Dr Cassandra Wiener

Overview

Dr Cassandra Wiener works on the criminalisation of domestic abuse, in particular the articulation by the criminal law in the UK and elsewhere of coercive control. From September 2022 - September 2023 she is acting as Co-Investigator on Operation Bluestone/Soteria, a Home Office funded project working with police forces across England and Wales to transform the policing response to rape and serious sexual assault. Cassandra's monograph 'Coercive Control and the Criminal Law' is being published by Routledge in December 2023, and is available for pre-order here: https://www.routledge.com/Coercive-Control-and-the-Criminal-Law/Wiener/p/book/9781032422879. Cassandra is co-founder and co-convenor of the UK's first Domestic Violence and the Criminal Law Network of leading legal scholars working on all matters relating to intimate partner abuse. Cassandra is also co-founder and Director of the City Centre of Law and Criminal Justice: an interdisciplinary Crime Centre bringing together leading experts in criminal justice policy, practice and education to press an urgent agenda for social and criminal justice reform.

Cassandra is passionate about domestic abuse law reform and regularly acts as advisor to the Home Office and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner's office, among others. She played a key role in the drafting of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, successfully campaigning for a clause enhancing the criminal law protection of survivors of coercive control. She is regularly consulted by governments and activists around the world who are considering following the UK's lead and criminalising coercive control, most recently appearing before the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Coercive Control in New South Wales, Australia.

In addition to publishing in academic journals Cassandra advocates for domestic abuse law reform on social media and in the mainstream press, and has given interviews to BBC Radio Sussex and Surrey, the Guardian, the Independent, CC Chat, Wired and Unilad among others.

When she returns from her Home Office secondment in September 2023 Cassandra will continue to lead modules on criminal law for undergraduates on The City Law School LLB programme and to teach post graduates on the GDL. She would welcome enquiries from prospective doctoral applicants wishing to work in the area of domestic abuse, interpersonal violence (including sexual violence), violence against women and girls, coercive control and the criminal law.

Policy Impact

Cassandra was able to use her research findings to successfully campaign for the extension of the criminal law on coercive control to ex-partners of abuse. Her work was referenced in the House of Lords by Lord Goschen, Baroness Hayman and Baroness Bertin (Hansard HL Deb 5 Jan 2021 vol 809, col 93; vol 809, col 100 and HL Deb 10 Jan 2021 vol 810 col 1717). She provided evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee, co-convened a Round Table for the House of Lords Domestic Abuse Bill Committee, and ran a sustained and successful media campaign with articles and interviews in the Inews, the Guardian and the Conversation, among others.

Policy Expertise

In addition to her work on the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 above, Cassandra has acted as consultant to the Home Office on a number of occasions: most recently providing advice to the Public Protection Unit on the eviction of perpetrators from the family home during lockdown, and advising the Domestic Abuse Research Team at the Home Office Analysis and Insight Unit on the Review of the Controlling or Coercive Behaviour offence. She has also been consulted by a number of governmental organisations in the US such as the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the Domestic Violence Policy and Prevention Unit in Los Angeles. Cassandra works closely with the newly appointed Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs and has worked with her research unit on a number of recent issues including the introduction of new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders and the treatment of survivors in the family courts.

Qualifications

• MA (Distinction), University of Sussex, UK, Sep 2021 – Sep 2014
• PhD, University of Sussex, UK, Sep 2014 – Jul 2021
• GDL/LPC (Distinction), University of Law, UK, Sep 1993 – Sep 1995
• BA Hons, University of Manchester, UK, Sep 1989 – Sep 1992

Employment

• Co-Investigator, Home Office, Sep 2022 – Sep 2023
• Director, The City Law School, Sep 2022 – present
• Senior Lecturer, City, University of London, Sep 2021 – present
• Research Assistant, Open Justice Project (funded by the Legal Education Foundation), University of Sussex, Apr – Oct 2020
• Visiting Lecturer, City, University of London, Sep 2019 – Jul 2021
• Associate Tutor, University of Sussex, Sep 2018 – Jul 2019
• Research Assistant, Office of the Sentencing Council, Jan – Jul 2017
• Senior Lecturer, University of Law, Sep 2003 – Jul 2012
• Assistant Solicitor, Simmons & Simmons LLP, Sep 1995 – Sep 2001

Awards

• University of Sussex (2021) Adam Weiler Impact Award 2021
  Awarded to an exceptional doctoral researcher who demonstrates the potential to achieve great impact in their field
• Sentencing Council (2017) Impact Award
  Awarded for impact achieved via the production of new domestic abuse sentencing guidelines
• ESRC (2016) Full PHD studentship
• University of Sussex (2016) Impact and Knowledge Exchange Award

Publications by category