We have demonstrated that domestic violence is a multifaceted and multidimensional issue that impacts society at all levels. We have further discussed how complex the multiple pathways into violence can be; this complexity necessitates a comprehensive and diversified response, which aims to prevent and address domestic violence, support, and empower survivors, and hold perpetrators accountable while giving them the tools necessary to change their behavior. 

In the following chapter we will consider the existing interventions aimed at achieving these goals, both at a European and country-specific level. We will describe the EU legal framework, direct services for both survivors and perpetrators of domestic violence, advocacy for legal and policy reform and prevention efforts and discuss what objectives they respond to and what gaps remain to be addressed. We heavily concentrate on Europe and our partner agencies. Nevertheless, there are countless feminist initiatives and self-organized groups, as well as historic battles that have led to the state-of-the-art intervention we are showing here, that we cannot include. 

In recent years, the UN has undertaken more initiatives to end both violence against women and girls and intimate partner violence. The organisation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development included language explicitly aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Target 5.2 calls for eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence. The SDGs provide an important framework, influencing national policies and guiding UN-funded initiatives to reduce violence. In 2020, UN General Assembly Resolution 75/161 on the Elimination of Domestic Violence was introduced, urging member states to adopt comprehensive approaches to preventing domestic violence. It calls for strengthened laws, social services, education, and awareness campaigns and promotes the provision of safe shelters for survivors. 

At EU level, a parliamentary resolution first called on member states to carry out national studies in 1986 to build up a database based on which violence against women could be assessed and countermeasures planned. Since then, significant strides were made on a policy level to combat violence against women and girls, as well as domestic violence more specifically. It’s crucial to consider the most important European Union legislation on the issue, as it lays the foundation for existing interventions and outlines the priorities for which funding must be made available on an EU and country level. 

The Council of Europe convention on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence, usually referred to as the “Istanbul Convention”, creates the basis for the current EU response to issues of domestic violence. Ratified to date by 38 European countries and the EU itself, this treaty recognizes violence against women and girls as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination and lays out specific a comprehensive framework of measures aimed at protecting and supporting survivors. States are therefore obligated to respond to domestic violence by implementing these minimal standards and ensure that there is funding available for institutions and organizations that offer services for both survivors and perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence. A body of independent experts – GREVIO – is tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Istanbul Convention by EU member states; this is an ongoing process, designed to ensure accountability. GREVIO experts receive state reports, conduct country-monitoring visits, and produce detailed reports on the level of implementation of each of the articles of the Convention in specific countries.

In May 2024, the Council of Europe adopted its first-ever directive to combat violence against women and domestic violence, which sets standards for the protection of victims and survivors. It further mandates that practices such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage are criminalized, along with more recently emerging forms of cyber violence. Based on this legislation, as well as the EU Gender Equality Strategy, there is funding on a European level available for projects and initiatives combatting domestic violence and violence against women and girls.

The thematization of male violence against women and girls as a violation of human rights opened an important new field of action for the actors, gave their concerns an elevated level of moral legitimacy and brought them from a discursive marginal position to the center of international debates and intervention mechanisms. In this way, “women with their specific experiences of injustice were constituted as subjects of international law with legitimate legal and protection claims” (Wölte 2002: 241). However, this positive assessment must be qualified by the fact that the realization of human rights is interpreted very differently, sometimes functionalized and blocked in international institutions for years due to specific national interests. Respect for human rights, their interpretation and implementation are linked to permanent negotiation processes and are dependent on globalized economic processes, changing political coalitions and the balance of power at national and international level. It is also crucial to mention that, despite the existence of all the described efforts on a global scale, an international treaty that recognizes violence against women as a human rights violation is still there amiss. There is still no UN international treaty recognising violence against women (VAW) as a human rights violation in and of itself (Tchoukou, 2023). The European Union has made significant strides to ensure the criminalization of various forms of violence against women and girls across the member states, as well as introducing measures aimed at providing support to survivors and ensuring perpetrators are held accountable. While this is an important shift on a policy level, and a basis on which states and CSOs can build specific interventions, it is crucial to note that the country specific monitoring reports reveal that there are still major gaps in practice and implementation across Europe (CoE,2024 3). 

In its 2023 country report Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE) asserts that: “The significance of women's specialist services cannot be overstated. They have historically emerged based on feminist methodologies and their upcoming was not just a response to the limitations and inadequacies of mainstream services in effectively responding to the needs of survivors of VAW/DV, but an imperative acknowledgement of the diverse, gendered nature of violence experienced by women, with approximately 90% of perpetrators being men” (WAVE, 2023). Therefore, we must first and foremost consider the kinds of services that must be made available to survivors.

Often the first point of contact for survivors of domestic violence, free nation-wide helplines provide a crucial service, designed to provide information and support and, hopefully, become a starting point for ending violence. Information about available helplines across Europe can be accessed here. 

