APPENDIX 30
Memorandum submitted by Respect
1. BACKGROUND
1.1 Respect is the UK association
for domestic violence perpetrator programmes and associated support
services. Our key aim is to increase the safety of those experiencing
domestic violence by promoting effective interventions with perpetrators.
Respect is the leading national voice on domestic violence perpetrator
issues and receives Home Office funding to run the Respect Phoneline
for perpetrators of domestic violence; to run MALE, the Men's
Advice line for male victims of domestic violence; and to develop
accreditation for perpetrator programmes in England and Wales.
1.2 Respect welcomes this
inquiry into domestic violence. Our submission will focus predominantly
on issues regarding perpetrators—both in terms of risk management
and behaviour change.
2. EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
2.1 Implementation of the DVCVA 2004
Implementation of the DVCVA has been
disappointingly slow and we would wish to a clear time frame for
the implementation of the remaining sections, particular those
allowing the court to impose restrictions on the perpetrator to
protect the victim without having to seek this through the civil
route. This would greatly improve the risk management of offenders
in the community.
2.2 Existing legislation
The DVCVA 2004 plugged some gaps to ensure
that all victims receive equal protection under the law. Respect
believes that existing legislation is on the whole sufficient—it
is the implementation of the legislation that needs some attention.
3. PUBLIC
EDUCATION AND
AWARENESS-RAISING
3.1 Need for targeted, not gender-neutral
campaigns
Whilst attempting to be sensitive to
the needs of male victims and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) people, gender neutral domestic violence campaigns actually
obscure the reality of domestic violence (which is most often
perpetrated by men against women) and confuses both those seeking
help and members of the public who the campaigns are trying to
educate.
Recommendation
Rather than a one-size-fits-all strategy,
there is a need for carefully targeted campaigns which speak directly
to specific groups and/or about particular kinds of violence and
abuse, with resources allocated proportionately.
3.2 Need for campaigns aimed at perpetrators
The Home Office "Enough" campaign
to raise awareness about the unacceptability of domestic violence
but the impact of this and other campaigns on perpetrators does
not seem clear. Respect believes it is essential that Home Office
campaigns address issues for both victims and perpetrators and
educate the general public about both in more targeted and positive
way.
In 2005 the Metropolitan Police Service
(MPS) targeted a campaign at men / male perpetrators (with a subsidiary
campaign aimed at LGBT perpetrators). This had widespread coverage
on tube stations, on the radio and at football grounds and MPS
monitoring showed it to have the highest recognition rate amongst
men, of all MPS campaigns.
Recommendation
Respect would like to see similar campaigns
developed across the country, particularly targeted in areas where
perpetrator programmes are already established.
3.3 Need for DCSF leadership re: the
education of children and young people
There is an acute need both for information
and support services for children and young people experiencing
domestic violence (either in their own families or in teenage
relationships) and to educate all young people as part of a prevention
strategy.
Recommendation
The Department for Children, Schools
and Families (DCFS) needs to provide clear leadership, ensuring
that education on domestic violence issues is mainstreamed into
the national curriculum and not left to the discretion of individual
schools or local authorities.
3.4 Need for clear information for
friends and family of both victims and perpetrators
It is often friends and family that victims
of domestic violence turn to first, before contacting police or
other services. Family and friends may be aware of the violence
even without being told. It is hard enough to know how to support
a friend or relative experiencing domestic violence, let alone
to know how to respond in a useful way to a perpetrator.
Recommendation
A campaign that equipped the general
public with information about how to respond to friends and family
would be incredibly useful. This could easily be combined with
a general public awareness campaign aimed at preventing domestic
violence.
3.5 Widespread multi-media campaigning
Domestic violence as an issue has not
benefited from the sustained, high-profile, multi-media campaigning
that other issues such as drink-driving receives.
Recommendation
Provide resources for such multi-media
campaigning on domestic violence issues.
4. POLICE
POWERS AND
LEGAL PROTECTIONS
FOR VICTIMS
4.1 Implementation of ACPO guidance
The Association of Chief Police Officers
(ACPO) guidance on domestic violence is clear. The problems are
with its implementation and monitoring, which is incredibly patchy.
Recommendation
Enforcement and monitoring of the implementation
of ACPO guidance in police services around the country. This should
be accompanied by mandatory training of all officers.
5. CRIMINAL
AND CIVIL
JUSTICE PROCESSES,
INCLUDING THE
SPECIALIST DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE COURT
PROGRAMME
5.1 Respect welcomes the extension
of the SDVC programmes as we believes this has improved the experience
of victims of the court process. We would wish to see the objectives
of the SDVC initiative to be defined in terms its role in wider
coordinated community response and increases in victim safety
as well as successful prosecutions. The introduction of Independent
Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVA's) has added greatly to the safety
of victims.
