Vanessa Bettinson is a professor of law, (Vice Chancellor Research Fellow 2023-2026) at Northumbria School of Law, Northumbria University, having previously worked at De Montfort University, Leicester. Her research interest and published work has a core theme of embedding understandings of domestic violence and abuse in the criminal law. However, she also explores issues relating to vulnerability more broadly. She has extensive experience in organising interdisciplinary events both nationally and internationally which are forums for academics and practitioners working in domestic violence and abuse. For the most part her approach to research is socio-legal and she collaborates with external partners and academics in diverse disciplines. She is a member of Northumbria University's Gender, Violence and Abuse Interdisciplinary Research Theme.

Her current funded projects includes:

Jury decision-making in domestic abuse cases involving coercive control (September 2026-2028), ESRC (Project Lead)

Maternal Responsibility: Prosecuting 'Failures to Protect' and the Criminalisation of Domestic Abuse Victim-Survivors (August 2026-2028), AHRC (Mentor and Advisory Board Member)

Her current research projects focus on criminal justice experiences of women whose crimes are driven by coercive control, teenage relationship harm (with Northumberland County Council and Northumbria Police) and exploring children's experiences of reporting crime within the criminal justice system in England.

WIth Professor Nicola Wake, Vanessa is exploring the potential of introducing Domestic Abuse Contextual Evidence provisions to ensure that all experiences of domestic abuse inform all criminal proceedings.