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 "Theory" And Why Is It Important?
Why is having a theory critical to measuring and communicating the benefit of your prevention program?
In order to be able to show the value of a prevention program in a measurable way, most domestic violence programs engage in (or contract with an evaluator to engage in) some form of evaluation – often because it is required by funders or other stakeholders.
Most people familiar with the domestic violence prevention field understand the basic evaluation of direct services such as domestic violence shelters, where evaluation might count the number served by the number of beds used, assess resident satisfaction, or compare service accessibility to that of other shelters. By contrast, evaluation of an effort to prevent the recurrence of domestic violence, or even better, to prevent it before it even occurs, is more complicated. Measuring changes in a community’s knowledge regarding domestic violence, its changed social norms, and changed standards of acceptable behaviors as a result of prevention is a challenge. After all, how can we say for certain that A has led to B? How can we know that a prevention program (or any program for that matter) is the cause of a specific change? A multitude of unrelated factors may be affecting what may be seen as the outcome. (Browne-Miller and Wildavsky, Implementation, op. cit.)
Theory allows a local community-based prevention program to show its contribution to the larger effort.
A “theory” is a structured understanding of the causes, the chains of causes, and the effects of a problem, with some evidence that this understanding is a correct one. Theory can also provide a way to demonstrate more effectively how a program contributes to a specific outcome. Our “theory” is a statement of our well-thought-through ideas and concepts related to our prevention work. Having a clear theory will create both a stronger program design and more effective outcome measurement.
The following example provides an illustration of why having a theory of cause (the problem) as well as a theory of change (the solution) is important both to program design and program outcome measures:
A 15-year-old girl was raped at a post-prom party by three 18-year-old males. The victim knew her assailants, and both the victim and the perpetrators had been drinking. Here are three examples of how different theories (or analyses) of why rape occurs among teens can lead to different actions, all aimed toward the same desired change, preventing rape:
Theory of Cause: Girls are raped at parties because boys and men can’t control themselves, especially if they are drunk.
Solution: Keep the sexes separated, by force if necessary, to protect girls from rape. Keep kids away from alcohol. Help girls understand that it is their responsibility to stay away from parties where there is alcohol.
Theory of Cause: Boys rape because they believe they can get away with it, as long as they can justify it or blame her (e.g., she’s drunk, she’s a flirt).
Solution: Public condemnation and punishment to hold boys accountable, regardless of the circumstances. Educate young boys that “no means no,” and that girls’ behavior is not an invitation to rape them.
Theory of Cause: Neither boys nor girls call it “rape” if alcohol or a dating relationship is present in the situation. If they recognized it as rape, that alone would deter most boys. It would also encourage girls to help protect one another and boys to challenge their male peers’ behaviors.
Solution: Awareness campaign for youth to change perceptions of relationship violence, acquaintance rape, and what boys and girls can do to prevent them.
While one would certainly want to obtain more information about this and other rape cases before articulating a theory, this example highlights the direct correlation between why we believe something happens and what we will do to prevent it.
Excerpted from: Evaluation Handbook for Community Mobilization: Evaluating Domestic Violence Activism. Transforming Communities: Technical Assistance, Training and Resource Center (TC-TAT).
San Rafael, CA. 2000. Available at: www.transformcommunities.org.