Staff profile

Nicole is an Assistant Professor in Criminology in the Department of Sociology, and teaches on the undergraduate and postgraduate violence and abuse modules. Nicole has a practice background in domestic abuse within a multi-agency, child protection setting where she developed and delivered domestic abuse awareness and training. Nicole has experience working with young men in secure settings and disabled young people who are in distress.

Nicole completed her ESRC and President’s Doctoral Scholar Award-funded PhD at the University of Manchester in 2021. Her research thesis examined the criminal justice Building Better Relationships (BBR) programme in England and Wales, in which she explored the experiences and perspectives of practitioners, and convicted men who attended BBR, including those who are neurodivergent, to understand what might work, for whom and under what circumstances.

Nicole's subsequent ESRC funded postdoctoral research consisted an international study which explored how domestic violence perpetrator programmes could be more responsive to autistic men and/or those with ADHD who use violence and abuse in their intimate relationships.

Nicole is the coordinator of the Neurodivergence in Domestic Abuse Practice network, an international network of researchers and practitioners. She also co-coordinates the Neurodivergence in Criminal Justice Network with Dr Tom Smith (UWE Bristol). 

Nicole is also a member of the Probation Institute and its Academic Advisory Panel.

Nicole's list of previous and current projects can be found on her personal website.

Research area

Nicole's research interests include the perpetration of domestic abuse and domestic abuse perpetrator interventions, and more specifically how interventions can be more responsive to a neurodiverse perpetrator population. She is also interested in good practice, practitioner well being, and victim-survivor safety and support. 

• Criminal justice
• Domestic abuse
• Intimate partner abuse
• Interventions, practice and wellbeing
• Male violence towards women
• Neurodiversity/Neurodivergence

Chapter in book

• Renehan, N., & Henry, O. (2022). Group Interventions. In L. Burke, N. Carr, E. Cluley, S. Collett, & F. McNeill (Eds.), Reimagining Probation Practice: Re-forming Rehabilitation in an Age of Penal Excess (59-79). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003172031-4
• Renehan, N. (2019). Applications of psychotherapy in statutory domestic violence perpetrator programmes: challenging the dominance of cognitive behavioural models. In P. Ugwudike, H. Graham, F. McNeill, P. Raynor, F. S. Taxman, & C. Trotter (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Rehabilitative Work in Criminal Justice (383-392). Routledge

Doctoral Thesis

• Renehan, N. (2020). Building Better Relationships? Interrogating the ‘Black Box’ of a Statutory Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programme. (Thesis). [Awarding Organisation: Unknown]. https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1617836

Journal Article

• Barlow, C., Walklate, S., & Renehan, N. (2024). Criminal Justice Policy and Victim-Survivor Empowerment: A Case Study of Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes in England and Wales. feminists@law, 13(1), https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/fal.1259
• Renehan, N. (2024). Foregrounding Meaning and Motive in the Domestic Abuse Perpetration of and Response to Neurodivergent Men. Deviant Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2024.2319638
• Renehan, N., & Gadd, D. (2024). For Better or Worse? Improving the Response to Domestic Abuse Offenders on Probation. The British Journal of Criminology: An International Review of Crime and Society, 64(5), 1171–1188. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azae003
• Barlow, C., Walklate, S., & Renehan, N. (2024). Rendering them responsible: victim-survivors experiences of Clare’s Law and domestic violence disclosure schemes. Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 8(1), 83-97. https://doi.org/10.1332/239868021x16751803681186
• Renehan, N. (2023). Responding to coercive control in criminal justice domestic violence perpetrator programmes in England and Wales: Conceptual, operational, and methodological complexities. Probation Journal, 70(3), 242-260. https://doi.org/10.1177/02645505221141952
• Renehan, N., Barlow, C., & Walklate, S. (2023). Self-blame and (becoming) the crazy ex: Domestic abuse, information sharing and responsibilisation. Criminology & Criminal Justice, https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958231207463
• Renehan, N. (2021). Facilitators of probation-based domestic violence perpetrator programmes: ‘Who’s in the room?’. Probation Journal, 68(3), https://doi.org/10.1177/02645505211025083

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Renehan, N. (2021). Criminal Justice Interventions Facilitators: Unsung Hidden Heroes or Forgotten Variables?

Report

• Renehan, N., & Gadd, D. (2024). Building choice in domestic abuse perpetrator interventions: reflections on what clients, victims and practitioners need. His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation Academic Insights
• Renehan, N., & Fitz-Gibbon, K. (2022). Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programmes and Neurodiversity. UKRI Economic and Social Research Council
• Barlow, C., Renehan, N., & Walklate, S. (2021). Clare’s Law and Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes: Victim-Survivor Perspectives. [No known commissioning body]
• Renehan, N. (2021). Building Better Relationships? Interrogating the ‘Black Box’ of a Statutory Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programme: Summary of Thesis and Key Findings Report. [No known commissioning body]