Making the Case for Domestic Violence Prevention; What Is Domestic Violence Prevention?

Manual: Making the Cost Benefit Case for Domestic Violence Prevention

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Making the Case for Domestic Violence Prevention Through the Lens of Cost-Benefit

A Manual for Domestic Violence Prevention Practitioners
(and the State and Local Policy-Makers They Present to)

What Is Domestic Violence Prevention?

Because most readers of this Manual are already familiar with the term “domestic violence prevention,” we will only briefly describe it here.

For a more in-depth look at domestic violence prevention, please see the following links:

The public health field uses a model, (commonly known as the “public health model”), that describes primary, secondary and tertiary prevention efforts or interventions. This model proposes that early or primary prevention costs society far less than the secondary and tertiary interventions that are necessary when primary prevention is not widespread or powerful enough to stop the violence before it occurs.

Primary prevention stops the violence before it occurs.

Primary prevention activities are those that take place before the violence occurs. The Prevention Institute defines primary prevention as “taking action to build resilience and to prevent problems before they occur." (Prevention Institute, 2004. www.preventioninstitute.org.) Primary prevention policies and programs help prevent violent behavior through interventions designed to eliminate the underlying causes and risk factors and strengthen protective factors. (Milestones of a Global Campaign for Violence Prevention, World Health Organization, 2005, p. 8.)

Primary prevention seeks to prevent even the initial perpetration or victimization – this means any first or new acts of violence, any first or new episodes of violence, any first or new victims of violence, or any first or new perpetrators of violence. Forms of primary prevention of domestic violence include public education leading to changes in social norms, policy changes, public service announcements, other media-based means of information dissemination, pre-marital counseling, counseling and support groups for young parents, and more.

Schools are an important setting for primary prevention activities. For example, high school violence prevention programs that explore relationships, gender roles, coercion, and control, help young men and women to have more responsible and healthy relationships in high school, college and beyond into adulthood.

“It’s important to include training around cultural beliefs and traditions or we can create a negative impact; if we don’t talk about that, it doesn’t make any sense for us to talk about domestic violence. For example, in the Latino culture as well as other cultures, the man may be the head of the household. In our culture, we respect that, but that does not mean that he has the right to be abusive. We know that he cannot or should not abuse his authority. We need to make sure that service providers (community-based organizations and shelters) are really responding to the issues of our community. Working within the cultural context of our community means working holistically and respecting how our community lives. All that is not just intervention but also prevention at the same time.”

Mily Trevino-Sauceda, Executive Director
Lideres Campesinas, Pomona, California, March 25, 2004

EXAMPLE: Integrating violence against women prevention messages into every local community in Michigan

When thinking of ways to prevent violence against women, we must look to ways of creating a culture that does not condone or support the oppression of women. Considering that the average child is exposed to many images of violence against women, we must think of ways to counteract these images with more positive images and messages of women. It is also important to include positive images of men and boys supporting women and being non-violent. Our strategies include:

Placing pro-woman messages in many different venues, including grocery store bags, health clubs, mail coupon inserts, anti-violence license plates or weekly anti-violence columns in local newspapers.
Publicizing local data about the occurrence and prevention of violence against women in school and local newspapers.
Working with the Governor and legislators to make regular announcements of issues and statistics related to violence against women.
Conducting social norms media campaigns to correct misperceptions that affect individual and community responses to violence against women, which in turn helps strengthen anti-violence norms. Find out more information about changing social norms by visiting the National Social Norms Resource Center at http://www.socialnorm.org.

A Vision for Prevention: Key Issues and Statewide Recommendations for the Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women in Michigan,
Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, p. 13.

Secondary prevention stops further harm and violence.

Secondary prevention activities happen immediately after the violent event occurs and include steps that decrease the likelihood that the event will recur. Some examples of secondary prevention activities are shelter services for victims of domestic violence, as well as services provided by crisis responders, police and fire department officials, ambulance drivers, city/county social workers, and child protective services. This form of prevention might also include short-term help for the victim to find new living quarters, sources of income, ways of caring for the children as the family copes with domestic violence, and more. These activities may be considered intervention as well.

