“I don’t want to be like my dad”. In what ways, if any, can interventions with domestic violence and abuse perpetrators engage and address the relationship between perpetrators and their own parents?

Abstract

This report follows an early feasibility study investigating the potential of working with domestic abuse perpetrators by incorporating and addressing their own histories, family dynamics and past childhood experiences of being parented in homes where domestic abuse is present. The study contributes to the evidence base on the impact and influences of previous histories of being parented and witnessing abuse and the feasibility of incorporating these insights into treatment designs.

The study was conceived in response to the emergent evidence base on whole family interventions that acknowledge wider family dynamics as part of a response to domestic abuse, as well as the widely acknowledged evidence that many perpetrators of domestic abuse have witnessed abuse as children between their parents, which we refer to as ‘past parenting traumas’. This research acknowledges that, despite the evidence of a link between past parenting traumas and present abusiveness, there is little extant research on if or how these experiences should be addressed in perpetrator interventions.

Our focus is on the potential for addressing past parenting traumas as a way of addressing the underlying causes of abuse and, therefore, reducing it.

The primary aims of the study were to:

● Synthesise existing evidence relevant to how past experiences of being parented and witnessing abuse may impact on current abusive behaviour
● Critically interpret multiple, relevant fields of study to find useful avenues of further enquiry
● Gather evidence from practitioners and researchers in the field of DVA perpetrator interventions
● Provide a theoretical and conceptual framework on which to set out the considerations, challenges and opportunities for working with perpetrators through addressing past parenting traumas.

Thus, our original research questions were:

Primary Research Question: What does existing evidence tell us about the potential influence of the parents of domestic abuse perpetrators, either as a driver for abuse and/or as a potential mitigation for abusive behaviour?

Sub question 1: What is the potential for working with perpetrators’ parents to address perpetrators’ abusive behaviour, under what circumstances and in what ways?

Sub question 2: What are the potential risks for working with perpetrators’ parents to address perpetrator behaviour?