8th international EFJCA Conference | 30 November & 1 December 2026 | Portlaoise (Ireland)

Bio Ruth Breslin

Ruth has over twenty-five years of research experience in both NGO and academic settings in Ireland, the UK and the United States. She has an MSc in Social Research Methods (Social Policy) from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The focus of Ruth’s work has been efforts to tackle and prevent violence against women and girls, and she has developed particular expertise in research and policy development on issues of commercial sexual exploitation. Ruth is regularly called upon to input into the development of evidence-based policy, legislation and practice in this regard, both in Ireland and internationally. Ruth joined the SERP research programme in University College Dublin in 2018.

She is the lead or co-author of all of SERP’s studies. Ruth’s work strives to bridge the gap between academia and frontline practice in generating new knowledge, insights and solutions on issues of commercial sexual exploitation in Ireland and beyond. Ruth is now leading the development of the independent SERP Institute, a not-for-profit company and a registered charity, spearheading its research programme and the delivery of its strategic plan.

Presentation The role of pornography in fuelling violence against women & girls: A focus on sexual strangulation

As the title suggests, Ruth will explore the current evidence on the links between pornography consumption and the perpetration of violence against women and girls.

She will highlight the ways in which pornography can shape our sexual scripts and therefore our sexual behaviours in harmful ways. Ruth will place a particular focus on sexual strangulation (colloquially known as ‘choking’), how this practice is becoming increasingly mainstreamed and normalised by pornography and the dangers this poses, especially to young women in all kinds of intimate relationships and sexual encounters.