Rate My Professor Charlotte Barlow

Charlotte Barlow, Associate Professor in Criminology and Criminal Justice in the School of Law at the University of Leeds since December 2025, is a leading scholar in responses to violence against women and girls. Her academic journey began with a First Class Honours BSc in Criminology and Psychology from Keele University, followed by a PhD in Criminology from the University of Liverpool in 2015, and a Postgraduate Certificate of Academic Practice from Lancaster University. Before her current position, she held the role of Reader in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Central Lancashire and had academic appointments at Lancaster University and Birmingham City University. Barlow is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), elected Vice President of the British Society of Criminology, and a member of the editorial board for the British Journal of Criminology. In her role as Deputy Director for Impact and Engagement, she fosters collaborative research partnerships.

Her research specializations include policing and criminal and family justice responses to domestic abuse, with particular emphasis on coercive control, Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes (Clare's Law), specialist domestic abuse courts, and interventions for affected children. Barlow has secured funding from the ESRC, Home Office, Ministry of Justice, British Academy, and N8 Policing Research Partnership for projects including the ESRC-funded “Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme Project: Information Sharing and Domestic Abuse,” conducted with Dr. Ellen Reeves of the University of Liverpool, which analyzes data from all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Other key initiatives encompass three projects on police responses to coercive control from 2016 to 2024, a British Academy-funded study on victim-survivor experiences of disclosure schemes, Ministry of Justice evaluation of Integrated Domestic Abuse/Pathfinder Courts, Home Office-funded evaluations of child interventions, investigations into rural domestic abuse policing, and assessments of MARAC processes for high-risk cases. Additionally, she contributed to Project Bright Light, applying Operation Soteria principles to domestic abuse responses. Barlow's work has directly informed policy development, professional training programs, and practice improvements through engagements with the Home Office, College of Policing, National Police Chiefs Council, numerous police forces, the Ministry of Justice, and domestic abuse services like Women’s Aid, demonstrating substantial academic and societal impact.