Australian evidence relating to the effectiveness of interventions with and responses to men who use DFV

The Griffith Criminology Institute (GCI), in collaboration with the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, is undertaking a review of Australian evidence relating to the effectiveness of interventions with and responses to men who use DFV. The objective of the review is to consolidate ‘what works’ for different perpetrator types, across different program modalities and in the context of different environmental and social conditions, including published and unpublished evidence.

Interventions and responses may include but are not limited to:

  • group-based interventions (e.g. Men’s Behaviour Change Programs [MBCPs],
  • criminal justice responses (e.g. arrest, incarceration, fast-tracking of DFV criminal matters),
  • therapeutic interventions (including one on one and group based DFV-focused interventions),
  • combined interventions (e.g. interventions that address intersecting concerns such as DFV and alcohol and other drug use, DFV and mental health concerns, DFV and parenting)
  • intervention with and responses to specific target population (e.g. adolescents, men living with a disability, gay, bisexual and transgender (GBT) men, First Nations Men, culturally and linguistically diverse men).

This project is led by Professor Silke Meyer, together with Professor Jason Payne (GCI Director) and Maria Atienzar-Prieto.

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Call for evidence of what works

GCI calls for the submissions of any finalised, but unpublished program or intervention evaluation reports. Submission is strictly confidential and will not be shared beyond the GCI research team. Any unpublished data and findings will not be identifiable by program name or location. Instead, unpublished program evaluations will be analysed alongside academic and other published material, to formulate the more complete aggregate understanding of perpetrator intervention evidence in Australia. Please note that we are not asking for programs to undertake new or fresh analysis of program data – we are only inviting submissions of finalised outcome evaluation reports that have remained unpublished but could add value to the current review. Unfortunately, we are unable to include any verbal communication of observations made by practitioners or organisations.

The aim of this call is to include documented outcome findings that have remained unpublished. As this project has a tight turnaround time, we are seeking submissions by end of Wednesday, 18 September 2024.

To make a confidential submission or discuss any questions you may have about how your evaluation evidence will be included in the review, email Professor Silke Meyer at s.meyer@griffith.edu.au.

Why is this important?

Important initiative

This review is an important initiative following the Commonwealth Government commitment of $25 million over 5 years to identify and invest in innovative approaches to address family, domestic and sexual violence perpetrator behaviour.

Monitoring and evaluation

We understand that current interventions and responses to perpetrators of DFV are frequently undergoing monitoring and evaluation aimed at improving service delivery and outcomes. Most of the time these evaluations activities are conducted internally, often with limited budgets and understandable sensitivities around the publication of program-level outcomes.

Hidden knowledge

This ‘hidden’ knowledge base represents a collective wealth of expertise that is often not captured in formal evidence reviews. By facilitating this call for confidential submissions of unpublished evidence we are hoping that programs and agencies will be able to contribute to the development of the Australian knowledge-base, without the risk of individual program identification.