eleven - Responding to domestic abuse: multi-agented systems, probation programmes and emergent outcomes

Summary

The new domestic abuse (DA) programme ‘Building Better Relationships’ (BBR) has recently been implemented within Probation Trusts in England and Wales, witnessing a shift from the feminist psycho-educational Duluth model (eg as featured in the Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme [IDAP]) to a more strengths-based approach. In this chapter, I aim to demonstrate how complexity theory can be valuable within the context of DA interventions and contribute to significant advancements and developments within probation practice and other rehabilitative settings. I intend to provide a critique of the BBR programme in light of complexity, reflecting upon past theoretical orientations to DA interventions and highlighting possible emergent outcomes in the future. It will be argued that while BBR has made some significant progression from recent theoretical discussions, considering DA programmes from a complexity perspective can aid further development for the future. I argue for the efficacy of applying complexity theory to DA interventions within probation practice, recognising the importance of taking a whole-systems approach in protecting women and families from violence. I will take a realist perspective to knowledge, accepting that knowledge is partially known, socially constructed and is given meaning through human interaction and interpretation. Social reality therefore incorporates a number of levels, from individual to societal, and it is believed that this post-positivist perspective is appropriate when discussing the inherent determinism and non-linearity of domestic violence.

At the heart of the Duluth model has been the issue of gender equality, and the move to the BBR programme is not without controversy. It is interesting, for example, to consider the statement by Strid, Armstrong and Walby (2008, p 29) that:

Gender equality as a term is not often used in UK policy documents on gender based violence.… Gender is never present in legislation … in the few gender based violence policy documents where gender equality is explicitly either a means or an end, gender equality is rarely the end goal of policy.

Clearly, the focus for the probation service is a reduction in reoffending rather than gender equality, but the consequences of this might well be significant. Strid et al (2008) go on to highlight the awkwardness of the relationship between gender-based violence and gender equality, so gender-based violence becomes ‘domestic violence’ and is framed as an issue of crime and justice.