Hannah Bows

Hannah is Professor in Criminal Law and Deputy Dean (Research) of Durham Law School. She is Deputy Director of the Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA). Between October – December 2023 Hannah was a visiting fellow at Exeter College, University of Oxford.

Previously, she has held the positions of Director of Equality and Diversity and Co-Director of the Centre for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. Hannah is an academic member of KCH Garden Square. Between 2022-2024 Hannah was Specialist Adviser to the Women and Equalities Committee on the ‘preventing VAWG’ inquiry. She has previously held panel and advisory roles across a number of public bodies and inquiries including HMCFRS, CPS, and the Law Commission. Between 2019-2020 she was seconded to the Scottish Parliament to examine potential legal responses to ‘elder abuse’. She was a Winston Churchill Memorial Travel fellow in 2019, examining criminal justice initiatives to support victims of ‘elder abuse’.

Over the last twelve years she has conducted research examining different forms of violence against older people, with a specific focus on domestic violence, sexual violence and homicide of older women. Between 2020-2025 Hannah is working on a project examining criminal justice outcomes and decision making in cases involving victims aged 60 and over, funded by a British Academy Wolfson Fellowship.