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GOOD PRACTICE MODELSLAST UPDATED ON NOVEMBER 15, 2000PREVENTION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PREFACEThe present brochure "Prevention of Domestic Violence against Women" deals with preventive measures which have been taken in Europe to combat male violence against women in intimate relationships. It surveys the status of prevention efforts in the EU Member States and in the candidate countries and reviews good practice models.The brochure "Prevention of Domestic Violence against Women" has been drawn up as part of a project carried out by the WAVE Office in Vienna and the EU Commission's DAPHNE Initiative. In the course of this project a Training Programme for Professionals has been compiled and, on the basis of this, a Train-the-Trainer Seminar for experts from women's organisations in ten countries was organised. At the end of this brochure you will find a summary of the WAVE Training Programme. It is cited as a practice-oriented training model for law enforcement, judicial, psycho-social and medical professionals. The purpose of this brochure is to provide information but also to offer practical advice on how to implement proved preventive strategies effectively. The target groups are non-governmental women's organisations and state bodies, although it was also written with those in mind who are interested in the topic and wish to put the prevention of violence against women on their agenda. The project co-ordinators would like to thank those who provided the good practice models for their information and support. This project was made possible by financial support from the EU Commission under the auspices of the DAPHNE Initiative. The DAPHNE project was co-financed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Social Security and Generations. The authoresses dedicate the present publication to all women and children survivors of abuse in the hope that it will help to prevent future acts of violence. TO TOP OF PAGE1. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF A SYSTEMATIC PERSPECTIVE ON PREVENTIONIt would go beyond the scope of
the present treatment, which focuses on the practical implementation and
effectiveness of prevention-related strategies and action, to contribute to the
debate on a comprehensive theory of prevention. We have thus confined our
remarks to a discussion of a systematic perspective on the prevention of
violence - a perspective upon which the subsequent sections are
founded. Godenzi derives five preventive strategies from the Anglo-American debate on prevention:
1. Elimination of the gender-based
imbalance of power (e.g. by incorporating women more widely in the labour
process, promoting women's active role in politics, and abolishing the
gender-based division of work) Godenzi and Lercher agree in their assessment that, while action in the field
of primary prevention would be of great importance, in practice it tends to be
neglected in favour of secondary and tertiary prevention (cf. Lercher et al., p.
14). The preponderant majority of researchers in the field is unanimous that, in
the long term, only primary prevention will eradicate violence. This inevitably
raises the question: why is there a preference for action in the secondary and
tertiary prevention fields? Godenzi points out that primary prevention calls
into question the very foundations of our society and suggests this as the
reason why it is not consistently applied: ... after all, it raises such
fundamental issues as the organisational basis and the style of modern
societies (Godenzi, p. 327). 2. EUROPEAN SURVEY ¹ If you enter the search strings "violence against women" and "prevention" in one of the standard Internet search machines, it will find you thousands - if not hundreds thousands of - pages. Browsing through the on-line catalogues of large or specialist libraries will likewise produce vast quantities of documentation, albeit in not quite such a bewildering variety. However, the sheer amount of written material available should not be mistaken as indicating a correspondingly impressive level of activity in the field. On the contrary: while most writers stress the importance of violence prevention, outline possible strategies or offer a critical survey of the topic, practical action to halt violence tends to be conspicuous by its absence. Nevertheless, considering that twenty or thirty years ago violence - most notably domestic violence - against women was totally ignored and never discussed in public, the mere fact that so many people are writing about it must rank as a success - if success is an apt term in the context. Closer scrutiny reveals that many prevention-related activities - most notably those in the field of primary prevention - are confined to specific regions or time periods. Given the abundance of individual activities in the EU Member States and the candidate countries, the present publication does not enlarge on the substantive details of these activities but sets out to identify the structures upon which they are founded. The aim here is not to assess the relative importance of the activities concerned but to establish which activities have been, are being or will be carried out, who instigated them, who is organising them and where the money comes from. Given our own financial and practical constraints, it is perfectly possible that we have failed to include some activities. Linguistic barriers are a further obstacle to the exhaustive flow of information. Nevertheless, what emerges from the present study is an exposition of the problems which dog the prevention of violence but also the commitment being shown, most notably by women's NGOs. Activities relating to primary prevention Although primary prevention plays the most important part in the elimination of violence, it is that form of prevention which has been least consistently implemented, as Godenzi points out (see Chapter 1). In almost all the European countries primary prevention is implemented only in rudimentary form. There may be several activities in specific regions or running for limited time periods, but there is no long-term, comprehensive planning - despite the existence of national action plans. Since such activities as exist occur only sporadically, it is impossible to assess their effectiveness, primary prevention depending on action within society as a whole. Prevention in education Public relations and publicity campaigns State preventive action Initiatives to
combat male violence against women in families and intimate relationships
generally start at the grass roots level: with private individuals and NGOs.
Whereas the first shelters were set up in the 1970s, in most European countries
the legislative groundwork did not follow until many years later. Evidently it
took this long for the taboo surrounding violence against women to be broken
down to the extent that the state would act against violence. The lobbying
carried out by the shelters has been crowned by success in some EU Member
States. Secondary and Tertiary PreventionWomen's support services / Victim support servicesAs has been seen, the work of the independent women's support organisations frequently extends far beyond providing support for victims of violence. They have been and continue to be the foundation upon which prevention activities are founded. They generally combine victim support services with work in the fields of primary prevention (see above) and secondary and tertiary prevention (see below). In terms of the history and structure of women's support organisations, there are marked differences between the various countries and regions of Europe. In most of the countries of northern and western Europe and in the German-speaking countries the first shelters were established in the 1970s or early 1980s. The countries of southern Europe followed suit in the 1980s, whereas in the new democracies of eastern and south-eastern Europe women's shelters did not begin to emerge until the 1990s - if at all. In most cases it is the feminist women's movement which prompted initiatives to combat violence against women. Where state bodies concerned themselves with combating violence and protecting and supporting victims, generally speaking they did not do so until later. There is also a broad trend in countries in which women's support services came into being some twenty years ago for these organisations to have evolved a certain degree of specialisation. That is, women's shelters are supplemented by additional facilities like counselling centres for battered women, helplines, intervention centres and so on. Moreover, in these countries the women's support services are more or less adequately distributed around the country. The above facilities cannot work effectively without sufficient funding. A comparison of financing arrangements shows that it is only in a few countries (they include Germany, Austria, Sweden, the UK, Ireland, France and Belgium) that women's NGOs receive their basic funding from public funds. However, it should be pointed out that in many cases this funding is assured for the period of one year only and that no legally binding guarantees are given that the funding will continue. In a few countries (Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands are cases in point) women's organisations receive their funding from both public and private sources. Although the various regions of Europe might be said to have certain common factors in this regard, each country can be seen to have its own characteristic structures. A recommendation published by the Committee for Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities in 1986 defines the minimum standard as one shelter place per 10,000 of the population. At present only Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark, the UK and Germany can claim to have a more or less adequate network of women's support organisations. In many other European countries there are only "isolated initiatives which in no way can guarantee care for affected women and children. These countries include Greece and Italy in particular" (from Rosa Logar: Prevention of violence against women: where there's a will, there's a way, unpublished manuscript, 1999). One problem in virtually every country is the unsatisfactory geographical distribution of women's support services. In many cases shelters exist only in the cities, while rural areas have no support facilities at all. "Experience has shown that excessive distances stop battered women from seeking help" (Logar, op. cit.). Women's shelters need to be supplemented by a network of emergency helplines and counselling centres. The candidate countries occupy a special position here. Facilities devoted exclusively to helping the victims of domestic violence only began coming into existence in the last few years. Most of them began life as women's centres or women's rights centres, and many are still incorporated in such organisations. In very few cases do they receive assured funding from the state; generally the public sector provides only a small part of the necessary financial resources. The women's organisations in the candidate countries tend to acquire their funding from international foundations or from programmes run by international agencies like the European Union and the UN (and its agencies). Training of professionals One of the most important aspects of secondary prevention is the training of professionals who come across victims of violence in the course of their duties. The main thrust of the training programmes is the recognition of violence, the optimisation of safety precautions, and learning to deal with victims in the right manner. Such training courses are a regular feature of training or further training in only a very few countries. One field in which training in dealing with domestic violence does feature fairly frequently in basic training curricula is the police force. Special training programmes for police officers are part of basic training in Ireland, Finland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and some other countries. The training courses are usually held by trainers from women's organisations working in the anti-violence field. Generally speaking, they or their organisations draw up their own training syllabus. It is perfectly customary to take over and adapt sections of training programmes which have been successfully used in other (mainly overseas) countries. Regrettably, there are no national training programmes to ensure the uniformity of the programmes within a single country. But at least the trainers co-operate among each other in some countries (such as Austria, Germany, Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands). There is no such co-operation in Finland, Luxembourg, Portugal and elsewhere. One reason for the absence of co-ordinated training programmes is that the courses are held not only by the staff of women's support organisations but also by public institutions. In Finland, for example, the training of professionals is organised very much on a local or regional basis. The Finnish National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) is currently endeavouring to establish uniformity in the training programmes with the help of twelve regional multi-professional teams. At the same time a national training programme is being drawn up. Within the European Union the training programmes are funded primarily by the recipient bodies, although in some cases they amount to a virtually unpaid service provided by the women's support organisations and their staff. In Sweden, Finland, Austria and some other countries, the state gives grants for the purpose. In the Czech Republic no provision has been made for the violence-related training and further training of professionals in any field. Three institutions - the ROSA Foundation, the White Circle of Safety, and the Faculty of Social Work at Prague's Charles University - nevertheless run self-financing courses for police and medical professionals