Domestic Violence Activism, Research and Policy Into Practice Ellen Malos, University of Bristol, Ma

1
Domestic ViolenceActivism, Research and
Policy Into PracticeEllen Malos, University of
Bristol, Mackay 2003
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Domestic Violence Research Group

• Initiated in 1990
• Applied research working alongside the Womens
  Aid Federations of England, Scotland, Northern
  Ireland and Wales
• Giving a voice to women survivors of domestic
  violence and their children
• Research now both national and international

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Historical Impact of Womens Movement

• 1970s Womens Aid movement grows out of work of
  womens centres/womens liberation groups
• Initially sees need for safe accommodation,
  (emergency, tempoprary and permanent housing)
• Need protection by police, civil and criminal
  law

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Main Policy Areas

• Housing
• Policing and civil and criminal justice system
• Social services child protection and child
  welfare
• Health
• Income support

5
Early Activist Impacts

• Setting up of refuges
• Influencing local agency practice
• Getting domestic violence taken seriously
• Influencing legislation Housing Act 1977,
  Domestic Violence Acts (civil protection) 1977/8

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Development of Domestic Violence Research

• Early research often very small scale carried out
  in refuges documenting need
• By early 80s developing critique of service
  provision
• E.g. Homer. Leonard and Taylor(1984) Mary
  Maynard on social work attitudes, and others,
  in Pahl, 1985

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Later More Formal Research Links between
activists and the academy

• Housing from late 1970s Co-operation with
  Womens Aid federations, housing activists and
  researchers, MPs and civil servants
• Changing Government codes of guidance
• Influencing local authority policy and practice
• Binney, Harkell and Nixon, (1981) Leaving Violent
  Men , Malos and Hague, (1993) Domestic Violence
  and Housing
• Policing from mid 1980s Attempting to improve
  attitude of police, courts to sexual violence,
  rape, as well as physical and emotional violence
  e.g. Work of Hanmer, Maynard, Edwards, Radford,
  Stanko and others

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Critiques of Civil Protection Legislation

• Initial legislation from womens wish for
  protection without initiating divorce or taking
  criminal proceedings
• Growing criticisms of laws in action
• Jackie Barron (1990) Not Worth the Paper? ,
  Womens Aid Federation of England.
• Influence on law commission report 207 (1992)
  Family Law domestic violence and the occupation
  of the family home
• Led to strengthened law in Family Law Act 1996,
  Part IV emphasis on both non-molestation and
  occupation orders ( i.e.for women and children to
  live in family home)

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Change in Policy and Research Climate From Mid 90s

• ESRC more positive about applied research
• Government and parliament developing new
  approaches (police and multi-agency)
• Significant legislation from 1996 strengthening
  Civil Protection (1996 FLA) and Protection from
  Harassment Act 1997
• New emphasis on evidence and intervention from
  1997 election of New Labour

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Development of Government Policies

• By 1995 government had signed up to various
  international conventions
• Needed to show progress on policy front
• This had helped to push forward 1990 HO circular
  on policing
• In 1995 interagency circular Interagency
  Co-ordination to Tackle Domestic Violence

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Inter-agency Policy

• 1990 circular encouraged inter-agency liaison by
  police (often building on Womens Aid initiated
  forums)
• 1995 circular issued by Home Office in
  co-operation with Health, Environment, Lord
  Chancellors Dept and Treasury (but little
  activity of other ministries initially)

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Weaknesses of Multi-Agency Policy

• Govt had set up inter-departmental groups of
  officers under lead of the Home Office and
  ministers (but latter seldom met)
• Called for co-operation between all relevant
  agencies (statutory and voluntary at local level
• But released no extra money for the work

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Research on Multi-agency Initiatives on Domestic
Violence

• Domestic violence research group funded by Joseph
  Rowntree Foundation to carry out national study
  in 1994
• Hague, Malos and Dear (1996) - and other
  publications
• Also a number of locally based research reports

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Basic Findings1

• Great variety of initiatives at local level had
  often existed for some time (over 200 at time of
  our research)
• Often initiated by womens aid groups needing
  more co-operation from local agencies

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Basic Findings 2

• After 1990, especially, Police more active
• Participation of Health, Education, Social
  Services (child protection), more patchy
• Voluntary community services, women, special
  needs, minority ethnic communities could be
  marginalised
• Lack of resources a problem some lacked action
  perspective

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Research on the Impact of Domestic Violence on
Children1

