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Measuring violence using administrative data collected by specialist domestic and sexual violence and abuse support services

Interpersonal violence, which can include various forms of domestic and sexual violence and abuse (DSVA) is a leading cause of death, particularly among young adults. In the UK, specialist DSVA services provide much-needed support to victim-survivors of these types of violence, and some provide support for perpetrators to change their behaviour. To monitor and support their work, specialist services collect data on violence. This data has the potential to improve understanding of violence but presents unique challenges.

In this review, VISION researchers Dr Annie Bunce, Dr Sophie Carlisle and Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa describe and discuss some of the key challenges facing the data collected by specialist services.

Inconsistencies in data collection arise due to the differing remits and priorities of specialist services, which mean violence and abuse are defined and measured in slightly different ways by these organisations. Particularly, the review highlights the significant variation in outcomes and outcome measurement tools used to evidence the effectiveness of services and interventions.

Specialist support services collect valuable data on many and multiple types of violence, the wide impacts of violence on victim-survivors’ lives, and information about perpetrators. As the data are not collected for research purposes, a considerable amount of work is often required to make the data suitable for statistical analysis. Critically, the piecemeal and insecure funding of specialist services limits their capacity to collect and analyse data.

Together these issues make it challenging to collate data from specialist services and use it to inform measurements of violence.

The researchers recommend the development of a core outcomes framework, exploration of methods for linking specialist services data with other sources of administrative data on violence, and sustainable funding for third sector specialist support services.

For further information please see: Social Sciences | Free Full-Text | The Concept and Measurement of Interpersonal Violence in Specialist Services Data: Inconsistencies, Outcomes and the Challenges of Synthesising Evidence (mdpi.com)

Or contact Dr Annie Bunce at annie.bunce@city.ac.uk

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Young People and Intimate Partner Violence: Experiences of Support and Services in England

Although estimating the prevalence of victimisation among young people is challenging, previous research indicates that around a fifth of young people have experienced physical violence from an intimate partner, half experienced emotional victimisation, and a quarter report some type of unwanted sexual contact. National UK crime surveys consistently find young women to be at greater risk of victimisation than those over 25, and intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) is one of the leading risks of death globally for younger women (aged 20–24).

In this paper, VISION Director Professor Gene Feder and colleagues from the University of Bristol and University of Central Lancashire, explored young people’s experiences of seeking or receiving institutional help and support in relation to IPVA.

Semi-structured interviews were carried with 18 young people aged 18 to 25, using Life History Calendars. Experiences of range of types of services in relation to intimate partner violence were explored, including support from education; primary and maternity services; third sector organisations; and counselling and support workers.

Participants said that they wanted clearer information to be provided in schools on identifying abuse from a younger age and better signposting and access to specialist services. They described how they benefited from equal power dynamics in relationships with professionals where they were supported to make their own decisions.

The authors found that young people often view adult support services as not for them and more needs to be done to understand effective responses to IPVA among different groups. Professionals in all sectors (including schools) need IPVA trauma-informed training that encourages equal power dynamics, with a clear understanding of and access to referral pathways, to be able to respond better to the specific needs of young people experiencing IPVA.

For further information please see: Young People and Intimate Partner Violence: Experiences of Institutional Support and Services in England | SpringerLink

Or contact Dr Maria Barnes at maria.barnes@bristol.ac.uk

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Varying definitions and measurements of violence limit reduction strategies

Violence reduction is a United Nations (UN) sustainable development goal (SDG) and is important to both the public health and criminology fields. The collaboration between the two has the potential to create and improve prevention strategies but has been hampered by the usage of different definitions and measurements.

In this paper, VISION researchers Dr Niels Blom, Dr Anastasia Fadeeva and Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa explore the definitions and measurements of violence by the World Health Organization, UN, and Council of Europe to arrive at a harmonized framework aligned with the SDGs.

Violence and abuse are defined by these organizations as intentional actions that (are likely to) lead to harm, irrespective of physicality or legality. When recording violence and abuse, health- and justice-based administrative systems use different codes which cannot directly be translated without resorting to broad overarching categories.

The researchers propose a framework to record violence that includes individual and event identifiers, forms of violence and abuse (including physical, sexual, and psychological), harm, and individual and event characteristics.

For further information please see: Social Sciences | Free Full-Text | The Concept and Measurement of Violence and Abuse in Health and Justice Fields: Toward a Framework Aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (mdpi.com)

Or contact Niels at Niels.Blom@city.ac.uk

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Different childhood adversities lead to different health inequalities

Even experiencing just one type of adverse childhood experience (ACE) increases the risks of poor health outcomes in adulthood, including health-harming behaviours, poor sexual and mental health, and crime and violence.

Among people experiencing one type of ACE, this study examined which ACEs were most strongly related to each type of health harms, using a combined study sample of 20,556 18–69 years living in England and Wales. The research team, including VISION researcher Mark Bellis, found that sexual abuse in childhood strongly predicted subsequent obesity. Sexual abuse also showed the biggest increase in later cannabis use. Household alcohol problems in childhood was the ACE most strongly associated with violence and incarceration in adulthood.

Toxic stress can arise from ACEs such as physical and sexual abuse, but other more prevalent ACEs, for example verbal abuse and parental separation, may also contribute substantively to poorer life course health.

