Clare McGlynn

Clare Mary Smith McGlynn (born 1970) is a Professor of Law at Durham University in the UK.

She specialises in the legal regulation of pornography, image-based sexual abuse (formerly known as 'revenge pornography'), cyberflashing, online abuse, violence against women, and gender equality in the legal profession.

McGlynn was born in Scotland, in 1970.

At the age of 18 she moved to England to begin a degree in law at Durham University.

After graduating in 1991, she went on to study at the College of Law, completing her Law Society Final Examinations in 1992.

Following this she returned to Durham University as a teaching fellow.

From 1993 to 1995 she trained as a solicitor with Herbert Smith Freehills, qualifying as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1995.

It was at Durham University that she completed her Master of Jurisprudence in 1996.

Over the next four years she worked as a lecturer at the nearby University of Newcastle, before returning once again to Durham University as a reader in 1999.

In 2004 she was promoted to Professor of Law, and remains highly active in academic research and teaching.

She has served as deputy Head of the Law School and Deputy Head of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health (Research), where she was responsible for diversity and equality, research strategy and the Research Excellence Framework.

She was a member of the university's Taskforce on Sexual Violence and the university's governing body, University Council.

McGlynn was also a member of the REF2021 Law Assessment Panel which reviews all UK legal research.

McGlynn's career also extends beyond academia.

She was a trustee of Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland from 2009 to 2019.

McGlynn's research (with Erika Rackley) developed the concept of image-based sexual abuse to describe all forms of the non-consensual creation and distribution of private sexual images, including 'revenge pornography' and upskirting.

This term is now used internationally to describe these forms of abuse and McGlynn's research has shaped law reform campaigns across the world.

In 2013 McGlynn played a key role in the success of a campaign to criminalise rape pornography in England and Wales.

The campaign was successful, and an amendment to include rape in the definition of 'extreme pornography' was incorporated into the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015.

In 2017, she undertook a comprehensive review of this area of law, particularly examining the controversial Ched Evans case where the complainant's sexual activity with men other than the defendant was allowed at trial.

McGlynn and her colleagues Nicole Westmarland and Nikki Godden published the UK's first evaluation of the use of restorative justice in a case of sexual violence.

She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Lund University, Sweden, in 2018 in recognition of the international impact of her research on sexual violence and she is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

She is a member of the UK Parliament's Independent Expert Panel  hearing appeals in cases of sexual misconduct, bullying and harassment against MPs. She has given evidence before Scottish, Northern Irish and UK Parliaments on how to reform laws on sexual violence and online abuse, as well as speaking to policy audiences across Europe, Asia and Australia.

In November 2019, she was invited to South Korea to share international best practice in supporting victims of image-based sexual abuse and she has worked with Facebook, TikTok and Google to support their policies on non-consensual intimate images.

She regularly contributes to media debates about her areas of expertise, commenting on the need for a criminal law on cyberflashing, on sexually violent porn being easily available on mainstream porn sites, whether it is ok to watch pornography in public, celebrity image-based sexual abuse, and on the proposed regulation of upskirting in England and Wales.

McGlynn was involved in Rape Crisis London's campaign to 'close the loophole' that makes possession of rape pornography lawful in England and Wales.

In 2019, she published a report with colleagues "Shattering Lives and Myths" drawing on interviews with over 50 victims and stakeholders which was launched in Parliament at a roundtable chaired by Maria Miller MP  and attended by many victims, criminal justice organisations, women's support groups, MPs and members of the House of Lords.

Her work has played a key role in national debates, including in ITV News, and in legislative debates in the House of Lords.

She has given evidence before the Scottish Justice Committee on proposed reforms in Scotland, recommending a new law focusing on the harms of victims, not the motives of the perpetrators, as well as giving presentations and evidence to policy-makers across Iceland, Ireland and Australia.

In 2022, her evidence before the Northern Ireland Justice Committee influenced news laws on upskirting which go further than English law, supporting the campaign by two women teachers who were upskirted by a male school pupil to change the law.

McGlynn and her colleagues argue that 'revenge pornography' should be recognized as a form of sexual assault, that it should be seen as part of a pattern of sexual violence, along with other forms of image-based sexual abuse, and subject fully to the criminal law.

In particular, she and her colleague criticized the legal loophole which meant that upskirting was not fully covered by the criminal law in England and Wales.

McGlynn has argued for criminal laws to tackle cyberflashing – sending penis images to someone without their consent - giving evidence before the UK Parliament to recommend changes to the Online Safety Bill.

Her book with Kelly Johnson Cyberflashing: recognising harms, reforming laws was published in 2021 and is the first comprehensive study of the nature, harms and prevalence of cyberflashing.

It identifies the gaps in the criminal laws of a range of countries and makes recommendations for reform.

McGlynn regularly speaks to the media about cyberflashing, as well as supporting the campaign by dating app Bumble to raise awareness and change the law.

Her testimony before the Northern Ireland Assembly led Justice Minister Naomi Long to introduce a cyberflashing offence in Northern Ireland.

McGlynn and colleagues published one of the largest studies to date of online porn finding that 1 in 8 titles on mainstream pornography websites described sexual violence.

McGlynn’s work on the use of sexual history evidence in rape trials has influenced policy reform and public debates.

In 2020, she was appointed an Honorary KC in recognition of her work on women's equality in the legal profession and shaping new criminal laws on extreme pornography and image-based sexual abuse.