Having an abused partner become safe by going to a shelter after a violent event is an example of secondary prevention.

Tertiary prevention addresses the long-term effects of the violence.

Tertiary prevention occurs over time and includes rehabilitation efforts, such as batterers’ intervention programs or working with survivors in an ongoing way. With tertiary prevention, the violence is not responded to after-the-fact in a way that fully resolves the negative impacts of that violence; this non-response or ineffective response has a far-reaching impact. Tertiary prevention addresses the long-term effects of violence, including but not limited to deep costs to individuals and society on all levels – health, productivity, economic, safety, well-being, and more.

An example of tertiary prevention are batterers’ intervention programs that seek to reeducate and reform abusers.

Pre-Physical Violence Prevention

In the domestic violence field, there is another understanding of secondary prevention (and therefore of primary prevention as well) that moves primary and therefore also secondary prevention to an earlier point on the prevention spectrum. Here physical violence typically follows (either immediately or over time) emotional, verbal, economic, or other non-physical forms of abuse and violence. Pre-physical violence prevention efforts are highly likely to reduce physical violence in both the long-term and the near-term.

WORK TO STOP THE VIOLENCE BEFORE IT EVER OCCURS
the further to the left along this continuum the more primary the prevention

once at the far right along this continuum THE VIOLENCE HAS KILLED

“Going Upstream”

Many people are familiar with the classic public health story explaining prevention:

A fisherman noticed a drowning person floating downstream and leapt into the water to rescue the person. Every time the fisherman started to fish again, another person in trouble came floating down the river. After several rescues, the fisherman decided to go upstream to see why these people were ending up in the river in the first place. Going further and further “upstream” to look for the root causes of people drowning represents increasing levels of prevention. The following drawing illustrates this concept:

Example: EPIC Faith Initiative

By Kathleen Chamberlin, Project Consultant for the Violence Prevention Unit of the California Department of Health Services, Epidemiology and Prevention for Injury Control (EPIC) Branch, first published in the Catalyst Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 2, Spring/Summer 2005, Marin Abused Women's Services.

The EPIC Faith Initiative focuses on educating faith leaders on domestic violence, primary and secondary prevention, and on strengthening the relationship between faith leaders and domestic violence advocates.

We know that many individuals affected by domestic violence seek guidance and assistance from faith leaders. Faith leaders are also in an ideal position to implement primary prevention activities within their own faith and surrounding communities. Practical guidance on developing a spiritual community that is safe for women and does not tolerate or unintentionally encourage domestic violence is an important part of this project. Information on implementing this concept is provided through easily implemented activities, such as model sermons, educating youth about healthy relationships, and being aware of potentially abusive situations when doing pre-marital counseling. The next step up on the prevention pyramid is to encourage faith leaders to become involved in activities that support a community where domestic violence is not tolerated. Developing regional teams of faith leaders and advocates that take this message and information back to their own neighborhoods has enhanced these activities.

We also learned that very few faith leaders are taught secondary prevention of partner violence – how to prevent domestic violence from re-occurring. Some of the project activities that focus on secondary prevention include: how to identify abusive relationships, how to intervene in a safe way after abuse has occurred, and how to provide support for those who have been victimized. Those of us who have been in the domestic violence field realize that intervention occurs not with a single agency but with a collaborative approach. Faith leaders have been amazed to discover the wide range of assistance that is available to those affected by domestic violence and that they can, in turn, help their local advocacy organizations. We also found that mistrust sometimes exists between the faith and domestic violence advocacy communities. Our vision is for faith leaders and domestic violence advocates to work together to assist not only individuals and families but also to positively affect the community. The potential for profound change along the prevention continuum is exhilarating.

It is very gratifying to see faith leaders literally absorb the information being presented and to realize that they can be a part of preventing domestic violence and that there are many community agencies that can help them protect and assist their members. On the other hand, domestic violence advocates have realized that faith leaders can e powerful allies in their work with individuals and in their prevention work within communities.

This work is one more step in changing society’s norm from a tolerance of domestic violence to no tolerance of domestic violence.