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Meet our Sexual Misconduct and Violence team

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Discover more about the work our Sexual Misconduct and Violence (SMV) team do in this challenging area.  

Our Student Conduct Office is home to a team of professional staff. The team work on student complaints, student discipline, allegations of student misconduct including bullying and harassment, and sexual misconduct and violence. There are 11 staff in the Student Conduct Office, of whom six currently work directly on cases related to SMV.  

Dialogue spoke to Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Manager Clarissa DiSantis Humphreys and the rest of the team to find out more.  

Clarissa, can you give us an overview of the work that the SMV team does on a day-to-day basis? 

The SMV team within the Student Conduct Office supports cases related to any form of sexual misconduct and violence, including, but not limited to, rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, and domestic abuse. They manage and investigate cases formally reported to the University under the Sexual Misconduct and Violence Policy. They also manage cases reported to the Police.  

The SMV team is responsible for ensuring that any student who is subjected to SMV has access to support and is aware of their reporting options. The team leads on the SMV Prevention and Response Training Programme for students and staff. They also support staff who receive disclosures to ensure support and reporting options are provided to all those who disclose SMV.  

Colleagues in HR lead on staff-only cases, and we work in close partnership on cases involving staff and students.  

How has the work in this area shifted in recent years – at Durham and across the HE sector? 

In 2016, there was a shift in the sector to ensure universities were actively working to prevent and respond to SMV. This year, the Office for Students is considering making this an area of regulation for universities, demonstrating the importance of addressing this issue for the safety of our community.  

At Durham, we have seen an increase in engagement with training and an increase in disclosures and reports of SMV over the years. More students and staff are aware of the SMV Policy and trust the University to take action to hold perpetrators accountable.  

We hope more students and staff will engage with training, act as active bystanders and work together to stop SMV in our community.  

How can someone make a report? 

There are multiple ways a student or employee can make a report of SMV. They can use the Report + Support platform to make a named or anonymised report, or complete the SMV Reporting Form and send this directly to student.cases@durham.ac.uk from where a member of the SMV team will respond.  

A specialist SMV case manager will always meet with the student or employee first after receiving their report to ensure they are happy for us to take forward action under the SMV Policy. We are led by the Reporting Party and respect their choice on how to take forward a disclosure and/or report of SMV. More information on how to make a report can be found here: Report an Incident.  

What support is available for staff and students? 

Anyone who is subjected to any form of SMV can access support regardless of their choice to make a formal report to the University and/or Police.  

At the University, we have counsellors from the Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre available to provide specialist counselling to students and employees who have been subjected to SMV. In Colleges, we have Student Support Office staff trained to offer general support to those who disclose SMV or who are participating in investigations.  

For staff, the Employee Assistance Programme is another support option available.  

When formal reports are made to the University and/or Police, we are able to implement precautionary measures to further support students and employees during an investigation.  

What training is available for students and staff?  

We have a full SMV Prevention and Response Training Programme for students and staff which focuses on understanding what sexual violence is, how to intervene, and how to respond.  

Education for students focuses heavily on understanding consent, respect and healthy relationships, and active bystander intervention.  

Training for staff focuses on raising awareness around these issues, learning practical skills to respond to disclosures and how to support survivors. All staff are encouraged to attend training to better understand their responsibilities under the Sexual Misconduct and Violence Policy and to be able to appropriately respond to their students or colleagues who may disclose to them.  

Think of our courses as ‘first aid’ for sexual violence as we teach you the basics of a good response which will help you in your role as an employee if a colleague/student discloses to you or if someone in your personal life shares they have been subjected to sexual violence.  

Training sessions are bookable via the Oracle Learn system by searching ‘SMV’ in the learning catalogue search box. 

Find out more:

Meet the team







 

 

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