One of the most fundamental and immediate interventions offered to survivors of domestic violence is the provision of housing safe shelters. Ensuring access to safe accommodation for women experiencing domestic violence must a priority. However, the 2023 WAVE Country report notes that many more shelters and beds are urgently needed across Europe, as only 10 countries meet the minimum available number established in Istanbul Convention. Even in countries where women’s shelters are well established and available in large numbers, reports indicate a dire shortage – Germany is currently missing 21.000 beds to adhere to the Istanbul convention. This shortage comes at the expanse of women and children that are forced to stay in violent situations (FHK 2023).

The Istanbul Convention also mandates that parties “shall provide or arrange for specialist women’s support services to all women victims of violence and their children” (CoE 2017). Survivors of violence should be provided access to the forms of support that are necessary to ensure that they are safe and that can help mitigate the effects of violence on their lives. This includes psychological counselling and legal aid but also access to information about other sources of help, such as social and housing services. In 2023, WAVE noted a significant increase in the overall number of women’s centres across Europe.

However, at the same time they highlight many causes for concern and gaps that remain to be addressed when it comes to the accessibility and quality of these services. 53% (4617) of women’s centres are still missing Europe-wide to achieve the necessary level of coverage. Here again there are questions about the level of implementation of the gender perspective in organisations supporting survivors, as gender-neutral services, which are not in the best position to offer good quality, survivor centred interventions. 

Programmes aimed at work with perpetrators an essential element of a comprehensive and integrated system for the prevention and combatting of domestic violence. A report on domestic and sexual violence perpetrator programmes published in 2014 by the Council of Europe, “In leading perpetrators to accept responsibility for their violence, perpetrator programmes are crucial to overcoming belief systems that tolerate, justify or outright condone violence against women“ (CoE,2014). The provision of these programmes is also one of the obligations put on the states by the Istanbul Convention, with the explicit direction that “the safety of, support for and the human rights of victims are of primary concern and that, where appropriate, these programmes are set up and implemented in close co-ordination with specialist support services for victims“ (CoE, 2011). Crucially, these programmes should be centred around a gendered understanding of domestic violence and designed to prioritise the safety and the perspective of the survivor. To ensure this, minimum standards designed in collaboration with women’s support services should be put in place. One example of this in practice is the national network of programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence in Germany, which has developed an accreditation system based on national standards set up in close collaboration with women’s support services. Through this system, approved by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, the network assesses and monitors the quality of interventions for perpetrators.

On a broader level, the European Network for the Work with Perpetrators of Domestic Violence (WWP EN) published in 2023 the first European standards for work with male perpetrators of intimate partner violence which highlight a focus on the safety of the survivor and collaboration with partner support services.

Primary prevention of domestic violence is a vital part of a comprehensive policy response to the prevalence of violence against women and girls. To help effectively and achieve widespread change, there must be a change of hearts and minds in the society at large and a communal understanding that gender inequality is a cause and a consequence of violence against women (UN Women 2020). It is also a complex topic, that should be considered, according to the ecological model developed by Hagemann-White (2010) on several levels – societal, institutional, community and individual. While it is not possible to go into details of all the individual ways in which prevention of domestic violence should be carried out, we will consider the current state of these efforts in Europe in general.

The Istanbul Convention understands domestic violence as a gendered phenomenon, rooted in the traditional understanding of gender roles and harmful stereotypes. Therefore, it mandates that “Parties shall take the necessary measures to promote changes in the social and cultural patterns of behaviour of women and men with a view to eradicating prejudices, customs, traditions and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority of women or on stereotyped roles for women and men” (CoE,2011). To understand better how this can be put into practice, we can look to recommendations published by CoE in 2014 according to this publication, promising practices in the realm of primary prevention are those that: 

According to the 2023 WAVE Country Report, thirty-two European countries provide some state funding for primary prevention initiatives. Most common efforts for primary prevention in Europe include: 

Campaigns aimed at challenging patriarchal norms and structures, as well as gender stereotypes and, through that, preventing violent relationships are widely developed across Europe. They should, however, be designed carefully to be effective and to minimise sexist backlash. Specific guidelines on designing such campaigns were published by the Council of Europe. 

Prevention programmes for young people These programmes are most often school-based (offered in 33 European countries) (WAVE, 2023), however there are also examples of organisations going beyond that to reach young people.  

As mentioned before, most gendered violence is perpetrated by men against women. Therefore, it is imperative that we work to engage men and boys in the work to end domestic violence, starting from primary prevention.  

Interventions targeting men and boys must be put in place not only once violence has been committed – but prevention is crucial to recognize the underlying gender dynamics and power structures. This work starts with men examining their own beliefs and shitting their behaviour : 

It should be noted that prevention remains a topic often overlooked by policy and lawmakers and more resources should be invested into this crucial part of the domestic violence response on a local, country, and EU level. 

Judging by the current state of research and interventional politics, one could argue that a feminist understanding of gendered violence has become “mainstream”. The movement's success is undeniable; a broad network of support measures for victims of violence has emerged, perpetrator-oriented sanctions and services have been implemented and broad-based awareness campaigns have been carried out. Politicians, the judiciary, and the police have reacted and contributed a great deal to improving the situation in the form of changes to the law, new intervention models and a willingness to cooperate with women's projects and initiatives. There have been positive interactions at the various levels of prevention and professional approaches. Interventions and changes in individual attitudes and at the structural level, e.g. in the form of laws and institutions, work together. The change in public awareness has impacted the legal sanctioning of gender-based violence, and this in turn affects individual opportunities to end violent relationships.  

