Mr. John Doyle:

I am grateful to the committee for this opportunity to present some of our work. I am the co-ordinator of the south east domestic violence intervention programme which is a project of the Men's Development Network. Through its work and engagement with campaigns such as the white ribbon campaign and the turn off the red light campaign the Men's Development Network supports men in playing an active role in ending violence against women.

We deliver four men ending domestic abuse, MEND, programmes in the south east for men who have been violent in intimate relationships. These programmes also provide an integrated one to one support service for the partners or ex-partners of the men in the programmes. We have a similar structure to MOVE Ireland in this regard. As the focus of our work is the delivery of intervention programmes we feel the most helpful contribution we can make to the committee is to provide our reflections based on our experience of working with men who are violent and abusive in an intimate relationship and their partners or ex-partners. Our approach is supported by emerging evidence-based practice and input from trainers such as Dr. Mark Farrall of Ignition UK, Paul Wolf-Light of Ahimsa UK, Christina Dickinson of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute in Boulder, Colorado and others. Our reflective learning has led us to review our understanding of the causes of domestic abuse in intimate partner relationships.

The national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender based violence acknowledges:

[D]omestic violence perpetrators are not homogenous and some may have multiple problems and complex needs. These multiple problems complicate their ability to respond to interventions and/or their motivation to change. Therefore evaluations of perpetrator programmes should focus on what kind of interventions work best for whom.

There is clear evidence that like all behaviours, violence and abuse in intimate relationships occurs on a continuum. The most severe form of abuse could be called intimate terrorism and is at the high end. The continuum goes through what has been termed situational couple conflict through to respectful relationships. For those on the high end of this behaviour the criminal justice system is appropriately the first port of call, with subsequent treatment in prison if there is a custodial sentence. Policy and practice need to be flexible enough to respond to the variety of behaviours on this continuum, otherwise we will not serve the needs of the women, children and men in these relationships. The cycle of violence and abuse will continue into the next relationship and or into the next generation. Another outcome of not recognising the spectrum of behaviour involved is that we may end up seeing men moved into the criminal justice system too early or too late. In addition, recognition of the complex nature of the issue of intimate partner violence and the continuum of behaviour allows for the development of safe and appropriate responses where the victim is male or where the abusive behaviour occurs in same-sex relationships.

An understanding of individual influences and dynamics, such as the impact of early childhood trauma including domestic abuse, is essential and compatible with a focus on responsibility and holding men accountable for their behaviour. Neuroscience has established almost beyond doubt close links between early traumatic experience with primary attachment figures and difficulties in later adult intimate relationships.

Historically, policy and practice almost exclusively focussed on the perceived male desire to control women driven by patriarchal beliefs about identity and entitlement. This has given rise to a one size fits all policy and has narrowed treatment options. To quote a recent paper by John Devaney of Queens University Belfast, "One of the weaknesses of group-based programmes is that they were originally developed by and have evolved through an ideological perspective on the root causes of domestic violence, rather than an empirical model of intervention development".

There is growing evidence that intimate partner violence is often rooted in traumatic childhood experiences and related issues such as poverty, substance misuse and lack of education, which may be linked to experiencing domestic violence as a child. Therefore, as domestic abuse is about far more than power, control and patriarchy, effective solutions need to be drawn from a much fuller understanding of the problem. While we are conscious that responsibility and accountability must be to the fore in our response to intimate partner violence, an effective response, which will be of most benefit to the partners and ex-partners of the men and their children, must take into consideration the traumatic roots of this behaviour and develop responses based on this knowledge. When we seek solutions we should not see perpetrators in a particular carbon cut-out image but rather examine the issues underlying their behaviour.

A common misconception prevails however, that acknowledging complex influences and relationship dynamics excuses perpetrators and moves the debate away from responsibility and choice. This need not be so. We know that recognising complexity adds a greater challenge to already over-stretched services and increases the need for inter-agency co-operation. It is, however, our contention that if we are to respond in a just, safe and effective way to violence and abuse in intimate partner relationships we must deal with the root causes of this violence and abuse through an approach grounded in current evidence-based research.

We recommend recognising and supporting the role played by intervention programmes working to change men’s violent and abusive behaviour in intimate partner relationships, while keeping the safety of women and children as a priority; actively supporting making visible intervention programmes part of the solution to reduce violence against women; acknowledging that while nothing justifies violence or abuse in a relationship, effective treatment models must take into consideration the underlying complex issues underpinning this behaviour; supporting the development of intervention programmes in line with current evidence-based treatment approaches, which deal with the significant impact of childhood trauma, difficulties with early attachment and other issues such as addiction on behaviour in later adult intimate relationships, as this would allow for an appropriate and safe gender-inclusive response to the issue; and supporting the development of clear referral pathways onto intervention programmes for men who are violent and abusive in relationships.

I thank the committee members for their attention.