Engaging students in learning and research, and making our students co-producers of research is very important for us in Sociology. Dr Em Temple-Malt (Lecturer in Sociology, Criminology and Terrorism) and L6 student Alison Briggs (BA Hons Sociology) will be presenting findings from the Breaking the Cycle of Domestic Violence Project at the British Sociological Association (BSA) conference held at University of Manchester.
The paper, titled “Facing Uncomfortable Truths about domestic violence: being pro-perpetrator to be pro-victim”, will be delivered in the Rights, Violence and Crime stream on the 5th April 2017.
In their paper, Em and Alison acknowledge that significant investment and provision has been made for victims fleeing domestic abuse. It may be unpopular to say, but they argue that this approach is not effective in reducing amounts of domestic violence given current statistics stubbornly remain at 1 in 4 women experiencing domestic violence and around two women a week continuing to die at the hands of abusive or ex partners. Moreover, high proportions of those fleeing abuse return to or form new, unhealthy and violent relationships. Turning attention towards the perpetrators of domestic violence there are also concerns about the effectiveness of interventions being used to reduce and eliminate offending behaviour. Their paper presents findings from a recent study that explores improvements that could be made to domestic violence services that are presently being commissioned in Stoke on Trent. Following 16 interviews (professionals who work with either perpetrators or victims of domestic violence and perpetrators involved in rehabilitative programmes) they call for greater investment to be made into addressing root causes to perpetrator offending behaviour. Specifically they recommend setting up psychological services for perpetrators of domestic violence where there are mental health issues and/or past unresolved trauma from historical child abuse. They also found that more preventative work is advisable to educate children on how to conduct healthy relationships. Em’s and Alison’s research challenges inequalities within current provision that are heteronormative and indicate signs of institutional racism. Improving male perpetrator services and healthy relationship education for children are more likely to effectively reduce domestic violence offending and victim rates.