Recommendation
The continuation of the SDVC initiative
with a greater emphasis on monitoring repeat victimisation, the
on going risk management of perpetrators and that IDVA's are independent
of the criminal process and well resourced.
6. SUPPORT
FOR VICTIMS,
INCLUDING FINANCE
AND REFUGE
SERVICES
6.1 Increasing safety is the goal
Individual agencies (and workers) can
become so immersed in their own part of the domestic violence
system that they fail to see the bigger picture. Criminal justice
agencies in particular have a tendency to see a criminal conviction
as a positive outcome, and the end of the process. For a victim
of domestic violence, however, a conviction is a small part of
the process to becoming safe. It often does lead to an increase
in safety—particularly with appropriate sentencing—but
in some cases can actually lead to an increase in risk. For example,
if a perpetrator believes that it is his partner or ex-partner's
fault that he got convicted, he might punish her at a later date.
A reduction in reconviction rates is often held up as a success,
but it can be misleading in cases where a victim has become too
scared to phone the police if she has been punished for doing
so before.
Recommendation
All agencies should have increasing victim
safety as their priority, above all else. Data collection should
reflect this and include victim evaluations of safety as well
as data on convictions, reconvictions etc.
Recommendation
Staff need to be trained to understand
this complex issue and their part in the process.
6.2 The need for longer term support
There are hardly any services for victims
which deal with their longer term recovery—most services
are about crisis intervention and reducing risk in the short term.
Victims can be left with devastating long term mental health and/or
drug and alcohol issues.
Recommendation
There is an economic as well as moral
argument for providing longer term support for victims. Society
should be invested in aiding victims' recovery, so that they can
fulfil their potential and go on to lead productive, useful and
happy lives.
7. PERPETRATOR
PROGRAMMES
7.1 Need for interventions with perpetrators
across agencies—not just perpetrator programmes for convicted
offenders
In our response to Safety and Justice
in 2003, Respect highlighted the need for a holistic strategy
across all statutory agencies which went beyond the then narrow
focus on perpetrator programmes for convicted offenders and focused
on both risk management and behaviour change.
There have been some positive developments
since then, including the Home Office's support for Respect's
development of accreditation for perpetrator programmes for non-convicted
offenders.
However, it is still the case that key
frontline agencies such as Health and Social Services fail to
address perpetrator issues on either a practical or strategic
level despite the fact that they come into contact with domestic
violence perpetrators on a regular basis. These agencies have
opportunities for early intervention, often before a situation
has come to the attention of criminal justice agencies, but staff
often just don't know what to do.
Recommendation
Respect would like to encourage the HAC
to broaden its scope to investigate perpetrator interventions
that focus on harm reduction/increasing safety, not just on perpetrator
programmes/reducing re-offending.
Recommendation
Principles, minimum standards, protocols,
procedures and training for statutory and voluntary sector frontline
agencies are needed, to equip them to deal effectively and safely
with domestic violence perpetrators.
7.2 Convicted offenders—capacity
issues
The Probation Service is responsible
for providing perpetrator programmes for convicted offenders.
They have two programmes accredited by the Correctional Services
Accreditation Panel (CSAP)—the Integrated Domestic Abuse
Programme (IDAP) and the Community Domestic Violence Programme
(CDVP). There have been considerable teething problems in getting
these programmes up and running and operational difficulties remain
in most areas.
In theory these programmes are available as a sentencing
option in all domestic violence cases. However, in practice we
are aware of huge capacity issues that mean that there are nowhere
near enough programmes running for the number of potentially suitable
convicted offenders. There is a great deal of variation across
regions both in terms of capacity and in terms of how offenders
are allocated to programmes. In some areas allocation is purely
on a first come, first served basis. In other areas the allocation
is based on a risk assessment and in other areas a combination
of risk and suitability (as endorsed by Respect) are considered.
Research (such as that by Gondolf in
the USA) identifies that perpetrator programmes are most effective
when they get offenders on to programmes quickly post sentence,
include intensive early intervention and have systems in place
for victim support and multi-agency risk management. Many of these
issues have been acknowledged by the Probation Service in the
UK and even addressed at strategic level, but a lack of resources
means that they have failed to be implemented. There are often
long waiting lists and minimal victim support. We have heard of
areas with one Women's Safety Officer for a whole county and areas
where offenders fail to complete their order due to a lack of
capacity (ie the Probation Service fails to provide a programme
place before the timescale of the order expires).
