SAFECHAIN™ | Academic Research
SAFECHAIN™ EVIDENCE REPOSITORY™
Building the Evidence Base for Institutional Integrity, Safeguarding, and Systems Reform
About This Repository
The SAFECHAIN™ Evidence Repository™ is the central research resource supporting every publication, framework, professional programme, audit methodology, implementation model, and governance standard within the SAFECHAIN™ ecosystem.
The Repository enables visitors to understand not only what SAFECHAIN™ concludes, but the evidence that informs those conclusions. Each hub page in the Repository corresponds to a distinct category of evidence. Within each hub, individual entries are added over time as the Repository grows — creating a scalable, navigable knowledge architecture that connects evidence to frameworks, frameworks to professional guidance, and professional guidance to implementation.
This page is part of the SAFECHAIN™ Evidence Repository™ architecture. Contact samantha@safe-chain.org to suggest additions or to contribute to the Repository's development.
SAFECHAIN™ EVIDENCE REPOSITORY™
HUB 8: ACADEMIC RESEARCH
Curator: Samantha Avril-Andreassen FRSA
Series: SAFECHAIN™ Evidence Repository™
Category: Peer-Reviewed Research, University Studies, and Research Institutes
Last Updated: July 2026
Contact: samantha@safe-chain.org | safe-chain.org
ABOUT THIS HUB
Academic research — peer-reviewed studies, university-based research programmes, and research institute publications — constitutes Tier 3 in the SAFECHAIN™ evidence hierarchy. While the Tier 2 evidence of government reports and official data provides the primary quantitative foundation for the SAFECHAIN™ Economic Model and policy analysis, academic research provides the theoretical frameworks, the mechanism analysis, and the qualitative depth that grounds the SAFECHAIN™ Foundational Architecture Series™ and the Research Methodology™ (METHOD-001).
This hub identifies the research bodies and research themes most directly relevant to the SAFECHAIN™ programme. Individual research papers and studies will be added beneath this hub as the Repository develops.
CORNERSTONE RESEARCH BODIES AND THEMES
SAFELIVES — DASH AND DOMESTIC ABUSE RESEARCH
SafeLives is the UK's national charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse. Its research programme — including the development and validation of the DASH risk identification checklist, the Insights dataset on domestic abuse service users, and the Marac statistics — provides the most comprehensive UK evidence base on domestic abuse risk, service response, and outcomes. SafeLives data is directly cited in ECON-001 (MARAC coordination costs, repeat disclosure volumes) and informs GUIDE-004 and GUIDE-005 practice standards. SAFECHAIN™ Companion: ECON-001; GUIDE-004; GUIDE-005; BENCH-001; NVI-004.
SURVIVING ECONOMIC ABUSE — ECONOMIC ABUSE RESEARCH PROGRAMME
Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) is the only UK charity dedicated to raising awareness of economic abuse and supporting survivors. SEA's research programme — including the EA50 economic abuse survey, the Domestic Abuse Act economic abuse provisions analysis, and the financial harm quantification research — provides the primary evidence base for the SAFECHAIN™ NVI-006 through NVI-009 financial verification frameworks. SEA's estimate of £14 billion annual financial harm to survivors of economic abuse is the primary source for the SAFECHAIN™ Legacy Harm Architecture™ analysis. SAFECHAIN™ Companion: NVI-006; NVI-007; NVI-008; NVI-009; ECON-001 Section 6.2; Legacy Harm Architecture™ (GLOSS-001).
MONEY AND MENTAL HEALTH POLICY INSTITUTE — FINANCIAL VULNERABILITY AND MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH
MMHPI's research documents the relationship between financial difficulty and mental health crisis — including the compounding effects of economic abuse on mental health outcomes. Its research provides the social value quantification evidence used in the SAFECHAIN™ SROI analysis (ECON-001 Section 8) and directly supports the SIS-004 multi-dimensional vulnerability framework's inclusion of economic and material circumstances as a vulnerability dimension with mental health implications. SAFECHAIN™ Companion: ECON-001 Section 8; SIS-004; GUIDE-003; BENCH-001 Domain 2.
