Multiple Perspectives on Father Engagement in the Context of Domestic violence

Abstract

Background: Domestic violence (DV) is a serious human rights violation and a public health concern that impacts individuals, families, and communities around the world. While the impact of domestic violence on women, children and their relationships has been increasingly identified, effective intervention responses to abusive men as fathers are less developed. The experience of domestic abuse is acknowledged as being highly gendered, with women being disproportionately affected, and DV perpetrated primarily by men. While there has been a focus in recent years to understand what interventions are most effective in reducing male perpetration of abuse, recognising that men who use violence and abuse in the context of their relationships are often also fathers who remain a continued presence in their children’s lives, has received little attention. This thesis sought to address this gap in the knowledge base and explore father engagement in the context of domestic violence from multiple perspectives drawing on the experiences of adult and child victim-survivors, domestically abusive fathers and a wide range of statutory and non-statutory professionals.

Methods: Guided by a robust review of the international literature, the aims and objectives of this doctoral thesis were achieved by employing a qualitative approach underpinned and predominantly influenced by social constructionist theory embedded in a case study design. A total of 45 participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule, including eight victim-survivor mothers, six victim-survivor children and young people, three domestically abusive fathers and twenty-eight professionals across Probation Services, Court Services, Tusla and Specialist domestic violence services. Robust and comprehensive consideration of the ethical issues inherent in social research underscored this research design.

Findings: The data was analysed by utilising Braun and Clarke’s (2006, 2019) Reflexive Thematic Analysis. The findings from the analysis were delineated across three chapters drawing on the related literature. Among a host of challenges identified by professionals was the use of abusive tactics against professionals by perpetrators of domestic violence. For victim-survivors in addition to their experience, perpetrators of domestic violence not being held to account for their behaviour was among their greatest challenges. In considering ‘what works’ professionals, victim-survivors and perpetrators of domestic violence converged on the importance of interprofessional working and holding perpetrators of domestic violence to account, amongst other findings.

Conclusions: The analysis yielded four main themes which capture promising and impactful practice alongside the complexity and challenges of working with domestically abusive men and their families across professional systems. It affirms the strong case for father engagement, the pivotal role of children and young people as motivators of change and the critical need for policy, practice and programmes to support an approach to abusive men that ultimately holds them accountable for their behaviour. To this end, this thesis concludes by urging attention to the wider systemic challenges required for the aspiration of father engagement in this context to be realised. This wider attention demands a bridging of the policy divide across domestic violence and father engagement.