Recommendation
Resources need to be made available to
address capacity issues so that IDAP or CDVP is accessible to
all convicted perpetrators who are assessed as suitable and that
adequate levels of Women's Safety Officers (as per Respect's minimum
standards) are provided. This should involve partnership working
with local voluntary sector agencies (which meet Respect's minimum
standards / are accredited by Respect—this process will
begin in 2008).
7.3 Convicted offenders who are not
suitable for IDAP or CDVP
Often offenders who are not suitable
for programmes pose a higher risk to victims than those who are
suitable—yet being rejected for a programme often means
that they receive less intervention.
Also Women's Safety Officer support is
often not available for the partners of these men, as referrals
are made post-sentence when an offender is about to start a programme—so
if he has not been sentence to attend a programme his partner
may not receive any support, even if he is high risk. Probation
practice is patchy on both of these issues.
Recommendation
Probation procedures need to identify
those offenders who are unsuitable for their programmes and put
in place harm reduction measures such as increased containment
and risk management.
Recommendation
Women's Safety Officer support needs
to be more structured and consistent and available pre-sentence
and in the early months of the programme when they are most likely
to experience reassault.
7.4 Convicted offenders—court
outcomes
There is wide variety in the sentencing
of convicted offenders and the enforcement of orders from area
to area.
Recommendation
Data collection and monitoring of court
outcomes/sentencing would be very useful.
Recommendation
Comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness
of different sentencing options is needed—measured by partner
reports as well as reconviction/re-offending rates.
Recommendation
Respect would like to see the consistent
enforcement of orders, with swift and consistent sanctions for
non-attendance, non-compliance and reoffending.
Recommendation
Respect would also like to see the introduction
of compliance hearings—a periodic report back to court on
progress—which have proved successful in the USA.
7.5 Voluntary sector perpetrator programmes—accreditation
Voluntary sector perpetrator programmes
take referrals from statutory agencies such as Social Services,
Health, Family Courts, from other voluntary sector agencies such
as Relate and Women's Aid, and from perpetrators themselves.
The Home Office is supporting Respect
to develop accreditation for perpetrator programmes. This two
year project, is on schedule and will come to an end in April
2008.
Recommendation
Respect recommends that further funding
be made available to roll out the new accreditation system for
the sector.
7.6 Voluntary sector perpetrator programmes—capacity
issues
Provision of perpetrator programmes for
non-convicted offenders is incredibly patchy, with vast areas
of the country having no provision at all. The programmes that
do exist are usually overstretched, with long waiting lists. There
is no secure funding for these programmes—most of them are
grant-funded and their financial situation is often precarious.
Recommendation
Long term, sustainable funding streams
need to be made available to give this part of the sector security.
Respect would like to see a minimum of one perpetrator programme
(with associated support service for victims) for every local
authority area.
7.7 Voluntary sector perpetrator programmes—access
issues
Very few of the voluntary sector programmes
have developed services which are relevant to perpetrators from
BME communities, and we are not aware of any programmes targeted
at perpetrators in same-sex relationships.
Recommendation
Research and development of specialist
services is needed to ensure programmes are accessible to all
perpetrators, in order to increase the safety of all victims.
7.8 Research
There is hardly any UK based research
into the effectiveness of perpetrator interventions. This is hampering
the development of effective services, Respect is working to develop
a full evaluation of Non court-mandated perpetrators and would
wish to see government support this.
Recommendation
Support further UK based research into
the effectiveness of interventions with perpetrators.
8. MULTI-AGENCY
APPROACHES, AND
WHAT BARRIERS
EXIST TO
THEIR EFFECTIVE
OPERATION
8.1 Structural barriers
Although huge improvements have undoubtedly
been made, the structures just aren't there for effective communication
within some agencies, let alone between agencies, both
at strategic and frontline levels.
Recommendation
The relevant department (eg Home Office,
DH, DFSC) needs to provide leadership to ensure that structures
are in place to encourage communication and effective multi-agency
working.
8.2 Agency's cultural barriers
Each agency has a unique history, perspective
and internal culture. Often they are unaware of the important
history, perspective and internal culture of other agencies.
In recent times, the Police have often
taken a welcome lead and driven things forward at local level,
but sometimes fail to take on board the perspectives of other
agencies. For example, as an agency committed to information sharing,
they can become frustrated with Health professionals refusing
to share information, while failing to understand the strict confidentiality
codes and organisational culture that underpins this perspective.
Recommendation
It is essential that one agency does
not dominate—but this requires all agencies to participate
fully.
Recommendation
Opportunities to learn about other agencies
to break down these barriers and misunderstandings would be useful.
Given time restraints, if this is not possible, at least having
an acknowledgement of agency differences in the terms of reference
of multi-agency groups would be useful.
Respect would also wish to support the
submission by Women's Aid England
2 October 2007
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