and social workers. These courses deal with the issue of violence, the correct treatment of victims, and experience gained in other countries. In neighbouring Slovakia no training courses have yet taken place, apart from a few seminars and workshops aimed at teachers, police officers and social workers. All the seminars and workshops had to be put on without financial support from the state. The NGOs Aspekt and Pro Familia have likewise run workshops for journalists. Together with Fenestra, they also monitor media coverage of gender issues and violence against women. NGOs do not have to cover the costs of their own training programmes in all of the countries of the former Eastern Bloc. In Slovenia, for instance, state bodies (ministries, municipal and local authorities) provide partial funding. The trainers are provided almost exclusively by NGOs, especially by the SOS Help Line for Women and Children Victims of Violence (Društvo SOS telefon za ženske in otroke - žrtve nasilja), the Association Against Violent Communication (Društvo za nenasilno komunikacijo), and the Women's Counselling Centre (Ženska svetovalnica). However, these courses for police officers, teachers and social workers only have the status of projects and are not permanently incorporated in the standard training and further training curricula of the professional groups concerned. Health care initiatives Health care facilities are frequently the first point of contact for abused and battered women. Many women who have been subjected to violence may go to a doctor's surgery or a first aid point but will not dare to call the police in cases of severe violence. Many of them are not aware of the available support services. It is not enough merely to provide these women with medical care, because they will generally not talk about the true causes of their injuries or symptoms. Training and sensitisation for medical professionals can help them to recognise the tell-tale signs of violence, to deal with the situation appropriately, and to halt the spiral of violence. Moreover, a professional understanding of the impact of domestic violence is a key factor in providing the correct therapy and treatment and for supplying a court of law with usable evidence at a later juncture. The UK, Sweden, Finland and Germany are running exemplary programmes and facilities: clinics and outpatients' departments specialised in dealing with battered women. This entails expert training for the hospital staff and a knowledge of where and how women and their children can be given the necessary protection and support. The pioneering work being carried out by the medical staff at these clinics is producing excellent research material on violence against women. Multi-agency initiatives and intervention projects Carrying out multi-agency initiatives and intervention projects requires a well-developed infrastructure of support services and determination on the part of the facilities and professional groups concerned to combat violence against women. This must be founded upon a comprehensive approach to prevention. The model for all such multi-agency intervention projects is the Duluth Model from Minnesota, USA. The Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP) in Duluth has succeeded in involving all the agencies involved in an intervention in cases of domestic violence. The prime goal is to protect the victims of domestic violence. DAIP has developed a whole range of prevention measures to supplement the networking of the agencies involved: training courses for professionals, support programmes for victims of violence, counselling for other municipalities planning to draw up their own prevention programmes, and perpetrator programmes integrated in court proceedings. Within the EU, it is only in the last few years that multi-agency initiatives have emerged in any significant numbers. The first to be launched was in England. Austria introduced intervention centres in the course of the amendments to the applicable laws in the 1990s. In Germany various model projects for multi-agency initiatives have been carried out. Because very many very different facilities and people are involved in such intervention projects, practical co-operation has to be confined to the local level - municipalities, towns and urban districts. The common goal is to co-ordinate and optimise intervention in cases of domestic violence to the extent that the woman and her children can be given the best possible protection and the perpetrator is made to bear the consequences for his actions. The co-ordinated participation of the various bodies - police, courts, women's support organisations, probation officers and perpetrator programmes - is designed to make the perpetrator realise that society condemns and sanctions his actions. Programmes for perpetrators In addition to those perpetrator programmes which are part of multi-agency initiatives (cf. Section 3.4), there are also individual initiatives devoted exclusively to exploring approaches to dealing with perpetrators. Where Europe is concerned, these initiatives are all very recent, most of them not having been launched until the mid-1990s. Only Britain began working on the perpetrator problem and developing related projects in the late 1980s (cf. Section 3.5). As in the field of multi-agency initiatives, so the work in this field tended to draw on North American models. Another indication that this field of prevention is relatively new is the fact that regular, institution-based programmes exist in only a few countries. The research carried out prior to writing the present publication suggests that there are no substantial initiatives in some countries. These would include all of the candidate countries. However, state bodies are taking an increasing interest in perpetrator programmes. So far as we could ascertain, all of these programmes are funded (wholly or partially) by the public sector. At the international level the EU Commission, for example, supports projects devoted to working with perpetrators under the auspices of its DAPHNE Initiative. One example would be the project "Training and materials for working with perpetrators of domestic violence and their (ex-)partners" carried out by the Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP) in England together with "Mannege" in Berlin / Germany and the "Cork Domestic Violence Project" in Ireland. Sidebar: Prevention in the Candidate Countries In the light of the EU's planned enlargement, the situation in the candidate countries needs to be reviewed separately. For the activists in these countries, accession to the European Union represents an opportunity to urge their governments to put combating violence against women and children at the top of their political agendas, notably in terms of the introduction of uniform standards. As has been shown above, it is non-governmental initiatives and projects which - virtually alone - have hitherto made a public stand against violence against women and sought to halt it. In only very few instances have the NGOs and groups concerned received (financial) support from the public sector. Moreover, almost all of these organisations - particularly those in the feminist field - are very young, having been founded since the fall of the Iron Curtain. It would thus be a substantial advance if a united Europe would formally uphold the individual's right to integrity of the person, especially in the private sphere, by introducing and enforcing generally valid standards. ¹The substance of this section derives primarily from information provided
by the WAVE Focal Points. A detailed survey was carried out in questionnaire
form, its results being supplemented by material from the Internet and from the
secondary literature.
|
S |
Speak to the patient
and signalise your readiness to help. |
|
I |
Interview the patient,
putting simple, practical questions. | |
G |
Make a careful
examination of fresh and old injuries. | |
N |
Note and document all medical findings and information in such a way that they could be used as evidence in court. | |
A |
Establish the
patient's safety requirements. | |
L |
Offer the patient guidelines for personal behaviour together with emergency phone numbers and details of available support facilities. Patients will make use of this when they feel that the time is right. |
Implementation of the Project:
The pilot project is scheduled
to run for two years, during which the Berlin University Clinic serve as the
point of contact for battered women. In the course of the project the following
measures will be implemented:
Training and Supervision
The
S.I.G.N.A.L. Guidelines form the basis for training programmes being held during
the two-year project for nursing and medical staff and other vocational groups
at the University Clinic. The training course units run for two days. The first
courses have been held for the staff of the Admissions / First Aid Department.
Further courses are scheduled for the Gynaecology, Surgical, Traumatology,
Radiology, Psychosomatic and neurology Departments and the Dental Clinic at the
Free University, Berlin. In the first nine months 100 nursing staff completed
the courses. One of the next steps was to hold training courses for the
doctors.
Supervision is
carried out on a voluntary basis. It is provided by the trainers for members of
the hospital staff who have already received training.
Evaluation,
Quality Control and Scientific Monitoring
One aspect of the project is
its continuous scientific monitoring and evaluation. The Federal Ministry of
Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth awarded the relevant contract to the
Public Health Faculty at the Technical University, Berlin. This aspect of the
project began in the spring of 2000.
Networking with Other Projects
aimed at Combating Violence
The pilot project, the first of its kind in
Germany, has aroused lively interest among other hospitals in Berlin. Networking
with other clinics and prevention projects working in the field of combating
violence has been an aspect of this pilot project since its onset. In view of
the positive feedback received, plans have been made to set up a network
designed to co-ordinate the project's implementation at other public health
facilities where there is an interest in doing
so.
Conclusion
One of the positive developments to have
emerged from the launching of this project was the wide range of social
institutions involved. On the one hand, the hospital and its Director of Women's
Affairs seized the initiative, paving the way for the project to be implemented
at a high level of commitment and efficiency. Then again, the deputies of
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in Berlin backed the project, demonstrating political
support at the level of the Berlin municipal government. The women's NGO
Frauenzimmer e.V. was involved from the outset, contributing their substantial
resources of expertise and experience in providing care for women in distress.
Not least, the participation of a Trainer in measures to combat violence helped
to ensure the professional standards of training for the hospital
staff.
The plan to establish
the University Clinic, Berlin - and here most notably the Admission and First
Aid Department - as a point of contact for abused women serves several functions
conducive to combating violence against women:
The outline guidelines for
action list clear, co-ordinated practical responses. The training programme
maximises the effectiveness of the individual steps in the guidelines, from
recognising the signs of violence to talking to the woman, carrying out a
thorough medical examination and compiling documentation usable as evidence in
court. This gives the woman the option of initiating legal proceedings against
the perpetrator whenever she is prepared to do so. The same is true of the
guidelines relating to emergency phone numbers and support facilities with which
the woman is provided. The primary purpose of intervention on the part of the
staff of a medical facility should always be to afford the woman protection with
a view to shielding her from further abuse or to contributing to the halting of
the violence to which she has been
exposed.
Where the financing
of the project is concerned, DM 85,000 for two years is a relatively tight
budget, and the project could not possibly have been carried out without unpaid
voluntary work. This budget has been provided by a non-profit association. The
state has assumed financial responsibility for the scientific monitoring and
evaluation of the project, providing the considerably more generous sum of DM
200,000. While evaluation is undoubtedly a valuable and necessary aspect,
especially with a pilot project - all the more because it may later be realised
on a national scale - there does appear to be an imbalance between the funding
for the project itself and for its scientific monitoring and
evaluation.
The positive
response to the project serves as clear evidence of the need for preventive
action at public health facilities. It is planned to extend the duration of the
project itself, although this will require private funding.
Topic
7: Counselling
Skills Aims: Topic
8: Support
Services3.4 MULTI-AGENCY INITIATIVES AND INTERVENTION PROJECTS
In practice, secondary prevention tends to
amount to intervention. Then again, in every case involving male violence
against women, intervention entails intervening in what is happening in order to
halt the violence and prevent its
recurrence.
The goals of
intervention in all cases of domestic violence should be the following (cf. Rosa
Logar 1999):
With
these goals in mind, several intervention projects have been developed in recent
years. They centre around multi-agency initiatives and approaches to enhancing
the safety of women, using networking and co-operation as apt methods of halting
violence as early as
possible.
The approach of
networking the various bodies and agencies involved in cases of male violence
against women was first adopted systematically in the United States and Canada.