Despite the visibility and the support measures, there has been no significant change in the gender distribution of the number of perpetrators and victims, or in the extent of violence against women and girls. 

The removal of taboos surrounding relationship violence has only been partially achieved so far. The silence has been broken. But even today, many of those affected do not talk about what happened to them. This applies not only to male victims of violence, as is sometimes assumed (Spencer 2020), but also to women (Boethius and Åkerström, 2020). ”Considering that being in an abusive relationship is not altogether unusual, and that the violence is illegal and in contemporary society publicly condemned and morally questioned, it can seem like a paradox that many women do not disclose the abuse and seek help“ (Boethius/ Åkerström, 2020, p. 186). It is still true that “generations of blame and shame (...) cannot be shed overnight” (Hagemann-White 2002: 35). 

Many women do not make use of the existing support services. According to the FRA survey, one in three (33 %) of victims of partner violence and one in four (26 %) victims of non-partner violence contacted at least one organisation or service to seek help. In most cases women do not make the decision to involve services. It is therefore a high-threshold measure that is only taken when the severity of the violence increases. Many women in abusive situations still do not call the police (EU 2022 p. 4). 

A specific type of media reporting and certain myths are extremely resistant to change. Even in the left-liberal press, violence against women is presented exclusively as a family dispute, as a relationship drama or as a “tragic case” and thus individualized. The enduring myths include that violent men are always “the others” and can be clearly distinguished from “normal” men, that it is not the perpetrators of violence who are to blame but drugs, unemployment or an unhappy childhood, that the woman provoked the man and that it depends on her behavior whether the violence stops. These myths continue to exist, even though they have long been scientifically disproved.  

In many European countries, the support system is lacking or underdeveloped. At the same time, specialized services and police alone cannot and will not solve the problem of violence against women. Having more social workers and police officers 24/7 around us is not the vision of the society that we are striving for. Moreover, people may accept the situation as it is because there are institutions to which they can delegate to making them invisible. In recent years, more and expanded protective laws have been enacted. They are particularly important, but in practice they are not always effective. Many women feel unprotected in their current place of residence or are at real risk, for example because they are isolated and alone; because the violent partner may not comply with court orders such as a restraining order; because he knows there and the children's routes or has allies in the neighborhood. However: professional help and state prosecution alone cannot guarantee safety because they are only selective and are part of a state of emergency and not part of everyday life. Therefore, civil society mechanisms that offer protection to those affected by domestic violence must be developed. 

The fundamental problem is that the existing measures are not only quantitatively inadequate, but most of them only take effect after the violence has already occurred. By then, the damage has already been done! The dominant focus in many professional approaches to date is on empowering victims or working with perpetrators. As essential as this is, it tends to suggest that the crime takes place on a lonely island, in a space reserved exclusively for two actors and otherwise devoid of people. 

Prevention, however, has been neglected or reduced to awareness-raising campaigns. But in this “information age” these tend to drown in the trillions of images and advertisements competing for attention in public space. More importantly, campaigns are limited in time, create selective awareness, and set processes in motion, but cannot lead to lasting change. A campaign creates highlights, but hardly any lasting changes in everyday life. The people shown in posters and videos are strangers, inaccessible – unlike friends, colleagues, and neighbors. The results of a recent meta-analysis underline that preventive interventions can effectively reduce the risk of IPV, but “should be tailored to the requirements and constraints of specific population groups and contexts to maximize impact” (Alsina et.al. 2024 p. 974). 

Our review has aimed to show shortcomings in addressing the social environment in which violence takes place. Its importance in preventing partner violence has not been recognized. The informal structures of everyday life such as social networks, behavioral norms, relationships, dependencies, and the places where people live, and work have received little attention. And yet it is here where violence takes place. It is here that people disclose their situation, it is here that they first seek help. The question of bystanders and the local community support and reactions to violence are crucial to encourage or hinder, protect, or endanger the affected. Although not directly involved, people in the social or local environment often have a key role to play, they are close by, have short distances and can help prevent escalation or stop violence.

Today, we see the social environment potential actor in the protection and reduction of violence against women. In our understanding, we argue for an approach that aims to build or stabilize local social infrastructures and support networks. This approach would make it unnecessary for victims of domestic violence to leave or flee their home in the long term, because they would be safe within their social environment. 

Action strategies must therefore increasingly focus on where the violence takes place, i.e. directly in people's immediate lives. The basis for such community-based work with neighborhoods and social relations would be an understanding of democracy that includes the right to an inviolable personality, including bodily self-determination, and that is “linked to the idea of a civil society that includes the private sphere in its concept of justice”(Brückner 2000: 10).

The next chapter will present what is meant by community organizing, analyses the potential of community networks to prevent, reduce and protect against violence, what such a prevention and intervention approach should look like in concrete terms and, based on research and practice, what the benefits of such an approach are.