Heat and violence against girls and women in the UK: potential impacts of climate change and critical analysis of adaptation (LARSSONB_UEA_SENSSC26)

Climate change is a global emergency, with its impacts set to deepen the inequalities and social problems that already exist in societies, such as violent crime. Groups vulnerable to victimisation, such as women and girls, are likely to disproportionately bear the brunt of harms brought about, or accelerated, by climate change. For example, emerging research from low, middle and high income countries globally suggests that domestic violence is particularly influenced by heat waves, increasing as much as 4.5% with every 1 degree rise in temperature.

The link between domestic violence and heat has been suggested to be likely due to a complex interplay between poverty, urban heat islands, alcohol consumption, increase in irritability and discomfort, and a lack of available public and green spaces to use for refuge and de-escalation. However, much more research is needed on the relationship between heat waves, climate change and violence against women and girls globally, with a particular gap in the literature being the lived experience of girls and women. There is also very little research on the impact of heat on violence in UK, possibly because it is not usually seen as a particularly hot country.

However, due to climate change, the UK is projected to see a large increase in hot days and nights even in the short term. The University of East Anglia is excited to offer a fully funded PhD studentship to explore the impact of heat waves on domestic violence experienced by girls an