Good Practice With Perpetrators Of Domestic Violence
| Author | Sheila Burton,Audrey Mullender |
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455050104800403 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
260
Good Practice With
Perpetrators Of Domestic
Violence
Audrey Mullender and Sheila Burton consider the results of a
national survey of domestic violence perpetrator programmes,
organising their discussion around eight ‘Good Practice Indicators’
established by wider research into responses to domestic violence.
Despite instances of good practice, they find evidence of a continuing
lack of emphasis on the views and wellbeing of survivors in the
operation and evaluation of such programmes.
Intervention with domestic violence
perpetrators is a controversial area of
practice. There are fears that unless
programmes operate to very strict
principles, they may actually place women
in greater danger. They may, for example,
offer women false hope that their partners
will automatically be committed to the
programme or will change their behaviour
as a result. Or, even if outright violence is
extinguished, perpetrators may substitute
more subtle forms of control if their
threatening and intimidatory attitudes
towards women are not challenged. At the
organisational level, work with men may
compete for funding with services for
abused women and their children, or
policies and practices may be pursued
which are unaccountable to survivors. Over
and above these risks, the effectiveness of
domestic violence perpetrator programmes
is far from proven, despite some
encouraging signs (see summaries in
Mullender, 1996; Mullender and Burton,
forthcoming). On the other hand, to do
nothing is unacceptable since it means that
perpetrators are left unchallenged. Not only
do they then continue to make their
partner’s life a misery, but they may move
from relationship to relationship doing the
same thing to other women and children.
As a way out of this paradox, anything
which can help to set the highest standards
is to be welcomed. This paper draws upon
two pieces of work which focus upon this
aim: a national survey of programmes,
which sought to locate good practice, and
the national Statement of Principles and
Minimum Standards of Practice for
domestic violence perpetrator programmes
and associated support services (Respect,
2000) which were applied as a baseline in
relevant parts of the research. Both
highlight critical factors such as prioritising
the safety of women and children,
providing partner support services, and
meeting minimum standards in the
duration, facilitation and context of the
group. The survey was conducted as part of
a much broader study of domestic violence
services, funded by the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation (Humphreys et al., 2000). The
national survey of perpetrator programmes
constituted one small part of a much larger
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