The Home Office announced the 21 organisations who have been successful in securing funding for research projects on perpetrators of domestic abuse.T
he £1.4 million funding will support 21 projects that build on existing research and aim to cover gaps in areas where there is limited knowledge, including interpersonal abuse in adolescent relationships, suicides associated with domestic abuse and identifying perpetrators.
This work follows a similar £500,000 funding stream, which ran last year. These organisations are currently in the process of publishing their research.
Safeguarding Minister Rachel Maclean said:
Research plays a vital role in strengthening our approach to preventing domestic abuse and safeguarding victims.
This new funding will enable organisations to significantly improve our understanding of many aspects of perpetrators’ behaviour and I look forward to seeing the results.
In recognition of the pervasiveness and devastating harm domestic abuse is having on millions of lives, we have doubled funding for tackling perpetrators in 2021 to 2022 to £25 million and are working to publish the Domestic Abuse Strategy in the coming months.
Our landmark Domestic Abuse Act will strengthen our protection to victims and pursue perpetrators. It includes the first legal definition of domestic abuse, improved support for victims in the courts, new offences and strengthened legislation around cruel acts of controlling or coercive behaviour.
The successful bids are listed below.
Organisation Funding amount Aim of funding
Reconnect Services Ltd £52,251.65 This study aims to improve understanding of what works for preventing re-offending by measuring associations between the working alliance that facilitators form with Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programme group members, and the motivational interviewing skills of those facilitators.
SafeLives £57,481.00 This research seeks to explore why and how young people begin to use abusive behaviours in their relationships. To better understand what it means to be on the ‘verge of harming’ and to explore what support for young people who harm should look like.
Liverpool John Moores £50,908.95 This research will examine the profiles of domestic abuse perpetrators with the aim of understanding what predicts increased severity and repeat domestic abuse offending.
University of Essex £52,991.00 A study to understand domestic abuse perpetrators using quantitative analysis to develop perpetrator profiles and exploring their implications for targeted intervention and risk assessment.
Opcit Research (trading name of KM Research and Consultancy Ltd. £62,200.00 The study will create evidence-informed, young person-centred operating principles for intervention with young people affected by gangs and other high-risk extrafamilial contexts, to support them to end and avoid violent and abusive behaviour towards intimate partners.
Reconnect Services £53,487.70 This study explores the relationship between poor mentalisation (capacity to think about thoughts and feelings) across different forms of abusive behaviour.
Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse £64,631.72 The project will gather and comprehensively analyse the commissioning, contexts and finding of Domestic Homicide Reviews in cases of domestic abuse-related suicide.
University of Gloucestershire £56,869.43 This study will gather data on perpetrators of domestic abuse and practitioner interventions, from what are called ‘near-miss’ cases.
National Centre for Social Research £56,935.00 A study focusing on how social workers identify perpetrators, how they assess risk, and how they respond to this risk.
UCL Consultants £76,166.67 The research will seek to improve understanding of the causes, drivers, and aggravating factors of domestic abuse by establishing a rigorous and scientific evidence base for risk and protective factors for domestic abuse perpetration.
University of Central Lancashire £51,970.00 This project will explore temporality of typology membership, individual offender risk and trajectory, and offending behaviour in terms of child to parent domestic abuse, as well as wider violence towards intimate partners and non-family victims.
Centre for Justice Innovation £52,310.00 A study that explores the co-occurrence of substance misuse and perpetration of domestic abuse, and/or the co-occurrence of experience of trauma and perpetration of domestic abuse.
Crest Advisory £143,263.00 Research to improve the understanding of how to identify perpetrators of domestic abuse, and the relationship between domestic abuse-related offending and general offending.
University of West London £58,134.76 Research into identifying factors predictive of domestic violence and abuse perpetration: secondary analysis of national data from perpetrator programmes in England and Wales.
ESRO Ltd £63,165.00 Research exploring the drivers and perceptions of early abusive behaviour, including how these behaviours develop.
The Police and Crime Commissioner West Midlands £60,178.00 Research exploring whether the perpetration of certain forms of abuse are more likely to lead to suicide and consider the relationship between suicide and forced marriage/honour based violence.
South London and Maudsley NHS £52,344.35 This research aims to improve the standards and outcomes of risk assessment for domestic abuse cases through exploring the links with mental health risk assessments.
University of Durham £85,600.92 This study will provide evidence on the profiles and characteristics of perpetrators of domestic abuse against older adults (aged 60 and over) causes of domestic abuse against older adults and professional responses, including how risk of abuse/abusers are identified and how risk is assessed and managed.
University of Durham £80,861.77 Research focusing on perpetrators coming from minoritised communities of race and/or targeting minoritised victim/survivors because of their sexuality and/or (trans) gender identity.
London Southbank University £115,046.00 A feasibility study to test the viability of natural language processing and machine learning techniques as tools to identify and risk assess alleged perpetrators of technology facilitated coercive control, including those in adolescent relationships.
Cordis Bright £124,406.00 Research exploring whether certain data can be used to demonstrate the impact of domestic abuse perpetrator programmes , and support the early identification of domestic abuse perpetrators based on demographic and criminal histories.