Operation Soteria

Soteria is a large collaborative project between academics and the criminal justice system.

About the project

The first phase was funded by the Home Office to facilitate knowledge exchange between academics and policing, with the academic project led overall by Professors Katrin Hohl and Betsy Stanko.

Academic work was conducted in six ‘pillars’ and Olivia’s work relates to ‘Pillar 3: Procedural Justice for Victim-Survivors’, led by Dr Kelly Johnson and Professor Michele Burman at Glasgow University.

Olivia is now part of the post-charge phase of Soteria, which explores how Soteria principles can be extended into the courtroom, led by Professor Katrin Hohl at City St Georges University.

Links & Resources

While many outputs from Soteria are operationally sensitive, a range of information about Soteria and the research findings are available:

For the original Bluestone Soteria work, including briefings on procedural justice, ISVA co-location, digital and third-party materials, body worn video, Achieving Best Evidence interviews, and Year 1 findings, visit the SCCJR project page from the University of Glasgow.
For the wider national model for rape and serious sexual offence investigations, visit the College of Policing Soteria webpages.
For information about the post-charge Soteria courtroom work, visit the Government announcement about the expansion.

Further briefings will be added as and when they become publicly available.

Academic Papers

Some academic articles co-authored by Olivia are available open access. Further academic publications can be found on Olivia’s Loughborough University webpage.

Smith, O, Johnson, K, Brooks-Hay, O, Friskney, R, Geoghegan-Fittall, S, Hillyard, S, Hohl, K, Jennings, B, Molisso, S, Myhill, A, Walling-Wefelmeyer, R (2025) The systemic procedural injustice faced by victim-survivors in police responses to rape and ‘serious’ sexual offences: A comprehensive study of four forces in England and Wales, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 82(2025), 100756, ISSN: 1756-0616. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijlcj.2025.100756.
Johnson, K, Walling-Wefelmeyer, R, Smith, O, Hohl, K, Brooks-Hay, O (2024) Re-imagining procedural justice in policing sexual violence: centring survivors, The British Journal of Criminology, 65(3), pp.639-657, ISSN: 0007-0955. DOI: 10.1093/bjc/azae060.