Domestic Abuse Perpetrators Research

Domestic abuse is a devastating crime that shatters the lives of victims and their families. For the year ending March 2020, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates that 2.3 million adults (1.6 million women and 757,000 men) aged 16 to 74 years experienced domestic abuse in the last year . Much of this abuse does not come to the attention of the police, with only 17% of partner abuse victims reporting their experience to the police in the year to March 2018. Despite the significant prevalence of these crimes, little is known about perpetrators of domestic abuse.

Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a government priority. VAWG consists of the most abhorrent of abuses; rape and sexual assault, domestic abuse, ‘honour’-based violence such as forced marriage and female genital mutilation, stalking and harassment – and other crimes. What they have in common is that they disproportionately – but not exclusively – affect women and girls. These crimes can have lasting and severe impacts to the physical and mental health of all victims, their families, communities and the economy.

Later this year we will publish a new Domestic Abuse Strategy. Producing a strategy dedicated to tackling domestic abuse is in recognition of its pervasiveness and the devastating harm it is having on millions of lives. This be developed to complement the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy that was published in July, sharing the same evidence base and governance mechanisms.

Not only will we continue to ensure that effective criminal justice sanctions are taken against perpetrators, but we will also support sustainable behaviour change and robust disruption to reduce reoffending and stop perpetrators from moving from one victim to the next. We have continued to work hard to ensure that we are able to bring more perpetrators to justice and support victims through the criminal justice system, including through our landmark Domestic Abuse Act and a programme of non-legislative action to transform the response to this appalling crime.

As part of this, we are allocating £1.5 million specifically for research to support effective commissioning and delivery of services and interventions. The primary aim of this fund is to develop our understanding of the perpetrators of domestic abuse, and to strengthen the evidence base for ‘what works’ in addressing their behaviour. Specifically, we would like to invite research proposals which will build our knowledge around the following areas.

Research Q1 - Causes, drivers and aggravating factors of domestic abuse. Research which increases our understanding of the long-term ‘causes’ of domestic abuse

Research Q2 - Identifying perpetrators of domestic abuse

Research which builds our understanding of who perpetrators of abuse are, including the characteristics of perpetrators and numbers of perpetrators.

Research Q3 - Interpersonal abuse in adolescent relationships

Research into the perpetration of domestic abuse in adolescent intimate-partner relationships. We are particularly interested in the risk factors which might make young people more vulnerable to domestic abuse

Research Q4 What works in preventing offending

Research that expands our understanding of ‘what works’ for preventing abuse at different stages of victimisation.

Research Q5: Domestic abuse risk assessment

Research into domestic abuse risk assessment, looking at what works in terms of risk identification approaches and tools and analysis on the predictive validity of particular tools

Research Q6: Evaluation

Research into the effectiveness of perpetrator programmes. We are interested in understanding the impact that interventions can have in reducing the risk of (re-) offending.

Research Q7: Domestic Abuse-related suicides.Research into the link between domestic abuse and suicide for perpetrators of domestic abuse and their victims.

5.8. Research 8 - Feasibility studies Feasibility project(s)