It is now also being widely used in Europe. Logar (1998) and Hague (1996) point
out that women's shelters have been active in the field of violence prevention
for more than twenty-five years and have long since realised the need for the
co-operation of all the agencies involved. "These institutions - many of them
dominated by men - initially showed scant interest in co-operating with women's
support facilities. Fortunately this has since changed, and today the 'male
state' is willing - tentatively at least - to co-operate with feminist women's
organisations" (Logar 1998, p. 144). Regrettably, this does not hold true for
all the EU countries, even less for the applicant countries. The existence of
well-equipped women's support facilities is a prerequisite for comprehensive
intervention
projects.
Intervention models
are effective in preventing violence against women and children first and
foremost insofar as they make the safety of women and their children the primary
target of all intervention-related strategies. Good practice models thus set out
to optimise and co-ordinate the scope for intervention on the part of the
facilities and professionals involved with a view to affording maximum
protection for women and children and making it clear to the perpetrator that
society does not tolerate violence against women and the perpetrator must bear
responsibility for his
behaviour.
The intervention
models presented here pursue several objectives:
Inter-agency co-operation is often
hailed as a whole new approach in halting domestic violence. It should be
remembered, though, that no amount of co-operation will be of significant
benefit unless the requisite resources and support facilities are available
(Logar 1998, p. 144). Important factors in the effectiveness of intervention
models are, on the one hand, clearly defined national and regional guidelines
and adequate financial resources and, on the other hand, the focusing of all
activities on the victims, their interests and needs. Logar (1998, p. 149)
stresses the importance of taking account of the survivors' viewpoint: "They
must not be reduced to objects of networking but must be actors in networking.
It is they who decide whether action and intervention are helpful or not." The
survivors' assessment must be included in the scientific evaluation of the
project concerned.
The
established intervention projects outlined below are examples of successful
approaches to prevention. Any action ultimately aims to protect women and their
children exposed to violence and to avert the recurrence of domestic violence.
Although the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project is a non-European project, it
is included in the present publication because it has served as a model for all
intervention projects of this kind and has also done pioneering work in the
field of training for professionals. One of the first European offshoots was the
London-based Domestic Violence Intervention Project, which has evolved a
comprehensive perpetrator programme and a separate pro-active support programme
for abused women. The Berlin Intervention Project has been funded as a model for
Germany; its pilot phase was completed and evaluated in 1999. For all of the
intervention projects outlined here, detailed evaluations identifying the
projects' advantages and drawbacks are
available.
There are also
several local and regional intervention projects in Germany. We have selected
two: the Hanover Intervention Project, which is co-ordinated by the state
authorities; and the Kiel Intervention Project, which is run by Kiel University.
In the brief survey that follows these, we refer to the Intervention Centres
against Domestic Violence, which were established in Austria in 1997,
concurrently with the Protection against Violence Act. This project is explained
in greater detail in the section 3.2, "State Preventive Action
".
The strategies developed
and the experience gained in the course of these intervention projects are
extremely extensive. We therefore recommend getting in touch with the
co-ordination office of the project concerned and/or ordering the related
studies and publications. Before launching a new project of this kind it would
certainly be advisable to contact the people working with existing projects and
to attend the available training programmes in order to benefit from the
expertise that has already been gained.
Duluth Abuse Intervention Model (DAIP), USA
Title:
Domestic Abuse Intervention Project, Duluth, Minnesota,
USA
Provider:
Minnesota Program Development, Inc., non-profit
corporation
Inception:
1981
Preventive
measures:
Intervention programme against domestic violence
National
Training Project
Perpetrator programme
Initiated by:
Nine city,
county and private agencies in Duluth, Minnesota
Funded by:
Profits
from the National Training Project (seminars, manuals, video tapes, curriculum
materials etc.), sponsorship, donations
Contact:
Domestic Abuse
Intervention Project
202 East Superior Street
Duluth, MN
55802
USA
Phone: +1 218 7222781
web site:
http://www.duluth-model.org
The American pilot project Domestic Abuse
Intervention Project (DAIP) is a "comprehensive, community-based program for
intervention in domestic abuse cases" (cf. the above-listed website, October 17,
2000). The aim of the Minnesota Program Development, Inc., a non-profit
corporation, is to eliminate domestic violence against women and their children.
The focus of intervention is to protect the
victim.
Implementation
When the first shelters for battered
women were founded in the 1970's, the response of the law enforcement bodies,
courts and human services practitioners (social workers, psychologists etc) was
inadequate. The fundamental finding to emerge from a study of violence against
women was that "brutal beatings, psychological terrorism and murders (...) could
have been prevented by altering not the perpetrator's character or the response
of the victim, but the reaction of the public agencies to the violence, to the
perpetrator and to the victim" (www.duluth-model.org/ntpmain.htm). There was a
need for new policies and protocols to combat violence against women and their
children.
It was only in the
wake of a particularly brutal "domestic murder" which deeply shocked the city of
Duluth that any willingness to meet this daunting challenge became apparent. In
1981 nine city, county and private agencies decided to pool their resources
under the auspices of the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP). Every
single measure adopted and regulation passed by each of the institutions and
people involved was subjected to scrutiny in terms of its effectiveness in
enhancing the safety of women and their children (safety audit). Survivors of
domestic violence were invited to make a substantial contribution to this
evaluation process. What emerged was that the most effective approaches were
those which combined support services for victims, legal sanctions, non-violence
classes, and when necessary incarceration to end the violence. The message of
all these efforts is: the use of violence is
unacceptable!
Networking
DAIP co-ordinates agencies and
practitioners who respond to domestic violence. Community agencies include the
"communications centre (emergency call 911), the police department, the prison,
the prosecutor's office, the sheriff's department, the probation department, the
women's shelter, the public health department, the district bench, and several
mental health agencies" (www.duluth-model.org/ntpmain.htm). All intervention
procedures are founded on answers to the following questions: Who is doing harm
to whom? How dangerous is the situation? Who needs
protection?
The above
agencies intervene on the basis of guiding principles, the most important of
which is the protection of the victim. The co-operation of individual
practitioners, guided by training, job descriptions and standardised practices,
is the key to effective community response to violence against
women.
Non-violence programme
The DAIP perpetrators' programme
is founded on a pro-feminist approach: its top priority is the protection of
women. The women's shelters, their staff and residents co-operate closely with
DAIP and are involved in the training programme and the selection of the DAIP
staff. The rehabilitation of individual male perpetrators accounts for only
twenty-five per cent of the total DAIP budget (cf. Ritmeester, in Pence/Paymar
1993, p. 170).
The
non-violence programme includes classes for offenders who are court-ordered to
DAIP. The core of the programme is a 24-week educational curriculum called
"Power and Control: Tactics of Men Who Batter". In addition, DAIP contacts
partners of the men and offers advocacy, community resources, and a women's
group (for more on programmes for perpetrators, see the section
3.5).
National Training Project
The National Training Project
was established in 1989. Since then the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project has
responded to thousands of requests for information and guidance. The project has
offered seminars, training and workshops in fifteen countries and has provided
training for staff of domestic violence and community agencies in all fifty
states of the US. The curricula for the training seminars have been designed for
various target groups and communities. There are several general and specialised
training courses. The general training courses focus on providing a
philosophical orientation for practitioners and define the roles of each agency
in dealing with both the victim and the perpetrator. The specialised training
courses offer an overview of the interagency approach but focus on enhancing the
individual practitioner's skills and philosophical orientation in carrying out
specific intervention functions. In addition, DAIP provides a one-day
interagency training course for communities.
Concluding
Remarks
In 15 years more than 1,000 training courses and seminars
have been held in the U.S. and more than ten in other countries. Ellen Pence and
Michael Paymar (1993) have summarised evaluation efforts in their book
'Education Groups for Men Who Batter'.
The overall findings that have
emerged from the evaluation of DAIP are:
60% of battered women felt safer
when the abuser was attending non-violence classes.
80% of battered women
thought the combined responses of police, courts, DAIP and shelter was helpful
in ending the abuse.
69% of battered women had not experienced recent
physical abuse and 41% had not experienced recent psychological abuse at a
one-year follow-up.
The recidivism rate was 40% for a five-year follow-up
according to criminal justice records.
(Source:
www.duluth-model.org/daipeval.htm,
17.10.2000).
The Domestic
Abuse Intervention Project is an on-going project which evaluates intervention
procedures on a permanent basis. It is encouraging that large sections of
society and the public institutions like the police and the courts have been
willing to rethink their intervention strategies, to allow battered women,
women's support organisations and experts to review them and ultimately to adopt
new, joint approaches.
Given
its comprehensive and innovative approach, the Domestic Abuse Intervention
Project has served as a model for the majority of European intervention projects
relating to the field of male violence against women and their
children.
Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP), U.K.
Title:
Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP)
Provider:
Domestic Violence Intervention Project, London,
U.K.
Inception:
1991
Preventive measures:
Women's
Support Service
Perpetrator programme
Training of
professionals
Lobbying and Campaigning
Initiated by:
Voluntary
sector project (group of activists)
Funded by:
Partnership with
Middlesex Probation Service
London Borough of Hammersmith &
Fulham
National Lottery Charities Board
DAPHNE Funding from the European
Commission
The Staples Trust
Single Regeneration Bid - for working in the
Paddington area of London
Individual donations
Income generation from
training and consultancy work
Contact:
Domestic Violence
Intervention Project
P.O. Box 2838
GB-London W6 9ZE
England
Phone
for women's support service: +44 20 87486512
Phone for perpetrator programme:
+44 20 85637983
Fax: +44 20 87414383
E-mail: info@dvip.org
Website:
http://www.dvip.org
The Domestic Violence Intervention Project
combines a Violence Prevention Project (VPP) working with men and a Women's
Support Service (WSS) working with partners of men on VPP and women who
self-refer. The overall philosophy is to increase women's safety and reduce
men's violence.
Implementation
The Domestic Violence
Intervention Project was set up in 1991 by a group of volunteer activists. It
centres around a perpetrator programme combined with a women's support service
for the partners and victims of
offenders.
The Violence
Prevention Programme (VPP) addresses men who are abusive to their partners
or ex-partners. It offers structured group sessions designed to assist men in
understanding why they use abusive behaviour, and how they can change and work
towards constructing respectful relationships with women. Whilst a significant
proportion of men were referred to VPP by the Probation Service, the majority
referred to the programme voluntarily - many in this category had been given
some form of ultimatum by their
partner.
