From Institutionalised to Alternative Forms of Violence Prevention and Counselling

According to estimates, one in five women in Austria is affected by violence perpetrated by a close male family member (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights – FRA, 2014). In 2018, just over 8,000 injunctions were issued by the police, and approximately 18,500 victims of domestic violence were attended to in protection and intervention centres (more than 80% of the victims being women and girls, while 91% of perpetrators were male).1

The discussion of gender-specific (domestic) violence (violence of men against women) is accompanied by political and media discourses, and the generated attention is strongest when a victim is killed. In these cases, the loudest outcry often tends to come from those who would reduce the (criminal and social) political response to criminal law & order measures, thereby compromising the work of and access to social institutions. Social Work itself does not remain unaffected by these discourses, each of which perceives something else as the problem and finds its individual “right” solutions. After all, Social Work has to implement certain (new) political and legal regulations at times.

Against this background, the teaching research project at hand examines this phenomenon from the perspective of Social Work science. The focus is on two main elements: an analysis of (current) Social Work interventions and their shortcomings as well as best practice examples, and alternative models of violence prevention and handling.

1) Source: Wiener Interventionsstelle gegen Gewalt in der Familie (intervention office against domestic violence, Vienna), Association of Autonomous Austrian Women’s Shelters (AÖF)