusive relationship, yet one that looms large for many:

[Natalie Page @NataliePage]

When you tell an abuser it's over he often says the same chilling words if you have children:
“If you leave, I’ll take the kids off you in court.”
He weaponises the family court before you’ve even walked out the door.
What it means for mums and kids:
The threat isn’t empty. The family court often makes it real. Mothers end up trapped in years of litigation, fighting to keep their children safe while the system treats the threat, and ongoing post separation abuse as “conflict".
The system was ready to be used against you, and he already knew it.
The System Is The Weapon exposes why this is the most common threat against mothers separating from abusive fathers, and how this threat becomes reality for thousands.

https://t.co/HWTF1if3LH

[Dr. Jessica Taylor @DrJessTaylor]

“Once a mother is labelled ‘anxious’, ‘depressed’, ‘bipolar’, ‘manipulative’, ‘borderline’, ‘histrionic’, ‘delusional’, ‘alienating’, or ‘personality disordered’, every future behaviour can become interpreted through that lens. Her fear, her anger, her attempts to protect herself and her kids - all becomes pathology.

Meanwhile, perpetrators who remain emotionally flat, persuasive, and superficially charming to the CAFCASS officer, or the psychologist, or even the police - are repeatedly rewarded by systems that still fundamentally misunderstand trauma and abuse.

Family courts are dealing with some of the most complex, high-stakes, emotionally charged cases imaginable. Yet we continue to place extraordinary weight upon psychological assessments that are often subjective, inconsistent, poorly evidenced, and heavily shaped by interpretation.

We should be asking much harder questions about the scientific validity, ethical standards, accountability mechanisms, and evidential status of these reports.”

My new article is in your inbox right now.

[ICCD research @ Oxford Brookes Uni @SmotheredTweets]

It's hard to not see the systematic nature with which we brush over this issue. The numbers don't lie, yet we pretend it's all neutral.

[Victoria Smith @glosswitch]

Nowhere in this article is misogyny or the sex of victims or perpetrators mentioned
https://t.co/E0asf1DCKF