The programme
comprises a 12-week first-stage focusing on physical violence and a 24-week
second stage addressing other forms of abuse and controlling behaviour patterns.
Movement between the stages is neither fixed nor automatic but depends on the
man's involvement with the programme, his motivation and behaviour. An optional
fortnightly third stage is available for men who want to reinforce any changes
they have made.
Two basic
conditions apply for men to be accepted in the programme: some willingness on
their part to question denying their own responsibility and blaming their
partner; and at least some awareness that they alone are responsible for the
violence. (Source: Burton / Regan / Kelly
1998)
The Women's
Support Service (WSS) addresses women whose partners attend the VPP and all
women who live in the local area (Hammersmith and Fulham, Peterborough). The
Women's Support Service provides: telephone advice; one-to-one counselling;
group work; advocacy; and on-going telephone support. Individuals choose the
particular combination of support they need. (Source: Burton / Regan / Kelly
1998)
The pro-active aspect of WSS has several elements:
The advantages of pro-active work are:
- that this is
violence
- that violence is unacceptable
- that violence is not the
woman's fault.
Further tasks of the Domestic Violence Intervention
Project are:
DVIP is involved in several inter-agency projects.
Training programme for professionals
which aims to promote best practice among those who work with issues of
domestic violence in both statutory and voluntary agencies.
DVIP works to
influence policy at all levels - across local and national government and
within statutory bodies such as the Police, Probation and Social Services.
Campaigning work focuses on increasing the safety of women and children who
experience domestic violence.
Concluding Remarks
The
Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit at the University of London evaluated the
DVIP (Burton / Regan / Kelly 1998) and reached the following conclusions:
The
pro-active approach whereby WSS made initial contact and maintained contact over
time pulled women into support services at an earlier point and enabled them to
make changes which enhanced their safety. Women did not resent a pro-active
approach; indeed many welcomed
it.
Women benefited from the
combination of forms of support, with support groups being the most effective in
combating shame, self-blame and the destruction of self-belief which can
strongly inhibit women's attempts to end
violence.
Many service users
noted that WSS's uncompromising messages about the nature of domestic violence
had helped them to recognise their need for
support.
WSS was effective in
reaching women from ethnic minorities and women with professional
qualifications, two groups which currently under-use other forms of
provision.
The fact that VPP
accepted men who 'voluntarily' referred themselves was important for women, who
could demand attendance as a condition for the relationship
continuing.
Over two thirds
of the 351 men referred to the programme failed to complete it. Losses were most
significant in the early
stages.
There was a
substantial impact on attitudes and behaviour for most men who did complete the
programme. From men's own accounts, in some cases confirmed by their partners,
there would appear to be some real change in their understanding of domestic
violence.
The researchers
conclude that programmes for violent men, when combined with pro-active
responses to women, have a part in co-ordinated responses to domestic violence.
However, work with men should not be undertaken without an attached support
service for women, and there should be routes onto programmes for voluntarily
referred men.
Over two years,
with a small resource base (two part-time workers and volunteers), WSS was in
contact with 796 women. One-third were partners of men on the VPP programme, the
majority made contact independently.
Drop-out rate
VPP has a
marked drop-out rate, especially between assessment and initial attendance.
Under half (43 per cent) of the men who were accepted actually completed the
programme.
There is a
significant loss in the early weeks of the first stage group. Most of these are
'voluntarily referred' men whose primary motivation in attending the programme
may have been to prevent their partner leaving them. If they are successful, or
if the woman leaves anyway, they may see no further reason to
continue.
High drop-out rates
are reported features of men's programmes in the UK and USA, with an average
loss of at least 50 per cent. Finding ways to decrease drop-out is a major
challenge for all programmes working with violent men.
What
works
Within VPP the combination of court-mandated and 'voluntarily
referred' men has been productive and facilitated enhanced motivation in some
court-mandated men.
The most
effective tool used by VPP has been 're-enactments', in which men have to act
out an incident and go through it again in slow motion. The point of the
exercise - to reveal that decisions are made at various points - is communicated
to most group
members.
However, 'time outs'
(the man is supposed to take an hour away from the situation if he is about to
be violent, informing his partner that this is what he is doing) are used in
abusive and controlling ways by a number of men. 'Time outs' are a very common
component of work with violent men; this finding suggests that alternatives to
them and/or mechanisms for ensuring that they are not used as new forms of
control should urgently be explored.
The content of the VPP programme has
been fairly effective in communicating its key messages and in offering men
alternatives to violence. From men's own accounts, in some cases confirmed by
information supplied by their partners, there would appear to be some real
change in their understanding of domestic violence.
Ending violence
and ending relationships safely
The data from VPP, and from some of the
men's partners, suggests that where men can be kept in the group, and especially
if they complete both the first and second stage elements, physical violence
decreases dramatically, and some men change in more fundamental
ways.
A critical question is
whether changes in men should be the sole criterion of 'success' for men's
programmes. This study suggests that participation, especially where the project
has a dedicated women's service, creates a window of opportunity for
relationships to end safely. Men's programmes may make this possible because
they immediately lower the level of violence, and because they explicitly
encourage men either to leave, or at least not to interfere or intimidate women
when they decide to leave. The importance of this contribution to women's safety
should not be underestimated, since separation is the most dangerous time for
women and children.
Additional projects:
RESPECT
At informal meetings of the National Practitioners'
Network (NPN), of which DVIP is a founder member, the idea was raised of
establishing a national organisation as the "voice of the sector". With this
goal in mind, a Steering Group was set up in 1998. "Respect" applied for
registration as a charity organisation in
2000.
Respect's primary goals
are (cf. http://www.dvip.org/respect.html)
DAPHNE project 1999/2000:
Training and materials
for working with perpetrators of domestic violence and their
(ex-)partners
The aim of the DVIP Daphne project was the "promotion
of the best domestic violence intervention practice within the UK and across
other EC countries" (http://www.dvip.org/daphne.html). Partners are 'Mannege' in
Berlin and the 'Cork Domestic Violence Project', Ireland. In the first stage
DVIP produced a comprehensive manual which covers principles, procedural
information, policy considerations, organisational and structural issues as well
as service delivery to men, women and children in a domestic violence
intervention setting.
The adaptation of the DVIP manual for Germany and
Ireland was followed by training courses in those countries, complemented by a
closing seminar in London.
Berlin Intervention Project against Domestic Violence (BIG),
Germany
Title:
Berliner Interventionsprojekt gegen häusliche
Gewalt - BIG
Provider:
Berliner Initiative gegen Gewalt gegen
Frauen, BIG e.V., Germany
Duration:
October 1995 - December
1999
Preventive measures:
Networking police and judicial
intervention procedures and developing new strategies
Promoting co-operation
among institutions and professionals involved in the form of round table
discussions and expert meetings
Providing training courses for
professionals
Initiated by:
Berliner Intiative gegen Gewalt gegen
Frauen - BIG e.V.
Funded by:
Federal Ministry of Family, Senior
Citizens', Women's and Youth Affairs
Berlin Senate Department for Labour,
Vocational Training and Womenbr>
Contact:
Koordinationsstelle
des Berliner Interventionsprojektes gegen häusliche Gewalt
Paul-Lincke-Ufer
7
D-10999 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 61709100
BIG Hotline: +49 30
6110300
Fax: +49 30 61709101
e-mail: bigteam@snafu.de
The primary objective of the "Berlin
Intervention Project against Domestic Violence (BIG)" was to promote
co-operation among women's protection projects, administrative departments of
the Berlin Senate, the police, the judicial authorities and other projects and
institutions whose work involves them in individual aspects of domestic
violence. The main thrust of the project related to reformulating and networking
police, legal and social procedures.
Implementation
In 1993
a number of active members of the women's movement in West and East Berlin got
together to launch a working group. It was made up of shelter workers and
workers at other refuge facilities and counselling centres as well as of women
and men working in the anti-violence field. Their objective was to develop new
approaches and strategies to combat male violence in private relationships. They
argued: "Effective protection for women who have been exposed to violence and
for their children will be possible only if society - and also the judicial
authorities - unequivocally condemn domestic violence and if the perpetrators
are made to bear the consequences of their actions." (BIG e.V. Co-ordination
Team 1998, p. 40). The association "Berliner Initiative gegen Gewalt gegen
Frauen - BIG e.V." was established in 1994 to carry out the project planned by
the working group.
The
primary goal of the Berlin Intervention Project was to enhance the protection
and safety of women exposed to domestic violence. An important principle here
was the perception that men must be made to bear responsibility for their
violence. An improvement in the protection for battered women - in both short
and long terms - is feasible only if society unequivocally condemns violence and
attaches the blame for it on the perpetrator. Thus, the project set out both to
prevent violence and to reduce the incidence of violence in the domestic
context.
The project's aims included:
The Special Nature of the
Project
These aims comprised a fundamentally different social
approach to dealing with domestic violence; they required a change of
institutional and project-related
attitudes.
The institutions
and political decision-making bodies were called upon to take domestic violence
and violent men as perpetrators seriously by regarding them as a political and
social problem which could not be left to the responsibility of women and
women's projects
alone.
Institutions and
projects were jointly required to agree on target-oriented co-operation with
each other and to establish a broad alliance of all powers in
society.
This co-operation
gave rise to a wide variety of police and penal and civil law measures as well
as political and social action against male violence in the domestic sphere. All
these measures were linked in order to be effective. They were particularly
targeted at the legal domain and ranged from acute intervention to ways away
from violence which prove successful on a long-term
basis.
The realisation of
these ideas was planned in terms of the following practical steps, whose
implementation was discussed by the bodies concerned:
Organisation and
Structure
The Berlin Intervention Project's principal co-ordination
and decision-making body was the Round Table. Its meetings were convened
by the Federal Ministry of Family, Senior Citizens', Women's and Youth Affairs
and the Berlin Senate Department for Labour, Vocational Training and
Women.
The Round Table was
made up of representatives of the Federal Government, the State Government, the
Berlin State Commission against Violence, representatives of the project's
expert groups and plenary board, and the BIG co-ordinators (who had no voting
rights) (Kavemann et al.