• DV in families with children on at risk
  registers and social work responses (Farmer and
  Owen (1995/96) Humphreys, C. (2000), Humphreys
  and Mullender (2000) et. al.)
• Effect of supposition that contact with both
  parents is beneficial after separation even where
  there has been violence (Marianne Hester, et. al.
  -various, (1996, 1998, 2000)
• First edited book on children living with
  domestic violence Mullender and Morley (1994)

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Research on the Impact of Domestic Violence on
Children2

• Work with children in refuges
• Hague, Kelly, Malos and Mullender with Debonnaire
  (1996 -n.D.) Children, domestic violence and
  refuges, Bristol, Womens Aid Federation of
  England
• And Hague, Mullender, Kelly, Malos (2000) in
  Itzen Hanmer, Home Truths about Domestic
  Violence, Routledge

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Childrens Perspectives on Woman Abuse

• In ESRC programme Children into the 21st century
• Major study highlighting the views of children
• 1997-1999
• Funder ESRC children 5-16 research programme
• Bristol research team Gill Hague and Ellen Malos
  with Liz Kelly,and colleagues, CWASU, University
  of North london, Audrey Mullender,University of
  Warwick and Umme Imam, University of Durham
• Published October 2002 Mullender et.al..
  Childrens Perspectives on Domestic Violence ,
  Sage

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Research Questions and Design

• To study childrens understandings of women abuse
  (domestic violence)
• How children living with woman abuse cope
• An assessment of their needs from their
  perspectives and those of their non-abusing
  carers and relevant professionals
• Stage 1, survey of up to 1500 schoolchildren aged
  9-16 in three different areas of england
• Stage 2, in-depth interviews with a children in
  families where there has been woman abuse, their
  mothers and relevant agency workers involved with
  the families

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Methodology

• Stage 1
• A structured questionnaire administered in
  primary and secondary schools during class time
  with a teacher present
• Stage2
• Stage 2 sample approached through agencies,
  approximately 50 from womens aid and 50
  others. One of the three sub-samples to consist
  of children from minority ethnic communities.
  Includes siblings,aim for sex balance
• Two interviews separated by 6 months with
  children and their mothers one interview with
  professionals postal attitude surveys between
  interviews and use of diary or other recording by
  children

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Some Basic Findings School Sample

• Children often confused about the meaning of
  domestic violence
• Boys (especially boys 12 and over more likely to
  justify violence and excuse the perpetrator)
• Vast majority of children at secondary school,
  just over half at primary school said they wanted
  to learn about DV in school

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Childrens Understandings of Domestic Violence?

• What is Violence?
• Psychological abuse not involving threats to hurt
  was seen as violence by 39 of secondary children
  and slightly more primary children.
• Threats to hurt were seen as equally as violent
  as physical acts by by 73 at secondary age and
  57 at primary age

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What is Domestic Violence?

• Only 9 of primary school and 28 of secondary
  school children understood it as being between
  parents and adults at home
• More referred generally to violence/hitting (59)
  or fighting 28 primary and 19 secondary
• Only 5 overall combined these into the now most
  commonly used definition of DV but a small
  proportion of these included direct child abuse
  in their definition

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How does it Affect Children?

• Younger children cited sadness and fear at
  slightly higher levels than older children
• Primary pupils who knew someone with personal
  experience mentioned fear twice as often as
  unhappiness
• For older age groups unhappiness topped the list
  and anger came more to the fore
• Secondary students anticipated age related
  impacts, thinking teenagers would be more able to
  take action and be less affected.

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Who is responsible?

• Primary school children were more likely to
  excuse the actions of the perpetrator
• Looking at response by gender boys were more
  likely to make this response at all ages and
  particularly at secondary level
• Gender differences appeared sharply at age range
  11-14 increasing for older boys in 15-16 age group

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Gendered Attitudes

• Agreement by boys with the statement, women
  deserve to be hit, showed a clear and increasing
  gender difference from 10 at 11-12 to 26 at
  15-16
• The reverse was true of the statement men dont
  hit women when they are pregnant
• 73 of 11-12 year old girls and 79 of boys
  agreed that women could easily leave a violent
  partner
• By age 15 - 16 50 of girls and 86 of boys
  agreed with this statement

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Who and What Could Help

• Primary school children answered such questions
  less frequently mentioningfriends (18), police
  (17) neighbours (11)
• Secondary school children mentioned family
  (33), friends (30) helplines (26)
• Both age groups valued talking, reassurance
  with girls valuing talking more

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Help and Support Needed

• Need to talk to someone they could trust - as
  well as their mother
• To be involved in decision making - told what was
  happening
• To be safe, have their own space
• To stay in familiar surroundings if possible
• Schools - could help but did not always (mothers
  spoke of lack of understanding of learning and
  behavioural problems)

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Should Children Learn About DV in School?

