Scrutinising programmes in Ireland

Thangam Debbonaire

DVR

Overview

• Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform (DJELR) was investing in perpetrator programmes in 2003

• They wanted to know if their money was being well spent

• Key civil servant in post• He wanted to save €1 million per domestic

murder and scrutiny of the programmes• Deep divides between programmes

Different aims

• Some programmes wanted to demonstrate their programme was best or only

• Some women’s organisations wanted programmes shutting down

• Some wanted to know how to assess programmes• Some programmes wanted clear framework• Civil servant wanted proof “they work”• Women wanted to help other women• Programme men hated us• I wanted to know how programmes could be fairly

evaluated

No-one got what they wanted!

• But most got something. I think I provided:• Extended consultancy and mediation• Literature and practice review• Stronger coalitions• An evaluation against the current Respect

standard and the Ireland Task Force standards

• Recommendations for safe practice and a funding structure

Constraints

• Me• Consent• Access – lack of• Co-operation – coercion, persuasion, involvement• Infighting• Secrecy and outsiderness• Money, reputations and jobs at stake• Women’s lives at stake• Some lack of support for any/Respect standards• Open and disguised hostility to any pro-feminist

approach

We learnt:

• Some practice unsafe and had to be stopped• Some practitioners utterly impermeable and intransigent

without any evidence to support their stance• Some practitioners – usually the ones doing best work –

very keen to learn• Significant resistance to concept of gender inequality• Dependency on the self help model (AA)• A lot about how to evaluate – adapted existing tools,

created new ones, learnt about pitfalls of evaluation of programmes

• Lots of things that are useful for Respect accreditation• A lot about the cohort of men on programmes in Ireland

– data from almost all in the country in 2003

We also learnt:

• Significant numbers of women won’t go anywhere else • Some women’s lives changed dramatically for the better

as a result of programmes – left safely, negotiated child contact, man became safe to live with, recognised he wasn’t going to change

• Some changed for worse• Time Out gets misused and if women didn’t know they

got manipulated• Practitioners without specialist knowledge didn’t do so

well facilitating groups• Some superb practice and lessons about operating in

rural areas – use of public places, SMS, social support networks, working round closeness of communities

Other thoughts

• Being an outsider not completely unhelpful • I had to be very careful who I was seen with• The NDVIA refused to co-operate and now they don’t

exist any more – huge wasted opportunity• Need for minimum standards completely understood by

majority and strongly resisted by a minority• Resistance: absence, hostility, refusal, shutdown• Sometimes I was cannon fodder!• I had to defend every requirement with research and

practice evidence• The process improved good practice, stopped some

unsafe practice and provided a framework for development of programmes