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Summarised by Centrist
New Zealand spent more than $24 million last year on court and Corrections-mandated stopping-violence programmes, despite government agencies acknowledging the evidence of their long-term effectiveness remains weak.
New research suggests programme completion can create an “illusion of compliance”, with participants appearing to have changed while victims remain unsafe.
More than 9,000 people are referred to stopping-violence programmes each year, with men accounting for about nine in every 10 referrals.
Success has traditionally been measured through attendance, reoffending rates and participants’ own accounts of whether their behaviour improved.
But researchers say those measures can miss continued violence, coercive control and abuse that is never reported to police.
A Backbone Collective survey of 471 victim-survivors included 172 whose abuser had attended a programme.
Of those, 73% said the abuser’s behaviour worsened in at least one way during the programme or within three months afterwards. Only 10% reported exclusively improved behaviour, while just 4% reported sustained improvement across all forms of abuse for at least a year.
More than eight in 10 said they felt unsafe during the programme and for up to a year afterwards.
Nearly three-quarters said the programme provider had not contacted them, despite providers being expected to seek victim input before, during and after treatment.
Papakāinga Trust researcher Dr Daysha Tonumaipe’a said accountability should be based on safety rather than attendance.
“Why are you assuming that attendance equals safety? Please measure safety,” she said.
