Research
The Respect longitudinal research on programme outcomes: Overview of the project
Respect, the UK national organisation of domestic violence perpetrator programmes, has designed a four year research project to fill a critical gap, to find out how and to what extent programmes improve women’s and children’s safety and reduce men’s violence.
Respect is leading the project. The Respect Research Manager, appointed in June 2008, holds overall responsibility for the project.
The primary purpose of the research will be to examine the effects on women’s safety from the participation of their partners in well established programmes. Secondary purposes are outlined in below in the section on purposes of research.
An integral principle and practice running throughout the project and beyond is partnership, collaboration and communication between practitioners, researchers and policy makers. Respect Research Manager will be responsible for organising and supporting activities to support this process and the research team will recruit a PhD student under the Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme to provide further support to this with the sites involved.
The key research questions are:
- To what extent does men's participation in domestic violence perpetrator programmes affect the safety and welfare of women and children?
- How does men’s participation affect safety of women and children?
- What increases the effectiveness of programmes?
The Respect longitudinal research on programme outcomes: What's happening?
This research, supported by the LankellyChase Foundation and Northern Rock Foundation, is to examine the outcomes of men's participation in Respect accredited programmes. We have secured half of the funds needed for this research and the remaining money needed will be sought in collaboration with the successful research team. Mary MacLeod, CEO of the Family and Parenting Institute has kindly agreed to take on the role of chair of the independent advisory group and she also chaired the recruitment committee.
NEW! May 2009: do you want to be part of the research pilot?
The researchers are wanting to work with up to four projects from anywhere in the UK to begin the research process as part of the pilot stage. You will be involved in discussing what is meant by "success", how the researchers might measure this, how practitioners can be involved in the process and other things. You should be working towards Respect accreditation or the equivalent. We would really like to include programmes in Scotland and Wales as well as from across all areas of the UK. For an informal chat about what might be involved, email thangam.debbonaire@respect.uk.net as soon as possible.
NEW! February 2009: Researchers appointed
We have now appointed the research team who will carry out the research over the next four years. They are: Professor Liz Kelly, Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit, London Metropolitan University; Dr Nicole Westmarland and Simon Hackett, Durham University; Dr Charlotte Watts and Dr Cathy Zimmerman, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. We are delighted to announce this appointment after a very rigorous and tough recruitment process and we are very grateful to a sub group of the advisory group for carrying out this process.
New! February 2009: minutes and report from the seminar in December 2008
Some of you attended the seminar on 9th December 2008 with Professor Edward Gondolf (also a member of the research advisory group), Susan Ash from LankellyChase Foundation (one of our key funders and a member of the advisory group) and Respect staff. This lively and interesting seminar focused on collaborative research processes and included presentations from Dr Gondolf, lots of questions and discussion and a good lunch at an excellent small venue in central London (44 Portland Place for those of you wanting similar).
This seminar set an excellent tone for the research process and there were some great ideas which we are now following up. A full record of the minutes of this seminar including a summary document of action agreed and lessons learned can be downloaded by clicking on the link below.
Respect Seminar minutes and summary document 9th December 2008
For further information
If you wish to discuss being one of the research sites, you can contact me for an informal discussion about what is involved. I work two days per week, usually on Thursday and Friday but you can often catch me by email at other times.
Respect Research Manager
Thangam Debbonaire: thangam.debbonaire@respect.uk.net