1999).
The project was headed
by the Co-ordination Office of the Berlin Intervention Project (BIG). The
co-ordination team consisted of legal experts and qualified pedagogic
specialists. They were responsible for: preparing and heading the expert groups;
providing material; maintaining the flow of information throughout the project;
co-ordinating the intervention measures as drawn up by the project; and
preparing the Round Table sessions. The Co-ordination Office also liased with
the project provider, carried out the public relations work as it related to the
expert groups and the project, and performed representative duties on behalf of
the project as a whole. Moreover, the co-ordinators held the further training
seminars for specific groups of professionals, most notably for the police and
professionals in the legal field, and acted as "mediators" between the
representatives of the Berlin Senate departments and the staff of the women's
support organisations.
Seven
Expert Groups existed for the duration of the project. They dealt with
the following fields: police intervention, civil law, prosecution and penal law,
migrant women, support programmes, children and young people, and the
perpetrator programme.
The
Expert Groups were recruited on an inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional
basis and were composed of 120 experts from Senate departments, anti-violence
projects and other bodies and facilities. The primary goal was to evolve new
strategies and procedures for intervention. All of the Expert Groups pursued a
joint goal: "to formulate proposals relating to their specific target groups /
professional groups on an approach to ensuring that domestic violence is taken
seriously and treated with the appropriate professionalism" (Kavemann et al.
1999, p. 8). A further objective was to extend the scope of co-operation between
the various bodies and to identify gaps in the available
services.
The most important
principle governing the work of all the groups involved was the principle of
consensus.
Concluding Remarks
In February 2000 Beate
Leopold, one of the BIG scientific supervisors, reported on the project's
success in a lecture which she delivered at the invitation of the Ministry of
Culture, Youth, Family and Women's Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior and
Sport (cf. Frauenhaus-Koordinierung 2000, p.
20).
The Berlin Intervention
project's most significant achievement has been to establish continuous and
systematic co-operation. The support programmes available to battered women in
Berlin have been substantially improved by such measures as the publication of
new information material and the existence of a hotline, which was launched in
November 1999. The "BIG Hotline for domestic violence against women" operates
between 9 a.m. and midnight on 365 days a year, providing information,
counselling and support for women and their children exposed to male violence.
The primary goal is the protection and empowerment of battered women and their
children. The Hotline also involves the public authorities, social institutions
and facilities as well as individuals from the victim's private and social
environment.
Another of the
project's achievements is that for the first time children were treated as a
target group in their own right, with their own support needs. Significant
advances were made in co-operation among the professionals involved in dealing
with domestic violence; their work has improved as a result, and the
beneficiaries are the victims. Such improvements include a joint platform of
communication, mutual recognition of competence, and the availability of
training and further training
programmes.
BIG prompted
important changes in the relevant institutional regulations in Berlin from which
the victims of violence benefit. But the project also brought about improvements
for victims of domestic violence on a wider geographical scale, in the form of
draft legislation, standardised legal application forms (for civil law
injunctions, for instance), and information
sheets.
The last session of
the Round Table also reached a positive evaluation of the project. In
addition to the achievements listed above, the Round Table noted that the
classification of police intervention in cases of violence within the family had
been renamed, from "Family conflict" to "Domestic violence". Moreover,
guidelines have been issued for police action on domestic violence, and special
further training courses for police officer and judicial professionals have been
held on the implementation of these guidelines. Information sheets have been
published for victims explaining the available protection measures under civil
law and the scope for prosecution under penal
law.
Outlook
Patricia Schneider, one of the BIG co-ordinators,
has defined the new goals and targets established after the project ended on
December 31, 1999. The new model project, which began on January 1, 2000, will
run for two years. The aims are to introduce new aspects and improvements in
three main areas (Frauenhaus-Koordinierung 2000, pp. 21f):
Further objectives will include:
introducing an extensive range of seminars for the training and further training
of professionals, most notably police officers and judicial professionals;
intensive public relations work to continue breaking down the taboo surrounding
the issue of domestic violence; and a review of the effectiveness of the
measures formulated during the first model project (1995-1999).
Survey
of Other Intervention Projects:
There follow outlines of a number of
other evaluated projects carried out in EU countries. They are representative of
many other such projects. For further details, see the References
below.
Title: Interventionsstellen gegen Gewalt in der Familie,
Austria
Inception: 1997
Preventive measures:
Ten Intervention Centres throughout
Austria as social back-up facilities in conjunction with the Protection from
Violence Act (see Section 3.2)
Their primary functions are:
Pro-active
contact with the victims of domestic violence as well as counselling and support
for victims after barring orders and police intervention.
Information on the
implementation of the Protection against Violence Act
Assistance in dealing
with the authorities, submitting applications to the court, and supporting the
victim during court proceedings
Support in proceedings affecting the
children
Networking and co-operation with representatives of individual
bodies under the auspices of inter-disciplinary working groups (e.g. expert
groups on police, civil law, penal law, migrant women, and
perpetrators)
Information activities and material on domestic
violence.
Contact:
Interventionsstelle Wien
Amerlingstrasse 1/6
A-1060
Vienna
Austria
Phone: +43 1 5853288
Fax: +43 1 5853288-20
E-mail: istwien@magnet.at
Title: Hannoversches InterventionsProjekt gegen Männergewalt in der
Familie - HaIP, Germany
Inception:
1992
Preventive measures:
Network-based intervention involving all
the relevant bodies
Holding training programmes for police and setting up the
prevention programme Police Social Work, a separate police department within the
Police Headquarters with responsibility for psycho-social crisis intervention in
cases dealt with by the police
Perpetrator programme: social training
programme for violent men on a voluntary basis and/or referral to the
perpetrator-victim conciliation programme where deemed
appropriate
Establishing an empowerment office for women
Contact:
Hannoversches InterventionsProjekt gegen
MännerGewalt in der Familie - HAIP
Co-ordination: Ms
Vollmer-Schubert
Frauenbüro der Landeshauptstadt
Friedrichswall
15
D-30159 Hanover
Germany
Phone: +49 511 16845301
Fax: +49 511
16846699
Title: Kieler Interventionsprojekt (KIK) gegen häusliche Gewalt an
Frauen, Germany
Inception:
1994
Preventive measures:
Networking the bodies and professionals
involved in intervention procedures
Rigorous and timely application of the
applicable laws
Information and support for women
Condemnation /
penalisation of male violence
Contact:
KIK-Schleswig Holstein - Landeskoordination
Dr. Siegfried
Schmitt
Neufeldstrasse 32
D-24118 Kiel
Germany
Phone: +49 431
8804611
Fax: +49 431 8807608
E-mail: kik-sh@email.uni-kiel.de
Website:
http://www.kik-sh.uni-kiel.de
3.5 PROGRAMMES FOR PERPETRATORS
The need for and efficacy of programmes
for perpetrators of violence are contested issues. There are several reasons for
opposition to them: the existing shortage of resources for measures to combat
violence; fears that the thrust of socio-political efforts might be diverted
away from the victims in favour of the perpetrators; and the risk of endangering
the victims. Monica Wilson, one of the initiators of the first European
perpetrator programme CHANGE, formulates the misgivings this way: "Once men's
work started being resourced, it was feared, work with women and children
survivors of their crimes would suffer. Politicians would be able to say that
this was the avenue for reform that was now being pursued and that women would
no longer need refuge and support as men would stop being violent. Also, given
the attraction of these new ideas, work with men was likely to invite far more
media atten-tion than the continuing struggle to keep work with women and
children on the public agenda." (Monica Wilson: Working with the CHANGE men's
programme, in: Kate Cavanagh / Viviene E. Cree (eds.): Working with men.
Feminism and social work, London and New York 1996, pp.
30-31).
Moreover, doubts
have been voiced whether men are actually "reformed" when they complete these
programmes and return to their partnerships. It is a fact that many women remain
in violent partnerships for years and/or do not call the police precisely
because their partners promise to change. If the judicial system defines a
violent partner's behaviour as criminal and forces him to bear the consequences
of his actions, this often helps the victim to leave the abusive relationship.
However, a perpetrator programme and the hopes which it nurtures that the
perpetrator might change can in fact be a hindrance to her
leaving.
This is the crux of
the most persuasive argument in favour of programmes for perpetrators. Many
women are in favour of their violent partners attending a programme of this
kind. They have no desire to leave the relationship and hope that their
partners' behaviour will
change.
In Europe the debate
on the possibility of active intervention in the form of dealing with
perpe-trators did not begin until the mid-1980s. By that time the discussion had
been going on for more than a decade in North America. However, most American
initiatives adopted a therapeutic approach, clas-sifying violence more as an
illness and prescribing individual "treatment". However, some projects - like
the Duluth Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP, see Section 3.3) - regarded male
violence in a wider social context and related it to gender inequality. The
focus of their intervention work was thus to con-vey a new social understanding
based on equality and mutual respect. Most European initiatives work-ing with
perpetrators adopted this approach.
MODEL PROJECT
Title:
CHANGE, Scotland
CHANGE
Provider:
CHANGE - Men learning to
end their violence to women
Inception:
1989
Preventive
measures:
Programme of re-education for violent men
Support services
for women
Initiated by:
A steering group of academics, activists
and other interested individuals
Funded by:
1989-1996 Social Work
Department of the Central Regional Council
1999-2002 grant under Section 9 of
the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968
Contact:
CHANGE
4-6 South
Lumley Street
Grangemouth, FK3 8BT
Scotland
Phone:
++44-1324-485595
Fax: ++44-1324-486344
E-mail:
monica@changeweb.org.uk
Website:
http://www.changeweb.org.uk
Taking the experience of existing projects
in North America and the results of feminist research as starting-points, the
instigators of CHANGE worked on the assumption that "men's violence to women
partners is behaviour which they have learned in the context of our patriarchal
culture, their socialisa-tion as men and their personal experiences. It is
neither natural nor inevitable, but cultural in origin (Wilson, op. cit., p.
33)." The experience gathered by the CHANGE team also persuaded them to
en-shrine the programme in the criminal justice system.
