Domestic violence perpetrator programmes : what counts as success ?

摘要

Whether domestic violence perpetratorudprogrammes ‘work’ is contested byudresearchers, policy makers and practitioners.udSome evaluations have concluded they doudreduce violence, whereas others claim theyuddo not and may even make things worse.udMuch of the disagreement is related to threeudissues: variations in methodological andudanalytical approaches; disagreements over theudinterpretation of data; and differing definitionsudof what the term ‘works’ means.udWhilst there is now extensiveudliterature exploring theudmethodological questions, ratherudless attention has been paid toudunpicking the latter issue. It is thisudtopic that we address in thisudbriefing note. What does it meanudfor a programme to ‘work’, to ‘beudsuccessful’, to have ‘positiveudoutcomes’, and whose perspectivesudon these questions should we beudmindful of ?