Domestic Abuse Service Providers and Their Stories, 2023-2024

Shaw, Rebecca (2025). Domestic Abuse Service Providers and Their Stories, 2023-2024. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857926

This research project investigated current practitioners’ perceptions of the dominant narratives of domestic abuse. Dr Shaw worked in collaboration with four service providers in West Yorkshire who deal with both victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse. Focus group sessions and individual interviews were held with all the participants, with the aim to identify what kind of narratives persist in preventing change and identify gaps in understanding how the system responds to the needs of both perpetrators and victims.

Data description (abstract)

This dataset contains transcripts from focus group sessions and individual interviews from the project 'Domestic Abuse Service Providers and their Stories'. Participants were drawn from four domestic abuse service providers across Leeds, West Yorkshire and York. The focus group sessions were conducted first, with all participants from each of the respective organisations, followed by the individual interviews. Data was collected through audio-recorded sessions/interviews, either held online or conducted in person.

The project aimed to investigate the power and persistence of dominant narratives in relation to domestic abuse, as witnessed by service providers who support both victims and perpetrators. A key ambition of this project was not only to identify and analyse these narratives, but to consider how we might improve future policy and practice to change them. The key aims were to:

- Identify potential strategies for practically changing the narrative of domestic abuse.
- Apply a methodology using narrative theory to investigate the stories of service providers’ experiences with domestic abuse victims and perpetrators.
- Assess current practitioners’ perceptions of the dominant narratives around domestic abuse and identify what kinds of narratives persist in preventing change.

The project utilised a narrative inquiry framework throughout both data collection and analysis. This is a qualitative research method focused on understanding experience and which uses stories as the unit of analysis

Consistent themes emerged across all the storytellers, however, each teller combined different events, characters and elements of narrative to tell their tale. This revealed that, although there were similar themes, each storyteller had different points to make and there were important differences in the themes’ meanings for different participants. Participants identified consistent themes revealing that there is not one singular dominant narrative of domestic abuse, but rather it is multi-faceted and made up of many inter-related issues. This continued lack of understanding of domestic abuse among all areas of the field was clear, with many citing the impact of this as significant: it created barriers to support – for both victims and perpetrators – and continued to impact service provision. When it came to a resolution to the story, and a resolution to the issues faced in dismantling dominant narratives of domestic abuse, training and education were identified as key.

This research has shown that if we want to change our response to domestic abuse and ‘re-write’ the harmful dominant narratives about domestic abuse, then we need to reframe the question we are asking and, instead, ask how all professional services, police, schools and the wider public are conceptualising, articulating and reproducing these narratives.

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