For further information, please see: Comparing relationships between single types of adverse childhood experiences and health-related outcomes: a combined primary data study of eight cross-sectional surveys in England and Wales | BMJ Open

Or contact Mark Bellis at M.A.Bellis@ljmu.ac.uk

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Training GPs remotely during COVID-19: Lessons learned

There may have been a rise in domestic abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time general practice adopted remote working, which extended to training and education being delivered online.

IRIS (Identification and Referral to Improve Safety) is an example of an evidence-based UK healthcare training support and referral programme, focusing on DVA, which transitioned to remote delivery during the pandemic.

To understand the adaptations and impact of remote DVA training in IRIS-trained general practices a group of researchers – including VISION members Estela Barbosa and Gene Feder – explored the perspectives of those delivering and receiving training.

It was found that remote DVA training in UK general practice widened access to learners. However, it may have reduced learner engagement compared with face-to-face training. DVA training is integral to the partnership between general practice and specialist DVA services, and reduced engagement risks weakening this partnership.

The researchers recommend a hybrid DVA training model for general practice, including remote information delivery alongside a structured face-to-face element. This has broader relevance for other specialist services providing training and education in primary care.

For further information please see: Adapting domestic abuse training to remote delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: perspectives from general practice and support services | British Journal of General Practice (bjgp.org)

Or contact Estela Barbosa Capelas at estela.barbosa@city.ac.uk

Mental health service use in perpetrators of partner violence

Perpetration of partner violence is more common in people with recent mental health service use compared to the general household population of England.

Research conducted by Dr Vishal Bhavsar, Kings College London (KCL); VISION Co-Investigator Professor Louise M. Howard, KCL; VISION Deputy Director Sally McManus, City, University of London; and Dr Katherine Saunders, KCL, has demonstrated this correlation is not affected by criminal justice involvement or by social demographics(e.g. class, education), but seems to be explained by greater exposure to childhood adversities and exposure to partner violence.

The researchers think this work highlights an important potential role for health services in responding to perpetrators of domestic abuse, especially services which provide care for people with mental health conditions. Effective strengthening of the healthcare system’s response to perpetrators of domestic abuse has the potential to reduce violence.

For further information please see: Intimate partner violence perpetration and mental health service use in England: analysis of nationally representative survey data | BJPsych Open | Cambridge Core

Or contact Dr Vishal Bhavsar at vishal.2.bhavsar@kcl.ac.uk

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Remote GP contact limits domestic violence care

General Practice has a central role in identifying and supporting those affected by DVA. Pandemic associated changes in UK primary care included remote initial contacts with primary care and predominantly remote consulting.

This paper explores general practice’s adaptation to DVA care during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that the disruption caused by pandemic restrictions revealed how team dynamics and interactions before, during and after clinical consultations contribute to identifying and supporting patients experiencing DVA. Remote assessment complicates access to and delivery of DVA care.

This has implications for all primary and secondary care settings, within the NHS and internationally, which are vital to consider in both practice and policy.

For further information please see: General practice wide adaptations to support patients affected by DVA during the COVID-19 pandemic: a rapid qualitative study | BMC Primary Care | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)

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Use of text mining to study Intimate Partner Violence

Computational text mining methods are proposed as a useful methodological innovation in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) research. Text mining can offer researchers access to existing or new datasets, sourced from social media or from IPV-related organisations, that would be too large to analyse manually. This article aims to give an overview of current work applying text mining methodologies in the study of IPV, as a starting point for researchers wanting to use such methods in their own work.

A systematic review was conducted to PRISMA guidelines, searching 8 databases and identifying 22 unique studies to include in the review.

The studies cover a wide range of methodologies and outcomes. Supervised and unsupervised approaches are represented, including rule-based classification (n = 3), traditional Machine Learning (n = 8), Deep Learning (n = 6) and topic modelling (n = 4) methods. Datasets are mostly sourced from social media (n = 15), with other data being sourced from police forces (n = 3), health or social care providers (n = 3), or litigation texts (n = 1). Only a few studies commented on the ethics of computational IPV research.

Text mining methodologies offer promising data collection and analysis techniques for IPV research. However, future work in this space must consider the ethical implications of computational approaches.

For further information please see: A Systematic Literature Review of the Use of Computational Text Analysis Methods in Intimate Partner Violence Research | SpringerLink or contact Lilly Neubauer at j.neubauer@cs.ucl.ac.uk or Dr Leonie Tanczer at l.tanczer@ucl.ac.uk

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Reducing the impact of parental intimate partner violence

A fifth of children in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children experienced parental intimate partner violence in early childhood. This analysis sought to identify which positive experiences might reduce the chances that such children would go on to develop depressive symptoms in adolescence.

VISION Interim Director, Professor Gene Feder, collaborated with Bristol University colleagues. They found that exposure to parental intimate partner violence in early childhood was associated with more depressive symptoms at age 18.

Most positive experiences were linked with lower levels of depressive symptoms regardless of parental intimate partner violence exposure. However, among those exposed to parental intimate partner violence, this association was found only for relationships with peers, school enjoyment, neighbourhood safety and cohesion on depressive symptoms.

Interventions aiming to nurture positive relationships with peers, school experiences and neighbourhood safety and cohesion have the potential to improve adolescent depression, including among those exposed to parental intimate partner violence.

For further information please see: Factors mitigating the harmful effects of intimate partner violence on adolescents’ depressive symptoms: a longitudinal birth cohort study — University of Bristol or contact Gene at gene.feder@bristol.ac.uk