DEATHS from domestic violence have hit a five-year high in the UK, with 173 people killed by a partner or relative in 2018. The have been labelled a “national travesty” by women’s support groups, who are calling for urgent government action. “We know that these are not isolated incidents or one-offs,” says Lucy Hadley at Women’s Aid.
The UK government has promised to tackle this violence through its Domestic Abuse Bill, which was introduced by former prime minister Theresa May. During its , May said it would be important to “identify the programmes that work” before it is subjected to a final vote. But how do we know what is effective?
Most domestic violence is committed by men against women – but not all. There are also examples of women hurting male partners and violence between same-sex couples. In the UK, about three-quarters of victims are women. Domestic violence is a problem beyond the UK. In Australia, on average one woman a week is killed by a current or former partner (see “graphs”). In the US, . Between 17 and 25 per cent of women in all three nations say they have experienced abuse at the hands of a male partner.
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Obtaining evidence on the best ways to stop domestic violence is difficult. People who participate in studies may be too scared to report abuse, making data unreliable. Nevertheless, we are starting to get a sense of what helps, says at Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety.
Domestic violence interventions conventionally involve criminal penalties for perpetrators and counselling and shelter for those affected. Now there is an emerging focus on trying to stop the abuse before it happens, by reshaping “violence-supportive beliefs”, says Robinson.
In 2016, Australia launched , in newspapers and on buses to challenge beliefs that male violence against women is a product of “boys being boys” or women “asking for it”. A 2017 survey found that Australians were less likely to excuse violence against women than they had been in 2009, hinting that the campaign was working.
For example, the proportion who agreed with the statement, “domestic violence can be excused if, afterwards, the violent person genuinely regrets what they have done” .
New Zealand introduced earlier, in 2007, featuring people including celebrities voicing short messages like: “It’s not OK to punch a hole in the wall to show your wife who’s boss.” A 2008 survey found that said the ads made them feel like change was possible.
Despite these apparent shifts, police call-outs for domestic violence have risen in and in recent years. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean the campaigns are failing, says Joanne Spangaro at the University of Wollongong in Australia. “It might be that people now feel safer to come forward or more confident that they’re going to be believed by the police,” she says.
Back to school
Many experts believe we also need to intervene at a young age to change sexist attitudes before they become entrenched. There is some evidence they are right. The International Center for Research on Women, a non-profit organisation based in Washington DC, found that in India changed the way that boys thought about gender. They were less likely to agree with statements like “a wife should always obey her husband”.
Community programmes have also been found to be effective, including one called SASA! This scheme – partly named for its four phases: start, awareness, support and action – was trialled in Uganda, where . Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine randomly assigned eight similar communities to try the programme or continue as normal.
In the SASA! communities, more than 11,000 activities, including theatre performances, conversation groups and door-to-door discussions, were organised over five years to get people thinking and talking about domestic violence. By the end, men in these communities viewed violence against women as less acceptable and were more likely to support their female partners’ autonomy than men in those where no action was taken. Women in the SASA! communities were 52 per cent less likely to be abused by their partners.
Together, these studies show it is possible to improve attitudes towards women. We don’t yet know if such shifts will translate into less violence against them. Spangaro is optimistic, because show that sexist attitudes strongly predict rates of domestic violence.
Nicole Westmarland at Durham University, UK, agrees we need to prevent men becoming violent. But she says we also need strategies to help violent men change their behaviour.
Support programmes for such men are controversial – many of those affected by domestic violence reckon that “leopards can’t change their spots”, says Westmarland.
However, she recently studied 12 voluntary programmes for men in the UK who had been violent and found evidence that they did help to protect the men’s partners.
Each scheme lasted for a year or more and challenged participants to think about the effects of their violence, while also teaching them techniques to manage their aggression. Afterwards, their female partners reported . The number who reported being recently kicked, punched, beaten or burned dropped from 54 per cent to 2 per cent. The number who said they felt very safe increased from 8 per cent to 51 per cent.
“Support for violent men is controversial. Many people believe that ‘leopards can’t change their spots’”
The programmes didn’t fix everything. Many of the women said their male partners still tried to control them psychologically after they stopped physically hurting them, for example, by reading their messages or trying to restrict where they went.
Michael Roguski at New Zealand firm Kaitiaki Research and Evaluation believes we may achieve better results by looking at what worked for men who have stopped abusing their partners altogether. “For many years, their voices have been ignored, but instead of seeing them as the enemy, we can learn from their journeys of recovery,” he says.
Many previously violent men have told him that the key to changing their behaviour wasn’t formal counselling, but talking to men who had stopped abusing their partners. One said that this is because counsellors “wouldn’t have understood” and that he needed to “speak to people who had walked that path and who had come out the other side all the better for it”. As a result, improving access to these positive role models may help to reduce domestic violence, says Roguski.
No single strategy will halt domestic violence, but a growing body of research is pointing us in the right direction. The UK’s Domestic Abuse Bill appears to be taking this evidence into consideration – its current recommendations include a public awareness campaign designed to challenge violence-supportive beliefs, compulsory classes on respectful relationships in schools, and greater funding for perpetrator support programmes.
Women’s Aid is waiting for a firm commitment that the bill will improve access to women’s refuges and other support services before fully supporting it, but welcomes the other proposed actions. We don’t know if it will reduce the number of women dying at the hands of partners, but it is a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to try, says Hadley.
Affected by domestic violence?
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