Skip to main content
Research Impact at Durham
View of Durham Castle, Durham Cathedral and Framwellgate Bridge across the river

Inspiring changes to criminal laws on rape pornography and online abuse

30 November 2021
Share page:
Hands typing on dark keyboard

World-leading experts from our Law School are shaping and influencing new laws on extreme pornography and sexual violence. Working closely with victim organisations, Professor Clare McGlynn and colleagues’ research inspired campaigns and legal changes that are now providing greater protection and justice for victims.

Criminalising rape pornography

Professor McGlynn and her colleagues’ work helped to inspire the campaign to make possessing ‘rape pornography’ a criminal offence.

They worked closely with victim organisations to call for the changes that were introduced in 2016 and have now led to further changes across the UK and internationally.

Shaping debate in criminal laws

Calling for an end to the victim-blaming term ‘revenge porn’, Durham’s researchers developed the concept of ‘image-based sexual abuse’ to better capture the nature and harms of creating and sharing sexual images without consent, including ‘upskirting’ and deepfakes.

The research argued for a comprehensive legal response, focussing on the harms to victims rather than the motives of the perpetrators.

Real-world impact

As a direct result of our experts’ research, new criminal offences on rape pornography were introduced in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 and Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 2016.

The research also provided evidence for criminalising the non-consensual distribution of intimate images including ‘upskiritng images’ in the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 and influenced Parliamentary changes in the Voyeurism Act 2019.

Professor McGlynn has also worked closely with the largest social media companies, including Facebook, who drew on her expertise to develop their reporting tools and prevention mechanisms.

National recognition

In 2019, she was appointed as honorary Queen’s Counsel, which is the highest recognition a non-practising lawyer can receive.

The appointment recognises her unparalleled and influential research, which has shaped English criminal law and policy, as well as her pioneering work on women lawyers.

Find out more