Domestic Violence
Tackling Domestic Violence: Effective interventions and approaches
This report pulls together the findings from the evaluation of the 27 domestic violence projects. It presents findings and recommendations on which interventions and approaches work to support victims and tackle domestic violence.
Title: Tackling Domestic Violence: effective interventions and approaches
Author: Marianne Hester and Nicole Westmarland
Series: Home Office Research Study 290
Date published: February 2005
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Primary prevention
Primary prevention is raising awareness and challenging attitudes attitudes among young people.
Primary prevention in schools increased pupils' awareness of domestic violence, but unfortunately only had short-term impacts because they were one-off interventions. Training for teachers and multi-agency support was important, and cross-curricular approaches reinforced the positive programme impacts.
Recommendations
Both primary and secondary schools should implement primary prevention programmes.
The Personal, Social Health and Citizenship Education (PSHCE) curriculum should include primary prevention.
Programmes should take a school-wide perspective with a broad approach.
Teachers should be trained and be confident in using the project materials, including how to handle disclosures.
Teachers should feel supported to deal with any issues raised through primary prevention via local education authority and multi-agency links.
Supporting women: enabling disclosure
Routine enquiry by health visitors and practice nurses was particularly effective in social care services and health care settings. Training was important, as were good multi-agency relationships and referral systems.
Recommendations
Training should last more than one day, enable exploration of fears and concerns, and provide knowledge and resources including use of safety planning and referral to local support services.
Good multi-agency relationships and referral systems are necessary for routine enquiry to enable safe disclosure and provide further support for the women concerned.
Close working relationships with specialised domestic abuse agencies such as Women's Aid, and the police should be established.
Mechanisms need to be in place for all staff to receive information, advice and support via various methods, such as supervision, ongoing reviews and specialist advice/support posts.
Supporting women to report to the police
Centralised support structures (e.g. police community safety units, one-stop-shops) encouraged more women to report domestic violence. Close links between projects and the police also led to more arrests and project referrals. Workers with legal and minority language skills also increased engagement with the criminal justice system.
Recommendations
Projects should aim to increase reported (recorded) incidents in the first instance as an intermediate aim and decrease reported (recorded) incidents as a longer-term aim.
Projects should work closely with the police and provide specific interventions that support engagement with the criminal justice system.
The 'patchiness' of appropriate police responses to domestic violence still needs to be addressed.
Supporting women through the courts
Having close links with good family law solicitors, a legal worker attached to the project and police officers located within the project enhanced the use of civil protection orders. Women preferred the centralised support structure and liked to be accompanied by support workers at court. Projects had difficulties finding out the final court outcomes of women they had supported.
Recommendations
There needs to be a system to monitor cases through the criminal and civil justice processes.
The projects need to work closely with the CPS as well as the police.
Legal support and other support, such as accompanying women to court is essential.
The development of 'one-stop-shops' should be encouraged.
Reducing repeat victimisation
Providing support tailored to the specific needs of the victim was the most effective way of reducing victimisation. Project intervention did not work for those women that had experienced domestic violence for a long time.
Recommendations
Advocacy, support and target hardening should be individually tailored to the needs of the woman.
Those most at risk should receive intensive advocacy and support from the same worker.
Clear and regularly reviewed risk assessments should be carried out for all women and children.
Self-report diaries as well as police recorded incidents should be used to measure repeat victimisation.
Supporting women through individual and group work
Individual work helped women to become more self-aware and recognise their experiences as abuse, and group work was a good way to help women 'move on' with their lives.
Recommendations
Projects and evaluators should be clear about the intended outcomes of providing 'emotional' and 'general' individual work and develop means of measurement.
Outreach support should be structured, tailored to the needs of the individual and incorporate support for children.
Conclusions: effective interventions and approaches
Children and young people should be targeted through primary prevention in schools, one-to-one work and group work.
Publicity campaigns, routine enquiry, outreach and support will help women who are experiencing domestic violence report to the police.
The most effective approaches for those women actively seeking help and who have been subject to repeat victimisation are publicity campaigns, outreach, advocacy, support to engage with the criminal and civil justice systems, help to stay safe and individual and group work to help them 'move on.'
Last update: Tuesday, August 07, 2007