Decision-making in child protection and public protection around perpetrators of domestic abuse, in London and South-East England

I will analyse how child protection chairs, MARAC (multi-agency risk assessment conferences) chairs,
social workers, probation officers and solicitors evaluate the risk posed by people who have abused a
partner, and what emphasis they place on different factors.
I will read key decision-making documents from local authority files, which outline the reasons behind
decisions about whether an abuser's children are still in danger, whether they require continued
monitoring by MARAC or probation, and whether they need to be separated from their children. I will
examine the thought processes of the decision-makers, and analyse the content to see how they reach
decisions.
I will conduct individual interviews with decision-makers: child protection chairs, MARAC chairs, and
managers and lawyers from local authority children's services departments. I will also conduct a
nationwide survey of similar professionals about the factors they consider most significant in their
decision-making.
The strands of my data-gathering inform each other: my analysis of documents informs my interview
structures; while my interviews will offer new themes or dynamics to incorporate.
The project brings together current debates over whether a perpetrator of violence is still dangerous,
with theoretical developments in the study of re-offending. The latter have moved from a narrow focus
on past and current observed behaviour, to a more nuanced analysis of the internal mechanisms that
underpin violent behaviour. This theoretical framework applies on two levels of my research: I will
consider it as an approach to assessing an offender, while also exploring the complex mechanisms
underpinning key decision-making