Professor Katrin Hohl OBE
Contact details
About
Overview
Katrin Hohl is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Assistant Vice-President (Research Culture & Environment) and Co-Director of the Centre for Justice Reform. Her current research is concerned with criminal justice responses to sexual violence and domestic abuse. She has also published on public trust in the police, police legitimacy and the application of procedural justice theory to police interactions with victim-survivors of rape and sexual assault. Katrin has a strong background in quantitative research methods and often uses multi-method research designs, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Katrin's research has had significant impact on criminal justice responses to sexual violence and domestic abuse, and was awarded an OBE for Services to Victims of Sexual Violence in 2024.
Katrin is the Independent Adviser to the UK government on Criminal Justice Responses to Sexual Violence (please use katrin.hohl@justice.gov.uk to contact Katrin in this capacity). She serves on the advisory board to the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales, co-chairs the Bar Standards Board Expert Reference Group on RASSO competenices, a member of the National Rape Working Group chaired by the National Police Chiefs' Council, expert advisor to Solace Women's Aid, and serves on a number of other advisory boards having previously advised a range of national and international bodies. Katrin was the inaugural Lord Mayor's Fellow and has been awarded the Freedom of the City in recognition of her contributions in this role. Katrin is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge (2025-2026).
Katrin was the joint academic lead of Operation Soteria - Bluestone (£6.65 million, joint PI with Prof Betsy Stanko OBE, 2021-2023). Operation Soteria - Bluestone is a Home Office funded, National Police Chiefs Council-led research and change programme that aims to radically and sustainably improve procedural justice and outcome justice for rape and other sexual offences. Based on the theory and approach developed by Hohl and Stanko, and research the team, led by Hohl and Stanko, built the first National Operating Model for the police investigation of rape and serious sexual offences which is now being implemented by all police forces in England and Wales. Katrin is now leading a pilot study, funded by the Ministry of Justice, that seeks to create an end-to-end Soteria approach that includes the courtroom.
Katrin was also the Principal Investigator of the UKRI-ESRC funded project "Responding to the Covid-19 domestic abuse crisis: building a police evidence base" with Co-Investigator Dr Kelly Johnson (Durham University), 2020-2021. Katrin was also the Principal Investigator on the Police Knowledge Fund (hefce/Home Office) project that developed evidence-based training for Sexual Offences Investigation Trained Officers (SOIT), 2015-2017.
Katrin joined City as a lecturer in 2012, shortly after completing her PhD in Research Methods at the Department of Methodology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).Katrin has received multiple scholarships and awards, including the LSE Graduate Merit Award, an ESRC +3 scholarship as well as the highly competitive German DAAD doctoral scholarship. Katrin is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) in recognition of her sustained and effective contribution to strategic development and leadership in teaching and assessment. She serves on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Criminology.
Qualifications
- PhD Research Methods, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
- MSc Social Research Methods (Statistics), London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
- Diplom-Betriebswirtin (FH), Nuertingen-Geislingen University, Germany
Teaching
Katrin teaches a range of courses in criminology and quantitative research methods: Criminology; Key Issues in Criminology; Policing; Doing Sociology: Quantitative Methods; Research Methods Workshop on Data Analysis.
Research students
Lucy Hayton
Attendance: October 2025 - present
Thesis title: The ‘justice gap’ for sexual violence survivors engaged in private family law proceedings
Role: 1st Supervisor
Further information: Second supervisor: Dr Cassandra Wiener
Merili Pullerits
Attendance: November 2023 - present, full-time
Thesis title: The measurement and understanding of domestic violence reported to the Crime Survey for England and Wales
Role: 1st Supervisor
Further information: Second supervisor: Dr. Matt Barnes Third (external) supervisor: Dr. Andy Myhill
Sarah Dangar
Attendance: October 2023 - present
Thesis title: Revisiting the sociology of suicide: A comparative analysis of statutory fatality reviews in the context of domestic abuse-related suicide
Role: 2nd Supervisor
Further information: 1st supervisor: Dr. Elizabeth Cook
Rasha Hamid
Attendance: September 2021 - October 2025, full-time
Thesis title: Reducing domestic abuse harms: a multi-agency approach to working with perpetrators
Role: External Supervisor
Further information: Co-supervised with Dr Katerina Hadjimatheou (Essex University). SeNSS collaborative studentship with Islington Council's Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) service.
Sofoklis Giannakoulakos
Attendance: September 2020 - present
Thesis title: “The Feeling of being watched all the time” An analysis of technology facilitated abuse experiences of gay and bisexual male survivors of same sex interpersonal violence
Role: 1st Supervisor
Further information: Second supervisor: Dr Gemma Birkett.
