Journal Articles

Smith, O and Skinner, T (2026) The role of safety and wellbeing in reporting decisions of sexual violence victim-survivors in England and Wales, Journal of Gender-Based Violence, ISSN: 2398-6808.

Smith, O, Johnson, K, Brooks-Hay, O, Friskney, R, Geoghegan-Fittall, S, Hillyard, S, Hohl, K, Jennings, B, Molisso, S, Myhill, A, Walling-Wefelmeyer, R (2025) The systemic procedural injustice faced by victim-survivors in police responses to rape and ‘serious’ sexual offences: A comprehensive study of four forces in England and Wales, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 82(2025), 100756, ISSN: 1756-0616. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijlcj.2025.100756.

Smith, O, Skinner, T, Channon, M, Tarrant, R (2025) Where do English and Welsh victim-survivors of sexual violence perceive they might gain kaleidoscopic justice?, International Review of Victimology, 31(3), pp.313-331, ISSN: 0269-7580. DOI: 10.1177/02697580251329945.

Johnson, K, Walling-Wefelmeyer, R, Smith, O, Hohl, K, Brooks-Hay, O (2024) Re-imagining procedural justice in policing sexual violence: centring survivors, The British Journal of Criminology, 65(3), pp.639-657, ISSN: 0007-0955. DOI: 10.1093/bjc/azae060.

Daly, E, Smith, O, Bows, H, Brown, J, Chalmers, J, Cowan, S, Horvath, M, Leverick, F, Lovett, J, Munro, V, Willmott, D (2022) Myths about myths? A commentary on Thomas (2020) and the question of jury rape myth acceptance, Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 7(1), pp.189-200, ISSN: 2398-6808. DOI: 10.1332/239868021X16371459419254.

Iliadis, M, Smith, O, Doak, J (2021) Independent separate legal representation for rape complainants in adversarial systems: lessons from Northern Ireland, Journal of Law and Society, 48(2), pp.250-272, ISSN: 0263-323X. DOI: 10.1111/jols.12295.

Smith, O, Daly, E, Herriott, C, Willmott, D (2021) State compensation as rape justice: are public attitudes a legitimate foundation for reform of the UK’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme?, Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 6(1), pp.79-97, ISSN: 2398-6808. DOI: 10.1332/239868020X16057277095797.

Smith, O and Galey, J (2017) Supporting Rape Survivors Through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme: An Exploration of English and Welsh Independent Sexual Violence Advisors’ Experiences, Violence Against Women, 24(9), pp.1091-1109, ISSN: 1077-8012. DOI: 10.1177/1077801217727373.

Smith, O (2017) The practicalities of English and Welsh rape trials: Observations and avenues for improvement, Criminology & Criminal Justice, 18(3), pp.332-348, ISSN: 1748-8958. DOI: 10.1177/1748895817702508.

Smith, O and Skinner, T (2017) How Rape Myths Are Used and Challenged in Rape and Sexual Assault Trials, Social & Legal Studies, 26(4), pp.441-466, ISSN: 0964-6639. DOI: 10.1177/0964663916680130.

Smith, O and Skinner, T (2012) Observing Court Responses to Victims of Rape and Sexual Assault, Feminist Criminology, 7(4), pp.298-326, ISSN: 1557-0851. DOI: 10.1177/1557085112437875.

Books

Killean, R, Dowds, E, McAlinden, A-M (ed) (2021) Cultural scaffolding and the long view of rape trials, Routledge, ISBN: 9780367404277. DOI: 10.4324/9780429356087-25.

Smith, O (2018) Rape Trials in England and Wales Observing Justice and Rethinking Rape Myths, Springer, ISBN: 9783319756745. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-75674-5.

Chapters

Smith, O and Daly, E (2023) Who Gets to Challenge Contemporary Thinking on Rape? Contradictions and Confusion in Public Opinion of "Rape Justice". In Horvath, M and Brown, J (ed) Rape Challenging Contemporary Thinking - 10 Years On, Routledge, pp.1-1, ISBN: 9780367757410.

Smith, O and Daly, E (2022) Who gets to challenge contemporary thinking on rape? Contradictions and confusion in public opinion of "Rape Justice". In Rape Challenging Contemporary Thinking 10 Years on, pp.189-202, DOI: 10.4324/9781003163800-17.

Daly, E and Smith, O (2022) The Role of Space and Place in Learning Disabled People’s Experiences of Disablist Violence. In Landscapes of Hate Tracing Spaces Relations and Responses, pp.118-137.

Smith, O (2019) Stereotypes, Credibility and Adversarial Justice in English and Welsh Rape Trials. In Andersson, U, Edgren, M, Karlsson, L, Nilsson, G (ed) Rape Narratives in Motion, Springer, pp.71-100, ISBN: 9783030138523.

Reports

Smith, O, Daly, E, Herriott, C (2019) The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme and sexual offences: Research briefing.

Smith, O and Daly, E (2018) Police responses to disability hate crime in Essex: End of project report.

Daly, E and Smith, O (2018) National evidence on the nature of, and responses to, disability hate crime: Rapid evidence assessment.

Thesis/Dissertation

Smith, O (2014) Observing justice: An exploration of court responses to rape in england and wales.

Other

Smith, O (Accepted for publication) Rape trials: Observer panels [Policy briefing], Despite many attempts to improve rape trials, complainants still feel victimised at court. Some of the legal community argue that further reform is impossible because it would harm the defendant’s right to a fair trial, meaning that debates on improvement have stalled. New court research moves these debates forward through systematic anddetailed observations of actual trials. It shows the need for PCCs to fund court observer panels, where volunteers are trained to watch trials and identify areas for improvement. Findings are then fed back to local agencies for tailored, evidence-based practice..

Smith, O (Accepted for publication) Rape trials: Legal representation [Policy briefing], Rape complainants describe being intimidated, excluded, and revictimised at trial. Internationally, this has led to a growing number of human rights directives to establish a minimum standard of treatment for both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence. As part of this, many countries now offer the complainant legal representation, and the British public wrongly assume that UK rape victims are represented by the Crown. New research highlights the need to revisit provision of legal representation for complainants so as to protect their rights and address deep-rooted social inequality..

Smith, O (Accepted for publication) Sexual history evidence [Policy briefing], Court research shows that a complainant’s sexual history is regularly brought up in rape trials, despite claims that such evidence is rare. This contradicts Government rhetoric about placing victims at the heart of criminal justice because rape complainants feel that they, not the defendant, are on trial. A new study shows that existing legislation is ineffective because sexual history is regularly justified as ‘rebutting the prosecution case’. Judges are also denied proper scrutiny of applications because they are agreed by both barristers in advance. A number of reforms are now essential to adequately protect complainants, as set out at the end of this briefing..