Aims and
methods
CHANGE sets out to uphold the insight "that men must change their
attitudes, beliefs and associated behaviours if they are to live non-violently
with women partners. […..] Locating the work within the justice system is
intended to impact not just on violent men, but also on the institutions which
dispense justice" (Wilson, op. cit., p. 33).
On the one hand CHANGE argues in
favour of prison sentences in that they make the point unequivocally that
violence against women is a criminal offence. Moreover, while the perpetrator is
serving a prison term, his partner has the chance to organise her life in the
knowledge that she is safe. On the other hand, it has been shown that prison
terms do little to bring about a change in behaviour. This is where CHANGE sees
its opportunity: "By making attendance at the men's programme contin-gent upon
charge, prosecution and conviction, and carrying the sanction of a probation
condition, the criminal nature of domestic violence is emphasised and this
communicates a very important message to the community" (Wilson, op. cit., p.
34).
The aims of the CHANGE men's programme are thus:
Implementation
For the first six months the focus of work
was on liaising with other agencies whose co-operation would be required, and
drafting the men's programme. CHANGE received support from Scottish Women's Aid.
Then there were numerous discussions with Social Work managers, the Police,
Procu-rators Fiscal and Sheriffs. The main referral sources for the men's
programme were to be the three Sheriff Courts, systems for referral and
assessment were agreed, and referral frameworks were de-vised for the Courts'
use. Finally, the staff received intensive training and visited three model
pro-gramme centres in the USA. (Source:
www.changeweb.org.uk/change_mens'_programme.htm).
The
programme had "an educational-style curriculum" and "operated using a modular
ap-proach". Men were required to attend sixteen to twenty-two sessions in order
to complete the pro-gramme. They signed a contract called the Agreement to
Participate, which clearly outlined the rules and requirements of the programme.
Breaking or failing to comply with any of them constituted grounds for a breach
of the probation order. The transgression was reported to the supervising social
workers who would formally instigate breach procedures. The final sanction was
with the courts (Source: Wilson, op. cit., p.
35).
At the end of the CHANGE
programme a Training Manual was produced which documented the skills and
knowledge gained so that they might be preserved, developed and disseminated
among other professionals.
Evaluation
The impact of the CHANGE
men's programme has been compared with other criminal justice sanc-tions such as
fines, probation and prison. Researchers Dobash, Dobash, Cavanagh and Lewis
per-ceived a notable correspondence between the goals of the programme and the
process of change. Change in the men was backed by evidence provided by women
partners. The researchers reached the conclusion that "a significant proportion
of the offenders who participated in the men's programmes reduced their violence
and associated controlling behaviour and their women partners reported
significant improvements in the quality of their lives and their relationships
with these men" (Source:
www.changeweb.org.uk/change_mens'_programme.htm).
Follow-up
In
November 1998 the Austrian Family Ministry formalised an agreement with the
authors and pub-lisher to translate the CHANGE Manual into German for internal
use. CHANGE also undertook the training for the staff running the STOP pilot
men's programme in Salzburg (Source:
www.changeweb.org.uk/about_change.htm).
CHANGE
is currently funded to deliver a National Training Initiative to promote
effective prac-tice by Scottish local authority Criminal Justice Services in
their work with male domestic violence offenders. It also offers consultancy and
a range of training courses varying from one-day awareness-raising sessions to
special in-depth training for staff facilitating a programme for male domestic
vio-lence offenders. CHANGE is also a founding member of RESPECT, a UK-wide
organisation for practi-tioners and organisations working with perpetrators of
domestic violence and associated work with women partners and ex-partners
(Source: www.changeweb.org.uk).TO TOP OF PAGE
4. WAVE TRAINING PROGRAMME ON COMBATING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Title:
WAVE Training Programme on Combating Violence
Against Women Basic Module and Vocation-specific Modules for Law Enforcement,
Judicial, Medical and Psycho-social Professionals
Project carried out
by:
Autonomous Austrian Women's Shelter Network / WAVE
Office
Duration:
Started in 2000, ongoing
Type of
prevention-related measure:
Training course for professionals who deal
with violence against women
Initiated by:
Autonomous Austrian
Women's Shelter Network / WAVE Office under the auspices of the DAPHNE
Initiative 1999
Financed by:
EU Commission DAPHNE
Initiative
Austrian Federal Ministry for Social Security and Generations
(Former Federal Minister for Women's Affairs and Former Federal Ministry for
Labour and Social Affairs)
Austrian Federal Ministry for the
Interior
Contact:
WAVE Office
c/o Austrian Women's Shelter
Network / Information Centre Against Violence
Hofgasse 9/1/4
A-1050
Vienna
Phone: ++43-1-5482720
Fax: ++43-1-5482720-27
E-mail: wave(AT)xpoint.at
Website: http://www.wave-network.org
Background to the
project
The training programme has been drawn up as part of a project
carried out by the WAVE Office in Vienna and funded by the EU Commission's
DAPHNE Initiative. It came about as part of WAVE's European-wide activities and
in close collaboration with experts from the member organisations of the
European Network Against Violence.
Objectives and Scope
The
training manual contains basic information and training material relating to the
issue of violence against women in intimate relationships. It is designed for
use in training and further training courses for professionals in various
fields.
Special importance
attaches to training and consciousness-raising for professionals dealing with
the victims of violence against women and children as an effective means of
preventing such violence. Confidence and professionalism in handling appeals for
help and the provision of fast and efficient support can alleviate the hardships
and in some cases avoid further violence (tertiary
prevention).
Given the
divergent standards in use and the (partial) lack of resources in the training
field, the WAVE staff decided to address the need for a good practice model
capable of being applied throughout Europe which would be provided to selected
trainers after completion of a Train-the-trainer seminar.
The purpose of the project is to
collate the available experience in training professionals and to use it in the
compilation of a uniform training
manual.
In carrying out this
project, WAVE is seeking to facilitate European women's NGOs' access to training
expertise, to develop uniform standards wherever possible, and to offset
regional deficits.
The introductory chapter of the training manual
defines its primary targets as follows:
Sensitivity
For about
one European woman in five, abuse, harassment, terrorisation, threats and
violence on the part of husbands, ex-husbands, partners or other male members of
the household are daily experiences. Even if we don't always realise or notice
it, we ourselves come into contact with such women, either professionally or in
our private lives - as neighbours, relatives or friends. We may be affected by
violence ourselves. One major objective of training courses is thus to enhance
awareness of the issue.
Considering violence as a possible cause of
problems
In recent years a great deal of work has been done in some
European countries to publicise information about and promote understanding of
the issue of violence against women. Nevertheless, the problem continues for the
most part to be concealed beneath a blanket of silence. Many women feel
uncomfortable speaking about what has been or is being done to them. They are
reluctant to talk about it, out of a sense of shame or guilt or because they
have been intimidated into keeping it to themselves. However, precisely this
barrier of silence makes it more difficult to perceive the links between the
problems with which women turn to doctors, social workers or other professionals
and the violence which they have suffered.
Effective assistance for
victims of violence
Domestic violence is one of the most frequent and at
the same time one of the least publicised criminal acts in our society. The
abused person and the abuser were or are linked by a very close relationship.
The impact of violence is thus particularly devastating, and any assistance
offered from outside must be extremely cautious and sensitive. The decisive
factors here will be not only professional knowledge of the problems involved
but also and above all the ability to perceive and respond to the victim's
needs.
Protection and help in acute crisis; perception of
danger
Acts of violence can take place during the couple's first
meetings. They can occur in the early stages of a relationship or only after
years of living together. In many cases there are extended periods of "peace"
between the outbreaks of violence. In other cases the woman is subjected to
violence night after night. If victims of violence are to be given effective
assistance in critical situations, it is essential that the danger to which the
woman is exposed is recognised as such and taken seriously and that immediate
steps are undertaken to afford her protection and
security.
Reappraising one's own attitudes
Professional
assistance for victims of violence requires a reappraisal of one's own attitudes
on the subject of violence against women. One purpose of training programmes
must be to help the participants to identify their own attitudes and value
judgements and to reappraise and fine-tune these with the aid of the insights
gained during the training course. In developing one's approach to the issue,
the most important thing will be to become aware of one's own preconceptions and
stereotypical ideas, since these can impair the quality of one's work with
victims of violence. Inadequate attention, openness and sense of responsibility
can prevent women from receiving the assistance they need until a time when the
violence has reached a more drastic stage. It is necessary to dismantle
preconceptions about "violence against women" in order to achieve a balanced mix
of providing support, meeting professional obligations (such as notifying the
police) and living up to one's own responsibilities.
Co-operation and
networking
As has been explained, violence against women is an extremely
complex problem. The diversity of forms of violence alone means that each
situation requires a different kind of assistance and that in many cases several
persons and institutions will have to be involved in the support process.
Professionals need to have a thorough knowledge of the problems entailed in
order to provide the appropriate help, but they must also be able to draw on
comprehensive resources of basic information which they can pass on to the
victim. Often the violence itself and the problems to which it gives rise
(homelessness, shortage of money etc.) are not the only difficulties with which
the victim has to contend. Assisting such women necessitates an
inter-disciplinary approach calling for co-operation with the staff of a wide
variety of facilities and institutions. The effective collaboration of all the
bodies involved is essential in ensuring that the victim and her children can be
given a maximum of protection and security.
Training as a means of
bringing about change
Sensitisation and the transmission of effective
intervention strategies are key aspects of training programmes. Over and above
these, though, it is important to devote due attention to the preventive aspects
of training curricula. Training obviously plays a key role in secondary and
tertiary prevention. Secondary prevention encompasses the provision of
individual assistance in acute and potential situations of conflict and crisis
with a view to preventing acts of violence. Tertiary prevention relates to the
prevention of further violence or to "damage containment" (Taskinen, 1987,
quoted in: Egger et al, 1995). In practice this means first and foremost
sensitising those professionals to whom victims turn. Tertiary prevention
increases the likelihood that the problem is detected and ways of providing
support are found before the violence escalates. Training courses are intended
to foster a climate which makes it easier for women to talk about their
experiences and to feel respected with all their insecurities, misgivings and
feelings of shame and guilt. Another aim of training programmes is to help bring
about a climate in which violence against women - and other forms of violence -
are no longer tolerated, are condemned and are combated with all the appropriate
means available. In this sense training programmes also contribute to primary
prevention.
