Dr Abbie Lake

Headshot of Abbie Lake in front of a conference poster board For media enquiries please contact the Press Team
Research Assistant for Researcher Wellbeing

International Policing and Public Protection Institute

Faculty:
Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
Location:
Chelmsford

Abbie’s doctoral research explored sibling sexual abuse disclosure, developing a survivor-informed framework to improve professional responses, alongside work focused on embedding researcher wellbeing in sensitive research contexts.

[email protected]

Connect with Abbie on LinkedIn

Background

Alongside her doctoral research, Abbie has worked as a Research Assistant supporting projects on responses to the criminal exploitation of young people by county lines gangs and technology-facilitated harms, while contributing to the development of institutional approaches to researcher wellbeing.

She has also taught on the Youth Crime module for BA (Hons) Criminology, supporting students to critically examine harm, vulnerability, and justice responses affecting children and young people.

Research interests
  • Child sexual abuse (particularly sibling sexual abuse)
  • Disclosure processes
  • Survivor-informed practice
  • Professional responses
  • The development of researcher wellbeing support in sensitive research contexts
Selected recent publications

Redmond, T., Lake, A., Dieseth, T., Horeck, T. and Lundrigan, S. (2025) 'The wellbeing of researchers of sensitive and emotionally challenging topics', Journal of Gender-Based Violence. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1332/23986808Y2025D000000101

Neaverson, A. and Lake, A. (2023) 'Barriers experienced with multi-agency responses to county line gangs: a focus group study', Journal of Children's Services, 18(1), pp. 61-77.

Neaverson, A. and Lake, A. (2022) 'Written evidence submitted by Dr Aimee Neaverson (Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Anglia Ruskin University) and Abbie Lake (PhD Candidate), Department of Criminology, Anglia Ruskin University', Evidence to the House of Commons Education Committee Inquiry: Persistent absence and support for disadvantaged pupils. UK Parliament.

Lake, A. and Neaverson, A. (2021) An Evaluation of Kickoff@ 3: Police Perspectives.

Recent presentations and conferences

Lake, A. (2023) 'The power of disclosing sibling sexual abuse', paper presented at IATSO Conference 2024, Trondheim, Norway, 31 August.