Andy Myhill
Thesis title: The police response to domestic abuse: An analysis of risk assessment and officer decision-making
Role: 1st Supervisor
Further information: Second supervisor: Prof Eugene McLaughlin
Publications
Publications by category
Books (2)
- Hohl, K. and Stanko, E.A. (2024). Policing Rape. Routledge.
- Jackson, J., Bradford, B., Stanko, B. and Hohl, K. (2013). Just Authority? Trust in the police in England and Wales. Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 9781136254437.
Chapters (4)
- Williams, E. and Hohl, K. (2026). Introduction. In Williams, E. (Ed.), Enabling Change in the Investigation of Rape and Serious Sexual Offending Learning, Development and Wellbeing Routledge. ISBN 9781032799438.
- Williams, E. and Hohl, K. (2026). Introduction. Enabling Change in the Investigation of Rape and Serious Sexual Offending (pp. 1-11). Routledge.
- Hohl, K., Cote-Lussier, C. and David, J.-.D. (2020). Disadvantage, Crime, and Criminal Justice. In Cote-Lussier, C., Moffette, D. and Piche, J. (Eds.), Contemporary Criminological Issues: Moving Beyond Insecurity and Exclusion (pp. 237-267). Ottawa, Canada: University of Ottawa Press. ISBN 9780776628707.
- Stanko OBE, E.A. and Hohl, K. (2018). Why Training Is Not Improving the Police Response to Sexual Violence Against Women: A Glimpse into the ‘Black Box’ of Police Training. Women and the Criminal Justice System (pp. 167-186). Springer International Publishing. ISBN 9783319767734.
Internet publications (2)
- Hohl, K.(2011).The impact of the mass media on public confidence in the police.
- Hohl, K.(2009).Beyond the average case: The mean focus fallacy of standard linear regression, and the use of quantile regression for the social sciences.
Journal articles (22)
- Uzelac, G., Buil-Gil, D., Hohl, K. and Lovett, J. (2025). The Meaning of Missing: The Hidden Power of Police Data Recording Practices in Rape Cases. Violence Against Women. doi:10.1177/10778012251397982
- Hohl, K. (2025). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on police recorded domestic abuse: Empirical evidence from seven English police forces. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 25(5), pp. 1321-1343. doi:10.1177/17488958231212407
- Hohl, K., Jackson, J. and Bradford, B. (2025). Relational In/Justice Journeys: Revising Procedural Justice Theory Through An Analysis of Rape and Sexual Assault Victims’ Experiences of Police Investigations. The British Journal of Criminology, 65(5), pp. 1141-1161. doi:10.1093/bjc/azaf004
- Smith, O., Johnson, K., Brooks-Hay, O., Friskney, R., Geoghegan-Fittall, S., Hillyard, S.... Walling-Wefelmeyer, R. (2025). The systemic procedural injustice faced by victim-survivors in police responses to rape and ‘serious’ sexual offences: A comprehensive study of four forces in England and Wales. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 82, pp. 100756-100756. doi:10.1016/j.ijlcj.2025.100756
- Johnson, K., Walling-Wefelmeyer, R., Smith, O., Hohl, K. and Brooks-Hay, O. (2025). Re-imagining Procedural Justice in Policing Sexual Violence: Centring Survivors. The British Journal of Criminology, 65(3), pp. 639-657. doi:10.1093/bjc/azae060
- Stanko, E.A. and Hohl, K. (2024). In the Eye of the Storm: Permacrisis in the Investigation of Rape and other Sexual Offences. The Political Quarterly, 95(3), pp. 459-463. doi:10.1111/1467-923x.13425
- Myhill, A., Hohl, K. and Johnson, K. (2023). The ‘officer effect’ in risk assessment for domestic abuse: Findings from a mixed methods study in England and Wales. European Journal of Criminology, 20(3), pp. 856-877. doi:10.1177/14773708231156331
- Johnson, K. and Hohl, K. (2023). Police Responses to Domestic Abuse during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Positive Action and Police Legitimacy. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 17. doi:10.1093/police/paac108
- Hohl, K., Johnson, K. and Molisso, S. (2022). A Procedural Justice Theory Approach to Police Engagement with Victim-Survivors of Rape and Sexual Assault: Initial Findings of the ‘Project Bluestone’ Pilot Study. International Criminology, 2(3), pp. 253-261. doi:10.1007/s43576-022-00056-z
- Hohl, K. and Stanko, E.A. (2022). Five Pillars: A Framework for Transforming the Police Response to Rape and Sexual Assault. International Criminology, 2(3), pp. 222-229. doi:10.1007/s43576-022-00057-y
