For Better or Worse? Improving the Response to Domestic Abuse Offenders on Probation

As the Ministry of Justice looks to develop a ‘new generation’ of programmes to reduce reoffending, we reflect on what can be learnt from the only accredited domestic abuse programme in England and Wales, Building Better Relationships (BBR). Findings from an ethnographic study of BBR are situated within the Probation Inspectorate’s recent inspection of domestic abuse work within the newly unified Probation Service which revealed a fractured and overstretched workforce. Our central argument is that if we are to avoid making matters worse, practitioners must be equipped with the time, supervision and skill needed to maintain something akin to a ‘therapeutic alliance’, that will endure in moments of crisis in their own lives as well as those of their clients

Epistemology and the Ethics of Homeopathy: a Response to Freckelton

The death of two patients in the care of Australian homœopaths is undeniably tragic and reflects poorly on the homœopathic profession at large. While Freckelton admits that it is not fair to judge a profession by its worst practitioners, this is precisely what he has done. If the same argument were applied to all Australian hospitals, in which there are an estimated 18,000 deaths each year due to adverse events or medical errors, then the public could be expected to lose confidence in conventional medicine. Generalising risk by citing extreme examples does not facilitate healthy debate or consideration of the deeper epistemological and ethical issues. While addressing Freckelton's valid concerns, we believe that the appropriate practice of homœopathy is epistemologically robust, ethical and empirically sound. Furthermore, while debate continues on definitions of evidence and the appropriate delivery of health care, we argue that the deliberate exclusion of certain forms of evidence, including positive patient outcomes measured according to different quantitative and qualitative criteria, inappropriately constrains individuals' rights to select models and methods of health care according to their values and to the goals that they wish to achieve

Preliminary steps towards a more preventative approach to eliminating violence against women in Europe

This article discusses findings from a project funded by the European Commission’s DAPHNE III programme that sought to enhance the provision of relationship education and domestic abuse prevention in European schools and other educational facilities: the REaDAPt (Relationship Education and Domestic Abuse Prevention tuition) project. It summarizes what is known about effective prevention from the research literature before explaining what the REaDAPt project revealed about changing attitudes, about implementing and evaluating domestic abuse prevention programmes in educational settings, and about being responsive to young people’s perspectives in the delivery of interventions. The article concludes by highlighting the iterative nature of the research needed to help develop relationship education and domestic abuse prevention tuition on a Europe-wide scale. </jats:p

Young teenagers' experiences of domestic abuse

This article reports on the first findings from the Boys to Men Research Project. In total, 1143 pupils aged 1314 years completed a questionnaire to assess their experiences of domestic abuse as victims, witnesses and perpetrators. Overall, 45% of pupils who had been in a dating relationship reported having been victimised, 25% having perpetrated it, with the only difference in rates of victimisation and perpetration between boys and girls being in relation to sexual victimisation. Of the whole sample, 34% reported having witnessed it in their own family. There was a relationship between victimisation and perpetration with the vast majority of perpetrators (92%) also reporting experiencing abuse from a boyfriend/girlfriend. There was also a relationship between experiencing abuse and help seeking from adults, with those who have been victimised less likely to say they would seek help if they were hit by a partner than those who had yet to experience any abuse. The relationship between help seeking and experiences of abuse is further complicated by gender, with girls twice as likely to seek help than boys, but with girls who have previously hit a partner among the most reticent group. The paper concludes with highlighting the implications of these findings for those undertaking preventative work in schools

A Gentle Ethical Defence of Homeopathy

Recent discourses about the legitimacy of homeopathy have focused on its scientific plausibility, mechanism of action and evidence base. These, frequently, conclude not only that homeopathy is scientifically baseless, but that it is ‘unethical.’ They have also diminished patients’ perspectives, values and preferences. We contend that these critics confuse epistemic questions with questions of ethics; misconstrue the moral status of homeopaths and have an impoverished idea of ethics – one that fails to account either for the moral worth of care and of relationships, or for the perspectives, values and preferences of patients. Utilitarian critics, in particular, endeavour to present an objective evaluation – a type of moral calculus – quantifying the utilities and disutilities of homeopathy as a justification for the exclusion of homeopathy from research and healthcare. But these critiques are built upon a narrow formulation of evidence and care, and a diminished episteme that excludes the values and preferences of researchers, homeopaths and patients engaged in the practice of homeopathy. We suggest that homeopathy is ethical as it fulfils the needs and expectations of many patients; may be practiced safely and prudentially; values care and the virtues of the therapeutic relationship; and provides important benefits for patients. Keywords Homeopathy, ethics, utilitarian, patient values and preferences, evidence, EBM, outcome

Narratives as Responses to Interpersonal Violence: The Case of HIV

This chapter examines how narratives can act as dialogic responses to physical interpersonal violence, affirming positive routes of response and helping to generate new routes of this kind. It also explores the limitations of narratives as responses to physical interpersonal violence, in situations where such violence is strongly related to economic and other resource constraints, and situations where it may be difficult to build commonalities between narrative responses. The chapter draws on my ongoing research, using semi-structured interviews, about people’s experiences of HIV support in South Africa, in 2001 and 2012, and on my analysis of narratives produced within these interviews, predominantly by women, about HIV-linked interpersonal physical violence, predominantly by men