CHANGES IN DOMESTIC VIOLENT BEHAVIOR: PERSPECTIVES FOR DEVELOPING WORK WITH PERPETRATORS AT INSTITUTIONAL AND COMMUNAL LEVELS (SMEAK)

The Research Council of Lithuania (hereinafter – RCL) has granted funding to the project “Changes in Domestic Violent Behavior: Perspectives for Developing Work with Perpetrators at Institutional and Communal Levels” (SMEAK) of the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences (hereinafter – LI LCSS) in accordance with the National Research Programme “Welfare society”. The aim of the research is to analyse the possibilities of changing domestic violence behavior through institutional and communal levels.

This research consistently continued the need-driven research project “Towards the effective cooperation between police and other stakeholders: model for the identification, support and prevention of domestic violence" (POSIB), which was previously performed by the group of the LI LCSS scientist (Project Leader Dr. I. Michailovič) and funded by the RCL. During it, after the assessment of mechanisms used to recognise the domestic violence and provide support, as well as the existing practices of multi-agency cooperation, the cooperation model of the institutions concerned was developed and offered. The research results were provided in the scientific study, which can be found here.

As part of the research strategy, the case study method was applied in order to analyse the phenomenon and tackle the issue in a deeper and more detailed manner. The practice of carrying out batterer intervention programmes (BIPs) in Klaipėda and Vilnius regions was chosen as territorially defined research fields because BIPs are carried out most intensively and consistently in these regions compared to other regions of Lithuania. During the research, 50 semi-structured interviews and 3 focus-group discussions were conducted. The broad range of professionals took part in the research, including BIP facilitators, legal professionals (judges, prosecutors, lawyers), child protection service specialists, intimate partner violence victims’ advocates and other non-governmental organization representatives, county policy makers, and officials of municipalities.

According to the research data, it has been established that targeted complex assistance in changing violent behavior can effectively change a person’s attitude and become the beginning of changes in his or her behavior. However, Lithuania lacks a unified institutional approach towards the domestic violence correction, as well as multi-agency cooperation. Also, little consideration is given to the possibility of involving the community in the correction of violent behaviour, which could fill the gaps in more active and diverse prevention activities. The research allows to draw the main conclusion that working with perpetrators in order to change their violent behaviour should be seen as an integral element of well-functioning system preventing domestic violence in order to achieve the most effective response to domestic violence. Researchers in their recommendations for developing opportunities to change violent behavior emphasized greater involvement of municipalities and communities in the coordinated response to domestic violence.

The National Research Programme “Welfare society” was designed to fund integrated scientific studies of the preconditions for a welfare society and its development in Lithuania.

 

The results of the research are described in more detail in the scientific study “Change in domestic violent behaviour: perspectives for developing work with perpetrators in Lithuania“.

Practical recommendations “Recommendations for improving work with perpetrators of domestic violence ”, formulated on the basis of the research, to the Lithuanian Probation Service and other institutions concerned.

 

The team of project researchers are Dr. Ilona Michailovič (Project Leader), Dr. Svetlana Justickaja, Dr. Rūta Vaičiūnienė and Dr. Vaidas Viršilas..

Partner - Lithuanian Probation Service.

Duration of the project: 2020-04-01–2021-12-31.

Budget of the project approximately 110,000 Euro..

The project is funded the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), Contract No. S-GEV-20-4.