Preventing violence against women and girls - what works: evidence summary

Directions for future research

Based on the evidence presented within this report, the following areas for future research have been identified:

i. Further evaluations of interventions – both in Scotland and elsewhere – are necessary to understand ‘what works’. For example, for the interventions classified as ‘inconclusive’ additional evidence via high-quality longitudinal evaluations would be beneficial for understanding the impacts of these interventions on preventing VAWG. Embedding evaluation within the intervention programme approach will contribute to understanding the most effective approaches to preventing VAWG. Such evaluations should include both quantitative and qualitative approaches to better understand the impacts and effects of each intervention.

ii. More longitudinal research is required to understand the effects of primary prevention interventions for VAWG over time.

iii. While challenging, research that measures behavioural changes as a direct outcome would be welcome. As shown throughout this review, many evaluations of interventions to prevent VAWG focus on attitudinal change as an outcome. It is acknowledged that the relationship between attitudinal and behavioural change is unclear. As such, evidence on how attitudinal change impacts long term behavioural changes is often promising but sparse.

iv. Evidence around effective or promising primary prevention interventions is often from education settings with young people (e.g. secondary schools or higher education). Further research could look at alternative settings for primary prevention interventions.

v. Future research focused upon understanding interventions that may be effective for preventing HBV and FGM would be valuable. There is limited evidence available, particularly within the context of high-income countries. Likewise, while deemed out of scope for this report, there is limited available evidence on what works to prevent commercial sexual exploitation.

vi. Of the primary interventions presented within this report, those that focus on attitudinal and/or behavioural change to prevent VAWG (e.g. with younger people) may have an impact in preventing coercive and controlling behaviours as forms of domestic abuse, although whether interventions specifically targeted coercive and controlling behaviour was not always clear from the available literature. The evidence linked to this explicit outcome is limited and could be explored further.

vii. While there is emerging evidence about the exacerbated risk and impacts of domestic abuse for victim-survivors and families within the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic (WHO 2020), it is unclear whether/to what extent the nature of domestic abuse itself has changed^[122]. As such, it is not possible to draw conclusions on what the COVID-19 pandemic means for what works to prevent DA and other forms of VAWG. How the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the content and design of prevention-focused interventions should be monitored.