My research broadly includes impacts of and responses to sexual violence, conflict related abuse and torture. I am particularly interested in the effects of these on women seeking asylum, specifically in relation to accessing support in key dispersal areas.
I am currently researching the impacts and harms of the British asylum system on women seeking asylum in Merseyside, including the harms of immigration detention and wider forms of structural violence. Findings from this, and my previous research, will be published in my first monograph in 2016.
Affiliation:
European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control (Board Member)
Sociology of Rights Group British Sociological Association (Law, Crime and Rights conference convener)
Prisons, Punishment and Detention Working Group (Co-ordinator)
Merseyside Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (Board Member)
Research interests
Recent publications
Books and Book Chapters
Canning, V. (forthcoming – expected 2016) Asylum, Gender and State Power: Harm and Structural Violence in the British Asylum System Oxon: Routledge.
Canning, V (ed.) (2014) Sites of Confinement: Prisons, Punishment and Detention, European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control Publishing.
Canning, V. (2011) Who’s human? Developing sociological understandings of the rights of women raped in conflict, in Hynes, P., Lamb, M., Short, D. and Waites, M. (eds.) Sociology and Human Rights London: Routledge.
Journal Articles
Canning, V. (2015) Unsilencing Sexual Torture: Responses to Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Denmark, British Journal of Criminology, Online First: http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/08/14/bjc.azv079.abstract
Canning, V. (2014a) International Conflict, Sexual Violence and Asylum Policy: Merseyside as a Case Study, Critical Social Policy, February 2014, Vol. 34, Issue 1: 23-45.
Canning, V. (2014b) Women, Asylum and the Harms of Detention Criminal Justice Matters December 2014, Vol. 98.
Canning, V. (2011) Women Seeking Sanctuary: Questioning State Responses to Violence against Women in the Asylum System, Criminal Justice Matters September 2011, Vol. 85.
Canning, V. (2010) Who’s human? Developing sociological understandings of the rights of women raped in conflict, International Journal of Human Rights Vol. 14, nos 6-7, 847-862.
Wider Publications
Canning, V. (2014a) Violence in Britain: Behind the Wire at Immigration Removal Centres, The Conversation, available at http://theconversation.com/violence-in-britain-behind-the-wire-at-immigration-removal-centres-25519 last accessed 26/08/2014.
Canning, V. (2014b) Interview: Amnesty International Finds Global Torture ‘Flourishing’ available at http://voiceofrussia.com/uk/news/2014_05_13/Amnesty-International-report-finds-global-torture-flourishing-3174/ May 2014.
Canning, V. (2013) Illusions of Freedom: The Paradox of Border Confinement, Oxford University Border Criminologies available http://bordercriminologies.law.ox.ac.uk/illusions-of-freedom/ last accessed 17/02/2014.
Canning, V. (2011a) Policy or Practice? Exploring Support for Conflict Rape Survivors Seeking Asylum in Merseyside, Asylum Aid: Women’s Asylum News June 2011.
Canning, V. (2011b) Transcending Conflict: Exploring Sexual Violence Support for Women Seeking Asylum in Merseyside, PhD Thesis (awarded March 2012).
Conference Participation: Selected
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