EARLY INTERVENTION FOUNDATION — RETURN ON INVESTMENT EVIDENCE BASE
The EIF's systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the return on investment from early intervention — across domestic abuse, children's mental health, and youth violence — provide the primary evidence base for the SAFECHAIN™ delay escalation cost modelling and the Predictive Safeguarding™ prevention return analysis. The EIF's finding that early intervention generates £3 to £8 of avoided downstream costs for every £1 invested is cited directly in ECON-001 and provides the primary empirical support for the SAFECHAIN™ economic case for predictive governance. SAFECHAIN™ Companion: ECON-001 Sections 3 and 7; SIS-006; BENCH-001; ROADMAP-001.
NEW ECONOMICS FOUNDATION — SROI METHODOLOGY AND SOCIAL VALUE BANK
The NEF's Social Return on Investment methodology and the associated Social Value Bank — which provides proxy financial values for social outcomes — is the primary SROI methodology referenced in the SAFECHAIN™ ECON-001 Section 8. NEF's proxy values for domestic abuse safety outcomes, reduction in psychological distress, and children's wellbeing are the primary quantitative sources for the SAFECHAIN™ social return on investment analysis. SAFECHAIN™ Companion: ECON-001 Section 8; WHITE-005; BENCH-001.
THE KING'S FUND — NHS DOMESTIC ABUSE RESEARCH
The King's Fund's research on NHS costs attributable to domestic abuse — estimating approximately £1.73 billion annually in health service expenditure — provides the primary healthcare sector cost evidence for the SAFECHAIN™ ECON-001 delay escalation analysis. This figure is cited directly in ECON-001 Section 3.3 and DEPLOY-004 Briefing Card 5. SAFECHAIN™ Companion: ECON-001 Section 3.3; DEPLOY-004; NVI-003; BENCH-001.
WEICK AND SUTCLIFFE — MANAGING THE UNEXPECTED (HIGH-RELIABILITY ORGANISATIONS)
Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe's foundational research on high-reliability organisations — the institutions that maintain performance under conditions that would produce failure in conventional organisations — provides the theoretical framework for the SAFECHAIN™ INTEL-001 Institutional Intelligence Framework™ and DESIGN-001 resilience by design principles. Their concept of collective mindfulness — the sustained attention to weak signals and near-misses that characterises high-reliability governance culture — is directly expressed in the SAFECHAIN™ weak signal recognition discipline. SAFECHAIN™ Companion: INTEL-001; DESIGN-001 (Resilience by Design); AUDIT-002.
JAMES REASON — HUMAN ERROR AND LATENT CONDITIONS
James Reason's model of latent conditions (system-level weaknesses that lie dormant until they combine with active failures to produce an accident) provides the foundational theoretical basis for the SAFECHAIN™ Architecture of Preventable Harm™ analysis and the AUDIT-002 Institutional Decay Audit's five decay indicators. Reason's Swiss Cheese model of accident causation — in which multiple layers of defences must all fail simultaneously for harm to occur — directly informs the SAFECHAIN™ multi-layered accountability architecture design. SAFECHAIN™ Companion: Architecture of Preventable Harm™ (GLOSS-001); PROTO-004; AUDIT-002; DESIGN-001.
HOW TO USE THIS HUB
Academic research is available through university repositories, research organisation websites, and — for peer-reviewed publications — through the relevant academic journals. SAFECHAIN™ Companion references identify the most directly connected publications.
Individual research paper pages will be added beneath this hub as the Repository develops. The SAFECHAIN™ research programme also contributes to the academic evidence base through the peer-reviewed publication programme described in ROADMAP-001 Section 2. SAFECHAIN™ Companion: ROADMAP-001; METHOD-001; REPORT-001.
Contact: samantha@safe-chain.org — 'Evidence Repository — Academic Research' in subject line.
© 2026 Samantha Avril-Andreassen FRSA. All rights reserved.
SAFECHAINN Ltd (Company No. 12038453).
samantha@safe-chain.org | safe-chain.org
The SAFECHAIN™ Evidence Repository™ provides curated access to publicly available evidence sources. All linked materials remain the intellectual property of their original publishers. SAFECHAIN™ claims no ownership over third-party sources. Repository curation, commentary, and framework connections are the proprietary intellectual property of Samantha Avril-Andreassen.