CPWO Research Seminar
Understanding and Addressing Online Harms Against Women and Girls through Research
Online spaces play a huge role in our everyday lives, offering connection, creativity, and community. Yet for many women and girls, these spaces can also bring real risks and harm. These Research Seminars open up a shared conversation about how research can help us understand these experiences and find practical ways to make digital spaces safer and more inclusive. Bringing together researchers, students, practitioners, and members of the wider community, the event is an opportunity to learn from one another, share insights, and explore how we can work collectively to create lasting change.
We are delighted to welcome Asia Eaton to lead this Research Seminar. Further details about the talk, the speaker’s biography, and a link to book a place are provided below.
Gaps in and recommendations for practice from a UK-wide examination of police trainings related to technology-facilitated sexual violence
Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is a growing and serious problem in the UK. However, in a survey of police officers and staff in England and Wales, Bond and Tyrrell (2021) found that only a few had investigated an instance of IBSA, and many expressed confusion regarding IBSA laws. While no comprehensive IBSA training currently exists (to the author’s knowledge), various trainings related to technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) have been recently developed and made available that may support police practice with IBSA. For example, in 2025 the College of Policing created a national training programme on non-contact sexual offences, which includes some content on IBSA, such as cyberflashing and the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images (College of Policing, 2025). However, the extent to which police officers and staff are accessing and benefitting from these trainings is unclear. The current presentation describes the results of a study reviews existing police trainings related to TFSV in the UK, along with survey findings from police officers and staff, to offer recommendations for existing and future TFSV and IBSA trainings. Findings will illuminate gaps in trainings and institutional support systems, paving the way for changes that foster a more survivor-centred and trauma-informed policing culture.
About the Speaker
Dr. Asia Eaton is a Professor of Psychology at Florida International University (FIU) and interim Executive Director of Mindbridge, the nation’s leading non-profit using brain and behavioral science to empower human rights defenders. Her research explores how gender intersects with identities such as race, sexual orientation, and class to affect individuals access to and experience with power. Since 2016 Asia has also served as Head of Research for Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), which is working to understand and end the epidemic of image-based sexual abuse in the U.S. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, featured in outlets like the New York Times, Forbes, Science Magazine, and BBC News, and resulted in invited talks at the White House, the U.N., Meta, Google, the Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the U.S. Marines Corp, and universities around the globe. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association in Divisions 9 and 35, and has won national awards for research, teaching/mentoring, and leadership/service.