The introduction
details not only the objectives but also the principles applicable to the
training programme and to action to combat violence against
women.
Important Principles for Action to Prevent
Violence
One's approach and personal attitudes to a problem are key
factors in one's ability to pass on knowledge and skills related to it. Trainers
therefore need to subject their own basic standpoint on the subject of violence
against women to a critical reappraisal. An unequivocal stance on violence
against women and children and against violence in any other form is a basic
requirement for eligibility to run training courses. The following section deals
with important principles which make up the foundations for involvement in
training courses. It is extremely important that both trainers and participants
consider these principles carefully.
1. Protection and
security
Every woman has the right to integrity of her person, liberty
and security and to a life free of any form of violence or the fear of violence.
The primary objective of intervention must be to safeguard the immediate and
sustained security of women and their children.
2.
Responsibility
No woman ever "deserves" to be subjected to violent acts,
and there can never be any justification for such acts. An act of violence
committed against a woman is an offence punishable by law and must be treated as
such. An act of violence is never susceptible to justification, and the
responsibility for it always lies with the person who commits it. Violent men
must bear the consequences of their actions. Approaches to counselling or
therapy which tend to exonerate the perpetrators, play down the seriousness of
their offences or relieve them of responsibility are not helpful in any attempt
to prevent violence occurring.
3. Empowerment
Intervention is
intended to strengthen and support battered women and their children. This
support is designed to help them to build up a new life which they determine for
themselves.
4. Complexity
Violence against women occurs in all
social classes and in all cultures. In the planning and running of training
courses it is thus important also to take due account of such factors as social
milieu, age, disabilities, the plight of migrant women etc.
5. Social
responsibility
As members of society we all of us bear responsibility for
eliminating violence against women. This violence will end only when society
stops tolerating violence.
Source: Fröschl / Löw, Gegen Gewalt an
Frauen handeln. Ausbildungskonzept für Trainerinnen, Vienna
1996
Structure and Contents
This training programme pursues a
feminist approach incorporating principles of social thinking. It is a
professional programme designed for use in training and sensitising the relevant
vocational groups. The manual includes fundamental information on the issue of
violence against women and children and suggestions and exercises for practical
work. The manual is structured as follows:
The first section (General)
deals with the basic principles involved in carrying out training courses in the
field. This includes: theoretical background, objectives and contents, methods
and teaching aids, handling difficult situations, and background
conditions.
The remainder of
the manual breaks down into two main sections:
The Basic module covers the basics for
the training and awareness-raising programme for professionals. It deals with
the fundamental topics which are relevant for all vocational groups and which
broadly relate to the central issues and problems connected with violence
against women.
The Specific modules examine in more detail the
specifics of the way in which individual groups of professionals have to deal
with violence against women. There are specific modules for professionals in the
fields of law enforcement, the judiciary, medicine and psycho-social
work.
Both the Basic module and the Specific modules are structured as
follows:
The Basic Module falls
into three areas:
The
Specific Modules are an extension of the Basic Module addressing the
particular needs of individual professional groups which deal with battered
women and their children. The target groups here are: police, justice
professionals (state prosecutors, judges, lawyers), medical professionals
(doctors, nursing staff) and psycho-social professionals (social workers,
psychologists,
psychotherapists).
The
circumstances in which these professional groups work vary widely from country
to country, so that these modules contain suggestions for exercises and handouts
for use by the Trainers. It is left up to the Trainers to gauge the details of
the training material to the specific circumstances relating to the professional
group concerned.
This
training programme has been compiled in such a way that it can be used
throughout Europe. It therefore avoids reference to material that relates to
specific regions or countries, mentioning only in passing aspects which might be
of relevance to the topic in any given section. It is therefore the job of the
Trainer to supplement the material and adapt the training units to take account
of the specific circumstances pertaining to the country concerned.
The
Basic Module consists of eight topics:
Topic
1: Forms and Patterns of
Violence
Topic 2: Beliefs and
Facts
Topic 3: Impact of
Violence
Topic 4: The Plight
of the Victim / Survivor
Topic
5: Perpetrators
Topic
6: Crisis Support
Topic
7: Counselling Skills
Topic
8: Support
Services
Topic 1: Forms
and Patterns of Violence
The unit deals with the definition of the
term "violence against women" and sets out to inform the participants about
manifestations and patterns of violence and sensitise them to
these.
Aims:
Topic
2: Beliefs and
Facts
This unit examines "beliefs" which frequently cover up the real
causes of violence against women. The participants should learn to detect and
question these "beliefs". The goal of the trainer is to portray the problem of
violence against women realistically, with the aid of hard and fast facts and
figures, and to demonstrate her competence and expertise.
Aims:
Topic
3: Impact of
violence
The primary goal of this unit is to consider the practical
difficulties that arise when a woman separates from her partner or runs away
from him and to empathise with the emotions involved. These considerations are
intended to help the participants realise that there is no such thing as a
straight-forward solution, that every step the woman takes entails or can entail
consequences, and that there is a very real reason for the much-quoted
"ambivalence" of women in such predicaments.
Aims:
Topic
4: The Plight of the Victim /
Survivor
This unit deals with the plight of women living in abusive
relationships. It examines the question why women live in such relationships and
with what difficulties they have to contend.
Aims:
Topic
5: Perpetrators
There
are myths relating to violent men which bear little resemblance to the facts and
serve to exonerate them from responsibility for their violence or at least to
play it down - just as they do themselves. Such myths tend to centre around the
men's unhappy childhood, alleged faults in their partners, their loss of
self-control as "something stronger than they are", threats to their standing as
men, the evils of alcohol and so on and so
forth.
These explanations
cite causes and events which divert attention away from the real problem - acts
of violence - and attach the blame to anybody and anything at hand, just not to
the perpetrator
himself.
There is a strong
temptation - first and foremost for the woman affected but also for relatives
and friends and subsequently for those called upon to help in various
professional functions - to fall for such strategies and exonerate a violent man
from responsibility for his actions. This is tantamount to not really taking him
seriously.
The purpose of
this unit is to make it clear that acts of violence against women are driven by
motives and strategic considerations and do not happen "out of the blue" but are
intrinsic to a system of power and control. The participants are acquainted with
the most widespread forms of self-exoneration and are encouraged to confront
perpetrators with their own actions and assign the responsibility for these
actions solely to the men concerned (Elfriede Fröschl / Sylvia Löw, Gegen
Gewalt an Frauen handeln. Österreichisches Grundkonzept, Vienna
1996a).
Aims:
Topic
6: Crisis Support
The
purpose of Topic 6 is to make it clear that the immediate experience of violence
constitutes a crisis which must be handled with a specially high degree of
sensitivity. The primary goal of intervention must be to safeguard the
protection and security of the victim and her children. Bearing this in mind,
the participants should deal with the difficult task of danger assessment, and
they should learn how to provide practical crisis support and the requisite
legal information.
Aims:
This unit deals with the problems which professionals
encounter during their work in approaching the issue of domestic violence and in
providing abused women with competent counselling. At the same time, the
prevailing conditions are a decisive factor in whether a victim of violence can
talk about her experiences and seek and / or accept help. This unit, then, sets
out to encourage professionals to adopt a positive, active role.
First of
all, the participants should bear in mind that:
Only very rarely is it possible for a single individual to
provide competent and comprehensive support. In the case of most professional
groups, the limits of their official responsibilities and the pressure of work
prevent them from providing all-round support for a woman who has been subjected
to violence. Generally speaking, it would anyway not be advisable for a
professional - such as a General Practitioner - to go beyond the limits of her
or his vocational field and attempt to act as lawyer, judge, social worker,
psychologist and therapist as well. The members of each professional group have
their own opportunities for intervening and giving support, and it is essential
that they do so. An important factor here is co-operation with other people and
services providing assistance, so that the woman can be referred elsewhere if
necessary. This unit is therefore devoted to providing a survey of specialised
support services and to reviewing the fundamental principles of
co-operation.
The
participants are given information in particular on women's shelters and
regional support organisations so that they can refer women to the appropriate
facilities in cases of emergency. A further point stressed in this unit is that
the woman concerned should be able to take it for granted that no steps will be
taken without consulting her first (Fröschl / Löw,
1996a).
Aims:
The Specific Module for
police consists of five topics:
Topic
1: The Stockholm
Syndrome
Topic 2: Assessing
dangerousness
Topic
3: Interviewing victims
Topic
4: Professional and
victim-centred police intervention
Topic
5: Relevant laws and guidelines
for police intervention
The Specific Module for judicial professionals
consists of 7 topics:
Topic
1: The psychological situation of
a victim of domestic violence
Topic
2: Strategies of perpetrators of
domestic violence
Topic
3: Assessing
dangerousness
Topic 4: Victim
/ witness testimony in court
Topic
5: The victim in the civil
court
Topic 6: The victim in
the criminal court
Topic
7: International recommendations
on legal measures to eliminate violence against women
The Specific Module
for medical professionals consists of five topics:
Topic
1: Identification of
violence
Topic
2: Trauma
Topic
3: Safety planning
Topic
4: Report and legal
consequences
Topic 5: How to
stay supportive
The Specific Module for psycho-social professionals
consists of the following topics:
Topic
1: Basic knowledge about violence
against women
Topic 2: The
plight of migrant women living with an abuser
Topic
3: Legal information
Topic
4: Co-operation
Topic
5: Possibilities and limitations
of the professional group
Implementation of the Project
The
programme's basic outline and its structure derive from the outcome of a
three-day meeting of experts from nine countries held in Vienna in April 2000.
The experts pooled their long-standing experience in the training of various
groups of professionals. Their own training programmes and those of the
organisations to which they belong have been incorporated in the present Manual.
