Franziska Meinck

Dr. Franziska Meinck is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science, with Honorary Associate Professor status at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Health and Extraordinary Professorship at North-West University, South Africa. Her research focuses on violence against children, sexual and gender-based violence, intergenerational transmission of violence, and HIV/AIDS-related health outcomes in vulnerable populations across Southern Africa and Australia.

• Education: DPhil in Social Interventions (University of Oxford), MSc in Evidence-Based Social Interventions (University of Oxford), BA in Social Work (Free University of Bolzano-Bozen)

Her work spans prevalence studies of child maltreatment, intervention research, and development of global child abuse measures. She leads the ERC Starting Grant-funded project INTERRUPT_VIOLENCE (2020–2025) and contributes to the Australian Child Maltreatment Study as a Co-Investigator. Franziska is on the Board of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) and supervises student research in quantitative methods on violence, HIV prevention, and mental health.

Recent Publications highlight trends in violence epidemiology, measurement validation (e.g., ICAST tools), and mental health outcomes linked to adverse childhood experiences. Key themes include intergenerational pathways, gender-based violence, and context-sensitive intervention strategies.

• Scientific Awards: ISPCAN C. Henry Kempe Award (2016)

She mentors PhD students on topics like violence measurement, HIV adherence, and adolescent health. Her collaborations include institutions in the UK, South Africa, Australia, and the Balkans.