Dr Anastasia Powell is Associate Professor in Criminology & Justice Studies at RMIT University, specialising in policy responses, legal reform and primary prevention of sexual and family violence against women. Dr Powell has published widely in these fields, including seven books: Sex, Power and Consent (2010); Domestic Violence: Australian Public Policy (2012); Preventing Sexual Violence (2014); Rape Justice (2015); Sexual Violence in a Digital Age (2017); Digital Criminology (2018); and Image Based Sexual Abuse (2020).  Dr Powell has contributed to policy specific research on violence against women for the Victorian State and Australian Commonwealth Governments including the National Community Attitudes Survey on Violence Against Women. Her recent research has focused on the intersections of gender-based violence, technology, justice and digital culture.

Research interests

Sexual and domestic violence, policy and law reform, primary prevention, technology facilitated abuse.

Recent publications 

• Rackley, E., McGlynn, C., Johnson, K., Henry, N., Gavey, N., Flynn, A., & Powell, A. 2021. Seeking justice and redress for victim-survivors of image-based sexual abuse. Feminist Legal Studies.
• Webster, K., Ward, A., Diemer, K., Flood, M., Honey, N., Morgan, J., Politof, V. & Stubbs, J. 2021. How are gender inequality and violence against women related? Findings from a population‐level community attitudes survey. Australian Journal of Social Issues.
• Hamilton, G., Harris, L., & Powell, A. 2021. Policing repeat and high-risk family violence: police and service-sector perceptions of a coordinated model. Police Practice and Research, 22(1), 141-156.
• Henry, N., Flynn, A., & Powell, A. 2020. Technology-facilitated domestic and sexual violence: a review. Violence against women, 26(15-16), 1828-1854.
• Scott, A. J., Mainwaring, C. J., Flynn, A., Powell, A., & Henry, N. 2020. The extent and nature of image-based sexual abuse among young people: Perspectives from victims, perpetrators and bystanders. In: H. Lim and B. McCleskey, eds. Interpersonal violence against children and youth. Washington, DC: Lexington Books.
• McGlynn, C., Johnson, K., Rackley, E., Henry, N., Gavey, N., Flynn, A., & Powell, A. 2020. ‘It’s Torture for the Soul’: The Harms of Image-Based Sexual Abuse. Social & Legal Studies, 0964663920947791.
• Henry, N., McGlynn, C., Flynn, A., Johnson, K., Powell, A., & Scott, A. J. 2020. Image-Based Sexual Abuse: A study on the causes and consequences of non-consensual nude or sexual imagery. Routledge.
• Powell, A., Scott, A. J., & Henry, N. (2020). Digital harassment and abuse: Experiences of sexuality and gender minority adults. European journal of criminology, 17(2), 199-223.
• Powell, A., & Liston, R. 2020. Reflections on the Activist-Scholar in Violence against Women Policy, in Henne, K., & Shah, R. (Eds.). Routledge handbook of public criminologies. Routledge.
• Powell, A., Flynn, A., & Henry, N. 2020. Sexual Violence and Digital Society: Understanding the human and technosocial factors. In Leukfeldt, R., & Holt, T. J. (Eds.). The human factor of cybercrime. Routledge.

Current projects

Associate Professor Asher Flynn and Associate Professor Anastasia Powell (2020-2022). Technology-facilitated Abuse: Extent, nature and responses in the Australian community. ANROWS and DSS funded project $294,031. 

Dr Paul Myers, Social Research Centre and Associate Professor Anastasia Powell (2019-2022). Respect. Now. Always. National Student Safety Survey of Sexual Assault and Harassment. Universities Australia funded project. 

Associate Professors’ Nicola Henry, Asher Flynn & Anastasia Powell (2017-2021). Revenge Pornography: The Prevalence and Nature of Non-Consensual Imagery and the Implications for Law Reform, Australian Research Council (ARC) funded Discovery Grant Project DP170101433.