Developing a Comprehensive Approach To Domestic Abuse Prevention

We are committed to supporting comprehensive prevention activities and systematic processes that eliminate domestic abuse and coercive control

The prevention of domestic abuse is can be categorised in three ways:

• Primary Prevention: Activities that take place before domestic abuse has occurred and are designed to prevent the abuse from happening. Examples of primary prevention include awareness, a wide range of education programmes, research, evidence-based pilot projects, activism and campaigns that change social norms, culture and legislation

• Secondary Prevention: Immediate responses after domestic abuse has occurred to provide services for the victims of abuse that deal with the immediate consequences of abuse. Examples of secondary prevention include refuges, support services and emergency helplines.

• Tertiary Prevention: Long-term responses after domestic abuse has occurred to deal with the medium and long-term impacts of domestic abuse. Examples of tertiary prevention include long-term support for victims, ongoing advocacy and programmes for perpetrators.
  A comprehensive response to domestic abuse involves all three types of prevention.

A comprehensive response to domestic abuse involves all three types of prevention.

Over the last forty years, the majority of efforts in response to domestic abuse have been led by the activism and actions of women’s groups to support victims and could be classified as secondary or tertiary forms of prevention. More recently there has been an increasing awareness that comprehensive prevention requires the causes (primary prevention) and the consequences to be addressed in a systematic way.