Putting the Onus on the Offenders: Implementing Project Cautioning And Relationship Abuse Awareness Raising Workshops for Alleged First-Time Offenders of Domestic Violence and Abuse

Hayley Alderson; Sarah A.  Morgan; Jessica  Roy; Rachel  Armitage; Ruth McGovern; William  McGovern; Lydia  Shrimpton; Emma  Hazan; Stephanie  Scott

doi:10.1177/10778012251409171

Putting the Onus on the Offenders: Implementing Project Cautioning And Relationship Abuse Awareness Raising Workshops for Alleged First-Time Offenders of Domestic Violence and Abuse

Hayley Alderson, Sarah A. Morgan, Jessica Roy, Rachel Armitage, Ruth McGovern, William McGovern, Lydia Shrimpton, Emma Hazan, Stephanie Scott

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

Abstract

Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a global public health challenge. Project Cautioning And Relationship Abuse (CARA) is an out-of-court resolution used across police forces in England and Wales for lower risk, alleged first-time DVA offenders. This article reports on qualitative interviews and focus groups with professionals (police, commissioners, and CARA facilitators and managers, N = 31) about their experiences of delivering CARA following its national rollout. Reflexive thematic analysis indicated strong multiprofessional support for CARA across geographical areas. Professionals recommended changes to enhance current delivery, relating to differential assessment of risk; adaptations to training/implementation; and exploring perceptions of CARA by voluntary sector organizations.

Original language	English
Number of pages	28
Journal	Violence Against Women
Early online date	23 Dec 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012251409171
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 23 Dec 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Research Groups and Themes

SPS Centre for Gender and Violence Research

Keywords

domestic abuse
qualitative
prevention
out-of-court resolution
perpetrator workshops

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1177/10778012251409171Licence: CC BY

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Alderson, H., Morgan, S. A., Roy, J., Armitage, R., McGovern, R., McGovern, W., Shrimpton, L., Hazan, E., & Scott, S. (2025). Putting the Onus on the Offenders: Implementing Project Cautioning And Relationship Abuse Awareness Raising Workshops for Alleged First-Time Offenders of Domestic Violence and Abuse. Violence Against Women. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012251409171

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abstract = "Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a global public health challenge. Project Cautioning And Relationship Abuse (CARA) is an out-of-court resolution used across police forces in England and Wales for lower risk, alleged first-time DVA offenders. This article reports on qualitative interviews and focus groups with professionals (police, commissioners, and CARA facilitators and managers, N = 31) about their experiences of delivering CARA following its national rollout. Reflexive thematic analysis indicated strong multiprofessional support for CARA across geographical areas. Professionals recommended changes to enhance current delivery, relating to differential assessment of risk; adaptations to training/implementation; and exploring perceptions of CARA by voluntary sector organizations.",

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author = "Hayley Alderson and Morgan, \{Sarah A.\} and Jessica Roy and Rachel Armitage and Ruth McGovern and William McGovern and Lydia Shrimpton and Emma Hazan and Stephanie Scott",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).",

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AU - Shrimpton, Lydia

AU - Hazan, Emma

AU - Scott, Stephanie

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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AB - Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a global public health challenge. Project Cautioning And Relationship Abuse (CARA) is an out-of-court resolution used across police forces in England and Wales for lower risk, alleged first-time DVA offenders. This article reports on qualitative interviews and focus groups with professionals (police, commissioners, and CARA facilitators and managers, N = 31) about their experiences of delivering CARA following its national rollout. Reflexive thematic analysis indicated strong multiprofessional support for CARA across geographical areas. Professionals recommended changes to enhance current delivery, relating to differential assessment of risk; adaptations to training/implementation; and exploring perceptions of CARA by voluntary sector organizations.

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KW - prevention

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KW - perpetrator workshops

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M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

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JO - Violence Against Women

JF - Violence Against Women

ER -

Putting the Onus on the Offenders: Implementing Project Cautioning And Relationship Abuse Awareness Raising Workshops for Alleged First-Time Offenders of Domestic Violence and Abuse

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Research Groups and Themes

Keywords

UN SDGs

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