- Myhill, A. and Hohl, K. (2019). The “Golden Thread”: Coercive Control and Risk Assessment for Domestic Violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 34(21-22), pp. 4477-4497. doi:10.1177/0886260516675464
- Gaskell, G., Hohl, K. and Gerber, M.M. (2017). Do closed survey questions overestimate public perceptions of food risks? Journal of Risk Research, 20(8), pp. 1038-1052. doi:10.1080/13669877.2016.1147492
- Hohl, K. and Conway, M.A. (2017). Memory as evidence: How normal features of victim memory lead to the attrition of rape complaints. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 17(3), pp. 248-265. doi:10.1177/1748895816668937
- Bradford, B., Hohl, K., Jackson, J. and MacQueen, S. (2015). Obeying the Rules of the Road. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 31(2), pp. 171-191. doi:10.1177/1043986214568833
- Hohl, K. and Stanko, E.A. (2015). Complaints of rape and the criminal justice system: Fresh evidence on the attrition problem in England and Wales. European Journal of Criminology, 12(3), pp. 324-341. doi:10.1177/1477370815571949
- Ellison, L., Munro, V.E., Hohl, K. and Wallang, P. (2015). Challenging criminal justice? Psychosocial disability and rape victimization. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 15(2), pp. 225-244. doi:10.1177/1748895814543535
- Hohl, K., Stanko, B. and Newburn, T. (2013). The Effect of the 2011 London Disorder on Public Opinion of Police and Attitudes Towards Crime, Disorder, and Sentencing. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 7(1). doi:10.1093/police/pas055
- Stanko, E., Jackson, J., Bradford, B. and Hohl, K. (2012). A Golden Thread, a Presence Amongst Uniforms, and a Good Deal of Data: Studying Public Confidence in the London Metropolitan Police. Policing & Society, 22(3), pp. 317-331. doi:10.1080/10439463.2012.671825
- Hohl, K., Bradford, B. and Stanko, E. (2010). Influencing trust and confidence in the Metropolitan Police: results from an experiment testing the effect of leaflet-drops on public opinion. British Journal of Criminology, 50(3), pp. 491-513. doi:10.1093/bjc/azq005
- Jackson, J., Bradford, B., Hohl, K. and Farrall, S. (2009). Does the fear of crime erode public confidence in policing? Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 3(1), pp. 100-111. doi:10.1093/police/pan079
- Wünsch, D. and Hohl, K. (2009). Evidencing a "good practice model" of police communication: The impact of local policing newsletters on public confidence. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 3(4), pp. 331-339. doi:10.1093/police/pap045
- Hohl, K. and Gaskell, G. (2008). European public perceptions of food risk: Cross-national and Methodological Comparisons. Risk Analysis: an international journal, 28(2), pp. 311-324. doi:10.1111/j.1539-6924.2008.01021.x
Media
- Hohl, K.(2022). New scorecards show under 1% of reported rapes lead to conviction – criminologist explains why England’s justice system continues to fai.
Reports (7)
- Robinson, A., Hohl, K., Westmarland, N., Johnson, K., Williams, E., Lovett, J.... May, T. (2025). Project Bright Light Transforming the police response to domestic abuse: Findings Report..
- Vera-Gray, F., Hohl, K., Robinson, A., Westmarland, N., Johnson, K., Williams, E.... May, T. (2025). Project Bright Light: Transforming the police response to domestic abuse. London, UK: Child & Woman Abuse Studies Unit, London Metropolitan University.
- Hohl, K. (2025). Written Submission to the UK Parliament's Justice Select Committee Section 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. London, UK: UK Parliament: Justice Select Committee.
- Hohl, K., Pullerits, M., Molisso, S. and Reid, A. (2024). Operation Soteria Rape and sexual assault survivors’ experience of the police in England and Wales Survey Report II: July 2023 – June 2024. London, UK: City, St Georges, University of London.
- Hohl, K., Reid, A.-.K., Molisso, S. and Pullerits, M. (2023). Rape and sexual assault survivors’ experience of the police in England and Wales. Survey Report I: January – June 2023. London, UK: City, University of London.
- Hohl, K. and Johnson, K. (2021). Final UKRI-ESRC grant report: Responding to the Covid-19 domestic abuse crisis: developing a rapid police evidence base..
- Jackson, J., Kuha, J., Hough, M., Bradford, B., Hohl, K. and Gerber, M. (2013). Trust and legitimacy across Europe: A FIDUCIA report on comparative public attitudes towards legal authority, FIDUCIA deliverable to the European Commission..