Evaluation of European Perpetrator Programmes

Evaluating domestic violence perpetrator programmes to determine whether they actually contribute to the safety of women and children victims is paramount, both for policy makers to inform funding and other decisions, and for practitioners to monitor and improve interventions. However, little is known about the evaluation of these programmes in Europe: there are few published outcome studies, and great diversity in outcome monitoring among programmes. The project Evaluation of European Perpetrator Programmes aims to fill the knowledge gap and offer solutions towards a harmonisation of outcome monitoring. This will be achieved by overviewing both practice of, and research on, the evaluation of perpetrator programmes in Europe; by identifying possibilities and obstacles for multi-country European outcome research studies; and finally by developing an evaluation toolkit. The project involves Professor Marianne Hester from the Centre for Gender & Violence Research, with colleagues in Germany, Spain, Denmark and Austria.