Dr Ruth Weir

Overview

Dr Ruth Weir is a Deputy Director and Senior Research Fellow in the Violence and Society Centre, where she co-leads the policing thread, coordinates the neighbourhood working group and leads work on teenage relationship abuse for the UKPRP-funded consortium on Violence, Health and Society (VISION).

Her research is interdisciplinary, drawing on her expertise in Geography and Criminology. She specialises in using spatial statistics, quantitative methods and community asset mapping.

Ruth recently collaborated with two senior police officers and another academic to write a book, ‘Policing Domestic Abuse: Risk, Policy and Practice’. The book is dedicated to improving the practice of policing domestic and aims to help inform those in policing about the dynamics of how domestic abuse occurs, how best to respond to and investigate it, and in the longer term prevent it.

In collaboration with the Deputy Chief Constable of Gloucestershire Constabulary, she has established the National Working Group on Teenage Relationship Abuse. This group brings together key policymakers, practitioners, specialist services, academics, and individuals with lived experience to build a strong evidence base and identify future research priorities. Its work focuses particularly on addressing abuse in teenage relationships among those under 16, who fall outside the statutory definition of domestic abuse.

Ruth completed her PhD at the University of Essex, which was funded by the ESRC and Essex County Council. Her research used quantitative methods and Geographic Information Systems to identify predictors of domestic abuse at the individual, relationship and neighbourhood level. At the University of Essex Ruth also worked as a Research Fellow on the HEFCE funded Catalyst Project and as a Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology.

She is a steering group member of the Domestic Abuse Research Network (DARNet), is on the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) advisory board for the College of Policing and has worked on a number of research projects funded by UKRI ESRC, Comic Relief and the Home Office. She is also an Associate Editor for The Journal of Sexual Aggression and the Journal of Gender Based Violence. Prior to working in academia Ruth held several research, intelligence and policy positions in local government and for the Home Office.

Qualifications

• BSc Geography, University College London, United Kingdom, October 1998 - June 2021
• Fellow of Higher Education Authority (FHEA), Advance HE, United Kingdom, March 2021
• PhD Criminology, University of Essex, United Kingdom, October 2013 - February 2020
• Diploma in Management, Oxford Brookes University, April 2005
• MSc Geographical Information Science, University College London, United Kingdom, October 2002 - January 2005

Employment

• Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, University of Essex, United Kingdom, July 2019 - March 2022
• Research Fellow, University of Essex, United Kingdom, September 2018 - June 2019
• Assistant Lecturer, University of Essex, United Kingdom, October 2014 - August 2018
• Research Officer, Essex County Council, United Kingdom, April 2008 - September 2013
• Regional Intelligence Officer, East of England Trading Standards Association, United Kingdom, August 2006 - March 2008
• Research Officer, Home Office, United Kingdom, August 2004 - July 2006
• Research and Information Officer, Suffolk County Council, July 2001 - July 2004

Visiting appointments

• Visiting Fellow, University of Essex, April 2022 - present
• Senior Visting Fellow, University of Suffolk, June 2021 - present

Awards

• University of Essex (2019). Celebrating Impact Award
  Finalist
• University of Essex (2018). Three Minute Thesis Competition
  Commended
• University of Essex (2017). Faculty of Social Science Celebrating Excellence Award

Research interests

Gender based violence and abuse
Geographical Information Systems
Evaluation
Quantitative Methods

Recent Grants

2021 - Home Office Perpetrator Fund (x2)
2020 - Comic Relief
2019 - Colchester Borough Homes
2019 - Data Analytics Innovation Voucher

Research students

2^ndsupervisor

• Mattie Jones, Research Student

Publications by category