Change that Lasts is a Chance for Change

The adoption of the risk need and responsivity (RNR) model in offending behaviour work in the 1990’s in England and Wales in the UK saw risk assessment aligned with the allocation and intensity of the supervision and resources applied in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and Allied Fields (Chapman and Hough 1998). As I have argued elsewhere (Turgoose 2016) although perhaps not known at the time the implications of this for the Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) sector would be significant. The introduction and adoption of the ‘risk model’ into DVA ‘work’ with victims in the specialist support sector has been a matter of mixed fortune. On the one hand a stronger connection with the statutory sector via the development of multi-agency partnership working on high risk cases and mobilising resources promptly at identified points of crisis has been enabled. On the other, DVA victims have been poorly served by a system which allocates resources based on risk levels rather than need (Home Office 2013; Regan 2007; Women’s Aid 2013; 2016), and by an approach which fails to appreciate the fluid nature of DVA and the importance of early intervention for both perpetrators and victims (Robinson 2010). Although statistics are disputed it is broadly accepted that women are both more likely to become victims of DVA than men and most likely to be subject to repeat acts of victimisation (Walby 2009; Walby and Towers 2018; Hester 2013). As such this paper takes a gendered analysis of DVA with the papers primary focus the (adult) victim. The Change That Lasts programme is a specialist sector idea regarding intervention (Women’s Aid 2016). It is a strengths-based, needs-led model that supports victims to build resilience and independence and which purports to respond to needs and risk whilst advocating the importance of empowering victims by responding to their self-defined needs. Here some observational practice findings of the use of a strengths-based approach utilising the Change That Lasts initiative within a DVA academic undergraduate module on a social-science-based degree programme with criminal justice based early career practitioners are explored.