The national training programmes listed below are amongst those which provided
substantial material:
Training programme "Gegen Gewalt an Frauen
handeln", project management: Elfriede Fröschl and Sylvia Löw, Vienna
1995,
Training folder "Gegen Gewalt an Frauen - Wege zur Veränderung",
published by the Information Centre against Violence, Austrian Women's Shelter
Network on behalf of the Women's Office of the Vienna Municipal Authorities,
Vienna 1994,
Publications by TransAct: Aarnink / Boland / Van der Vlugt
"Seksueel geweld aan de orde, een basiscursus voor hulpverleners", Utrecht
1991,
Ineke Van der Vlugt / TransAct "Handelen bij mishandeling, een
handleiding voor hulpverleners bij geweld in de relatie", Utrecht 1998,
ROKS
/ Avliva Myterna "Sanningar och lögner om mäns våld mot kvinnor", Sweden, no
date given.
The Train-the-trainer Seminar
An initial
Train-the-trainer seminar was held in Austria in September 2000 as part of the
project. Using the present manual, experts from women's support organisations in
various European countries with little or no experience in training
professionals were trained so that they could go on to initiate and run similar
training programmes in their own
countries.
These are the
requirements for being able to work with the programme:
The
complete manual should be given only to trainers who meet the above
requirements. WAVE plans to hold further Train-the-trainer seminars to ensure
that the programme has the widest possible reach.
The introductory
chapter also outlines the most important training methods used in the
programme.
Methods and Teaching Aids
The practical
application of the exercises requires various skills and teachings aids designed
to enable the trainer to adapt and expand the topics in a variety of ways. The
most important methods are summarised and explained on the following
pages.
Listening
One of the most important qualities required
of the Trainer and of the participants is the ability to listen. A good listener
will always be attentive and will allow others to finish what they have to say
without interrupting.
Presentation
Presentation means first
activating the knowledge that already exists within a group and structuring it
in accordance with the approach you intend to adopt. The Trainer's job will be
to ensure that all the participants can make their own contributions and at the
same time that no one participant comes to dominate the discussions. The Trainer
should also be able to summarise the key points in each participant's remarks in
such a way that they are comprehensible for everybody and to keep bringing the
discussion back to the subject at
hand.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming has proved an extremely
creative and stimulating approach to opening up a consideration of a particular
topic. The participants are invited to call out their responses to a given
concept or question, and the Trainer writes these on the blackboard or flip
chart. Only after this does the group start its discussion or analysis, its
critical appraisal, structuring and so
on.
Discussion
Discussion is an appropriate method for
critically reviewing a given topic, exploring causes and identifying
correlations - for instance with regard to the question of why men are violent.
The Trainer's job here is to initiate the discussion among the participants and
to ensure that they do not lose sight of the subject at hand and the
starting-point of the discussion. There has to be room for the presentation of
opposing views, and the Trainer should not try to avoid this. If the differences
of opinion are too wide to be bridgeable, though, the Trainer should be careful
to ensure that this does not lead to a serious division. The Trainer will
summarise the views expressed and, where necessary, leave the outcome of the
discussion open if the differences threaten to obstruct progress in the
programme as a whole.
Group work
Dividing the participants into
small groups is a useful way of dealing with individual issues in detail and of
providing scope for the largest possible number of participants to contribute to
the discussions. The size of the groups will depend on the aims of the group
work and the nature of the ground to be covered. Be sure to define the
objectives for group work clearly. Supplement verbal instructions with
visualisations. You might, for instance, write the topic, ground to cover,
issues, size of the group and time schedule on the flip chart. The Trainer
should help the participants in the course of their group work by asking how
they are doing and, about five minutes before the end of the allotted time,
pointing out how long there is to go.
Role games
Role games
afford the opportunity to explore and consider various courses of action within
a protected environment ("safe space") and thus to gain a better understanding
of the predicament and needs of battered women. In the course of a role game the
participants enact a given scene. They are given a brief verbal or written
description of the part they are to play, with their roles outlined in greater
or lesser detail as appropriate. There are various ways of allocating the roles:
ideally, participants should volunteer for the roles; or the Trainer assigns
them; or participants take on the roles which they play in real life. The role
game can take place either in a small group or in pairs or in the whole group.
The participants not playing a role act as observers. Pairs should always be
assigned an observer whose job is to watch exactly what happens in the role game
(what do I hear / see / feel?) and to report on her observations during the
ensuing discussion. Personal confrontation with an issue can be tough, so the
ensuing discussion is especially important. The discussion should always begin
with the role of the battered woman, then that of the professional, followed by
the observers and the Trainer. The Trainer's task is to plan and structure the
ensuing discussion so that it can be conducted with the necessary thoroughness
to maximise the insights gained.
Exiting from the role: It is very
important for the Trainer to help the role players slip back out of their roles.
The Trainer should make it adequately clear that the role and the person playing
it have nothing to do with each other. In this way it is possible to avoid
remarks made on the enacted situation being applied to the participants acting
the roles. The exit phase takes place either before or after the
discussion:
a) Exit before the discussion (straight after the role
game): In this case there is a short break after the role game to emphasise
the point that both the game and the roles are over. During the discussion the
participants who played roles speak about them not in the first but in the third
person ("Mrs Smith was afraid ...").
b) Exit after the discussion:
During the discussion the participants who played roles speak as if they were
still acting ("I was afraid ..."). The exit phase occurs at the end of the
discussion, as in a) above.
Whenever possible, role games should be
carried out in the language of the country concerned, because foreign languages
can be an obstacle to free and spontaneous enactment. Because role games
generally refer to the specific circumstances prevailing locally or regionally
and to people with a specific background, the present manual has largely omitted
them from the exercises. They should therefore be devised and prepared by the
Trainers themselves.
Case studies
As a teaching aid, case
studies are helpful in, for instance, working on possible solutions to problems
or in examining the feelings of the people involved in the case described.
Generally speaking, the case studies are presented to the participants in
written form. Whenever you use a "real-life" case, it is essential to alter or
delete the characters' identity (name, domicile etc.) to protect their
anonymity. As with role games, the present manual leaves it largely up to the
Trainer to compile case studies from her own professional experience -
preferably in the participants' language - because the prevailing circumstances
vary from country to country.
Theoretical information -
Visualisation
The Trainers and other lecturers contribute theoretical
knowledge and information on a given subject. It is advisable also to provide
the information in the form of written material, because the participants can
concentrate on only a limited amount of spoken information and will retain only
a fraction of it for any length of time. The theoretical texts contained in the
WAVE manual are designed to provide background information for the trainer but
can also be copied and distributed to the participants where
necessary.
It is best to
translate knowledge and information into visual terms. The Trainer can write the
main points of the theoretical material being discussed on a poster or overhead
transparency. This helps the participants to commit information to memory and
retain it.
Audiovisual teaching aids
The use of audiovisual
teaching aids - first and foremost videos - adds a certain element of
authenticity to the treatment of the topic of violence against women. However,
the Trainer should carefully consider the benefits and drawbacks of audiovisual
teaching aids. It is important to ensure, for example, that the characters shown
on the video represent a typical cross-section of the real-life people involved.
A video which concentrates exclusively on women from marginalised social groups
will tend rather to reinforce existing preconceptions and are thus
counter-productive. Images on a screen transmit a number of messages, and those
watching them will not always be aware of all of
them.
Feedback
In this case, feedback means that the
participants and Trainers say in a few words what impression a situation, a
certain statement or an incident made on them. It is important to ensure that
they do not try to classify other people's behaviour but simply portray their
own responses and impressions. The main point is to verbalise one's own state of
mind in the given situation (for example by saying: "I didn't feel that people
were taking me seriously").
Adapted from: Fröschl / Löw, Gegen Gewalt
an Frauen handeln. Ausbildungskonzept für Trainerinnen, Vienna
1996
Duration of the training course
A training course should
ideally last 4 to 6 days. Certainly, the Basic Module should take at least two
days. A training course that lasts only a day or even less cannot count as a
training course. This would merely rank as an information meeting or a workshop
at which certain facts are presented and / or discussed.
Project
Evaluation
The project only began in the year 2000, so it is not yet
possible to evaluate it as a whole. At the end of the Train-the-trainer Seminar
in Strobl, Austria, the trainers and organisers asked for feedback. The
participants gave the training programme as a whole very high marks. The concept
was new for almost all of them. In particular, they singled out the programme's
comprehensive scope and detailed treatment of the subject matter for
praise.
Some of the
participants have already spoken to the relevant authorities and institutions in
their own countries on the possibilities of conducting training
courses.
We plan to hold at
least one train-the-trainer seminar a year with a view to creating more trainers
and thus making the programme more widely available in more countries. We also
plan to draw up new Specific modules for such vocational groups as teaching
professionals and journalists.
TO TOP OF PAGE
References:
Haller, Birgitt: Gewalt in der Familie. Eine
Evaluierung der Umsetzung des österreichischen Gewaltschutzgesetzes,
unpublished study commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior,
Vienna 1999
Home Office / Women's Unit: Living without Fear - An
Integrated Approach to Tackling Violence against Women, Crown Copyright
1999,
http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/womens-unit/1999/fear/contents.htm
Information
Centre Against Violence: Legislation on Protection from Violence,
Information Folder for Women, Vienna 2000
Näringsdepartementet,
Kvinnofrid: Violence Against Women, Fact Sheet,
http://www.kvinnofrid.gov.se/regeringen//faktaeng.htm
Logar, Rosa:
unpublished manuscript, Vienna 2000 Nylén, Lars / Heimer, Gun: Sweden's
Response to Domestic Violence, in The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Vol. 68,
Number 11, November 1999, pp. 19-24
Wiener Interventionsstelle gegen
Gewalt in der Familie: Tätigkeitsbericht 1999, Vienna
2000
Kolbitsch, Christine / Vana-Kowarzik, Gabriele: Der neue
Opferschutz in Österreich, Gesetzliche Regelungen gegen Gewalt im
Wohnbereich, in STREIT - Feministische Rechtszeitschrift, 16. Jahrgang,
1/98, pp.18 - 21
Lori L. Heise: Violence Against Women. Global
Organizing for Change, in Jeffrey L. Edleson / Zvi C. Eisikovits (eds.):
Future Interventions with Battered Women and Their Families, Sage Publications
1996
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