• 84 of secondary students and 52 of primary
  students wanted lessons on domestic violence in
  school
• both age groups wanted to understand why it
  happened and what to do
• The older group were keen to know how to stop it

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Some Basic Findings In-depth Interviews on
Experiences

• Rich and moving stories,a wide variety of
  responses but fear, distress and disruption
  prominent
• Some cope alone, some find comfort from siblings,
  mother , other relatives (latter especially from
  South Asian sample)
• Wide variety of coping methods from avoidance to
  seeking help or intervening directly
• With exception of refuge workers, children said
  most professionals ignored or disbelieved them

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Policy and Practice Issues 1

• Children describe impact - emotional and physical
  - but many have developed strengths and coping
  mechanisms which can be built on in rebuilding
  their lives
• Children who have lived with DV should be
  listened to. Could be a valuable resource of
  specialist advice to service providers
• Training for professionals including police and
  court based professionals awareness raising
  about issues and training in listening to
  children

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Policy and Practice Issues 2

• Need for child and community services partnership
  with mothers in these situations
• Importance of peer support and group work,
  especially though not exclusively -with older
  children and young people
• Community awareness/safe neighbourhood programmes
• Schools based awareness programmes - starting in
  primary schools. DV and dating relationships.
  Gender sensitive - not just anti-violence

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Other Recent Research 1

• Mapping services for families where there is
  domestic violence
• Funder, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
  1999-Autumn 2000
• Gill Hague, Marianne Hester, Cathy Humphreys and
  Audrey Mullender with Rosemary Aris and Hilary
  Abrahams

• Questionnaire survey of all social services
  departments, prominent voluntary and community
  services Case studies of 6 selected projects
• Development of good practice guidelines
• Publication From Good Intentions to Good
  Practice, 2002, Bristol, Policy Press

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Other Recent Research 2

• Abused Womens Perspectives on Domestic Violence
  Initiatives
• Funder ESRC violence research Programme
• Research team Gill Hague (principal researcher
  for the project) and Wendy Dear (with Hilary
  Abrahams). Ellen Malos consultant
• External collaborators Audrey Mullender, and
  Rosemary Aris, University of Warwick

• Research questions
• To assess how much the voices and views of
  domestic violence survivors inform policy and
  practice in inter-agency forums, refuges etc
• To develop new theorising on the involvement of
  domestic violence service users in service and
  policy
• To identify good practice examples
• Hague, Aris, Mullender, (in press) Women
  Survivors of Domestic Violence, Routledge

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Current Research

• Evaluation of Home Office Domestic Violence
  Interventions Crime Prevention Programme Funder
  Home Office
• Large pilot programme quasi-experimental
• 9m in first year for violence against women
  interventions (6m for domestic violence (24
  projects) our evaluation 5 multi-service
  interventions
• Research team Ellen Malos (co-ordinator) and
  Gill Hague Bristol Audrey Mullender and Ravi
  Thiara, Warwick Rebecca Morley, Nottingham
  Marianne Hester, Sunderland and Debbie Crisp

• Outcomes emphasis
• Rates of reported violent incidents (particularly
  repeat incidents)
• Numbers of convictions
• Numbers of women, children using services
• Cost determined estimate of what works
• Less emphasis on non-quantitative evaluations of
  impact on safety of women and their children
• Report due August 2003

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Moving Into the Mainstream

• Mainstreaming of domestic violence leads to
  both opportunities and dangers
• Policy development at national level
• Focus on evidence
• Opportunity of government funded research
• But whose agenda and whose methodology?

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Concerns

• Main government focus is more on justice system
  than on other kinds of support
• E.g. need for adequate funding for refuges,
  attention to housing needs, health needs and
  recognition of domestic violence within child
  protection and childrens services
• Danger that government and service providers
  determine the agenda

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Main Dangers?

• Focus on quantifiable outcomes and cost
  effectiveness, possibly to the detriment of
  assessing whether measures provide women and
  children with safety and support
• Possible sidelining of womens aid and woman and
  child centred community based services
• Other concerns in Australian context?