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Dr Shona Morrison

Dr Shona Morrison photograph

Profile summary

Professional biography

Dr Shona Morrison has been a Lecturer in the Department of Policing, Organisation and Practice at the Open University since May 2021.  Shona specialises in Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and child criminal exploitation (CCE).  Prior to returning to academia, Shona worked with Thames Valley Police for 17 years where she was Force Drugs Coordinator and Head of Commissioning, Policy and Partnerships for the force's Police and Crime Commissioner.  Shona is a Mental Health First Aider for the Open University and a Trustee for Elmore Community Services, an Oxford charity supporting people experiencing complex mental health and homelessness.  She also serves on the Advisory Board for the Violence and Mental Health Network.  Shona’s research focus is domestic and sexual abuse, particularly victim-survivors experiences of the criminal justice system, and children and young people who are at risk of sexual or criminal exploitation.  Currently she is working on the Victim Engagement project, looking at sexual and domestic abuse survivors (dis) engagement from the police, and an evaluation of a mentoring project delivered to children and Young People in Greater Manchester.  Shona employs mixed methods research and realist evaluation approaches.

Research interests

Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Diversion programs, Exploitation and Modern Slavery, Drug markets, Restorative Justice.

Teaching interests

Vulnerability, Trauma-informed policing, Gangs and County Lines, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES).

Impact and engagement

Shona has been involved in raising awareness of research undertaken in the OU through events, conferences, and roundtable discussions with police organisations, other academics and those with lived experince of VAWG.      

External collaborations

Shona is on the Advisory Group for the Violence and Mental Health Network (VAMHN) and is a Trustee for Elmore Community Services, an Oxford-based charity which supports people with complex mental health needs, domestic abuse, substance misuse and homelessness. 

Shona is an Associate of the Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra, Australia.  She was a former Senior Research Fellow of the Criminology Department, University of Melbourne, and academic tutor at the Australian National University.

Publications

Researching gender-based violence remotely during a pandemic: challenges, opportunities and methodological implications (2023)
Taylor-Dunn, Holly; Bates, Lis; Reed, Dominic; Hopkins, Anna and Morrison, Shona
Journal of Gender-Based Violence ((Early access))