Research project
Policing, vulnerabilities and domestic abuse: victims, perpetrators, interventions
- Start date: 1 May 2023
- End date: 30 April 2025
- Funder: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
- Partners and collaborators: Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre
- Primary investigator: Dr Larissa Engelmann (University of Leeds), Dr David Rowlands (University of Leeds)
- External co-investigators: Professor Sandra Walklate (Co-PI) (University of Liverpool), Professor Nicole Westmarland (Co-PI) (Durham University), Professor David Gadd (co-PI) (University of Manchester), Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon (Co-PI) (Monash University, Australia), Dr Öznur Yardımcı (University of York)
The project will explore emerging approaches to policing perpetrators of domestic abuse and delivering safer outcomes for victim-survivors.
The main research site will be Greater Manchester, UK, which is committed to a 10-year strategy to tackle gender-based violence informed by similar efforts in the State of Victoria, Australia. The project will explore what is working well with these new approaches, what could be improved, and what can be learnt from different stakeholders involved in this response.
From May 2023–2025, the project team will document and critically evaluate Greater Manchester’s targeted approach to intervening in reported cases of domestic abuse. The team will also look critically about how ‘vulnerabilities’ are understood and responded to within these interventions.
The study will involve:
- conducting semi-structured interviews with professionals who work with perpetrators and with victim-survivors;
- analysing secondary data, including domestic abuse police case files;
- undertaking a case study at one or two specific locations within Greater Manchester identified as exemplifying best practice.