Domestic violence perpetrator programmes: How do they respond to neurodiversity?

The violence against women sector looks set to achieve a widely called for Perpetrator Strategy within the imminent Domestic Abuse Act in the UK. This will make it a statutory duty to fund perpetrator programmes to tackle men's domestic violence towards women in the longer-term. The need for such cross governmental assurances in statutory provision could not be more pressing given COVID-19 has illustrated and exacerbated how pervasive domestic abuse is globally. It is even more important given recent events surrounding the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard in Clapham which has mounted public pressure on the UK Government to tackle men's violence against women. Domestic violence perpetrator programmes do exist, but these have not been responsive to the needs of austistc men and/or men with ADHD. This fellowship will contribute significantly by closing a gap in knowledge, policy and practice in this regard. By working alongside relevant organisations such as Respect - that accredits voluntary sector perpetrator programmes in the UK - and HMPPS - responsible for accredited perpetrator programmes in the criminal justice sector - this fellowship will help enrich understanding amongst organisations and policy makers to identify and support neuro-atypical perpetrators of domestic abuse by developing effective interventions.
As well as disseminating my PhD research across policy makers and practitioners, the fellowship will extend and generate new impact through collaborations with national and international experts within two established, world-leading research centres. I will join Durham's Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA) as a full member and will collaborate with internationally leading domestic abuse experts there such as Dr Stephen Burrell (men and masculinities); Prof Catherine Donovan (LBGT intimate relationships); Dr Geetanjali Gangoli (minoritised ethnic communities); and Prof Nicole Westmarland, award winner for the largest ever evaluation of European perpetrator programmes - Project Mirabal. I will also join Monash University's Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre (GFV) (Victoria, Australia), for one month as a visiting scholar. I will collaborate with leading domestic abuse experts such as Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon (law reform, intimate partner violence and perpetrator interventions) and visit key Centre sector partners relevant to my research. I will present my research as part of the CRiVA and GFV Centres' Seminar Series and engage with all the Centre activities which are in strong alignment with my own work. This fellowship will extend the impact of my research and that of CriVA and GFV by introducing a new focus on male perpetrators who are autistic and/or who have ADHD.
Through this fellowship I will generate new knowledge by carrying out (10) interviews with experts working with autistic/ADHD male perpetartors and by mapping available neurodiverse services in the UK and Australia. There is a growing awareness amongst regulatory bodies in the UK (HMIP, 2020) and within Australia's National Research agenda (Fitzgibbon et al, 2020a;b) that service provision and sentencing decisions are being hampered by inadequate and insufficient assessments, expertise, and interventions. This fellowship will therefore be pivotal in paving the way towards thinking about, learning from, and developing international responses that tackle the violence of neuro-diverse male perpetrators of abuse.
The Postodoctoral Fellowship will make a substantive contribution to domestic abuse prevention nationally and internationally. It will also make a pivotal difference to my developing future academic career: by carving my place as an international expert in the field of neurodiverse perpetartors of domestic abuse; through opportunities to develop my training needs and funding bids; and by building upon my research skills and expertise through collaborations with world leading experts in two thriving research centres.