Summary

Karen Morgan is a research fellow in the Centre for Academic Primary Care, School of Social and Community Medicine. Karen has a background in sociological qualitative research, and her primary areas of research are into domestic violence and abuse and other gender-based forms of violence. Previous research has mostly focused on the experiences of victims and survivors, however Karen is currently involved in studies focusing on perpetrators of domestic violence and abuse. She is currently co-PI on two studies:

• Reprovide Workstream 2 which is testing the effectiveness of group perpetrator programmes and
• Processes of change in a group intervention for domestic violence perpetrators: a secondary qualitative analysis  

Karen is also currently also part of the evaluation team which is assessing the Drive Project and assessing the outcomes, process and cost benefits of the intervention.   

Previous studies have included:

• A domestic violence and abuse module for the Healthtalk website (http://www.healthtalk.org/peoples-experiences/domestic-violence-abuse/womens-experiences-domestic-violence-and-abuse/topics). The module is intended as a resource for women who are, or have been, in an abusive relationship. It is also a resource for friends, family members and professionals who think someone may be in an abusive relationship and want to find out about how best to help.
• Bristol Tara Project. This was a longitudinal study of the service use and need of homeless women within the Bristol area.
• Provide (Programme of Research On VIolence in diverse Domestic Environments (PROVIDE)). This study (a forerunner of REPROVIDE) aimed to improve the quality of healthcare for victims and perpetrators of domestic violence and abuse.  

Expertise

I am an experienced qualitative researcher, specialising in working with vulnerable and/or difficult to engage populations and with both victim/survivors of domestic violence and abuse and with perpetrators. In addition to purely qualitative work, I have worked on mixed-methods studies, and on a randomised controlled trial. Other experience includes working as a volunteer outreach support worker with the national charity Victim Support (supporting victims of domestic and sexual abuse, and families of homicide victims), writing and teaching on animal rights and veganism, and I am currently also an Associate Lecturer for the Open University – teaching social sciences and criminology at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.