Date: November 2024
Authors: Wells, L., Fyie, K., Kneebone, R., Boodt, C., Ruse, K., Montesanti, S., & Davidson, R.
The key to ending domestic violence is a pattern hiding in plain sight.
Today, Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence – in collaboration with the School of Public Policy and the Calgary Police Service – held a press conference to mark the release of innovative new research.
Lana Wells, Brenda Strafford Chair in the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Work, spoke alongside Chad Tawfik, Calgary Police Service Deputy Chief, and Kim Ruse, CEO at FearIsNotLove. Their insights reveal that domestic violence is not a random event. It can be predicted and prevented.
“Exploring Typologies of Domestic Violence Perpetrators: Insights into Male Patterns and Behaviours” is the second in a series of reports on understanding the trajectory and patterns of perpetrators of domestic violence (DV). This groundbreaking study takes up a 10-year data set from Calgary Police Services from 2010 to 2019, involving men who were charged with a DV-related offence in 2019 against a female partner or former partner.
In delineating 4 classifications of perpetrators based on their criminal and domestic encounter history with police, this paper reveals discernible and increasing patterns of criminality, police interactions, and subsequent charges.
An astounding 73% of men who faced a criminal charge for domestic violence were involved in an incident with police beforehand. Further, for 64% of these men, there was a clear increase in police interactions and criminal activity in the two years leading up to the domestic violence charge.
When the vast majority of men charged with domestic violence are already known to the police, it means we are missing an opportunity to stop violence before it starts.
By recognizing these patterns, stakeholders can implement targeted interventions to prevent violence before it escalates. This preventative approach is promising and urgent: in order to tackle the root causes of domestic violence, we must focus our policies, resources and policing practices on ending the perpetration of violence.
Key Quotes
- “Preventing domestic violence is not only possible – it’s within reach if we can work together to act on these findings. Governments, police, and community organizations can all develop new practices to interrupt the perpetration of violence and connect with men before criminal charges happen” – Lana Wells, report author and Brenda Strafford Chair in the Prevention of Domestic Violence
- “Who is safer – a woman who is partnered with a man who is supporter, or a woman who is partnered with a man who is isolated… and depressed? By providing resources for a man, you are actually providing safety to his partner.” – Kim Ruse, report author and CEO of FearIsNotLove
- “Opportunities like this highlight the need for all of us to collaborate to end domestic violence” – Chad Tawfik, Calgary Police Service Deputy Chief
- “It is time to remove the burden from victims and focus our attention on the people and systems that cause harm.” – Report Authors
Key Findings
- Four Perpetrator Typologies:
- Group A: First-time DV Offenders – no prior police interactions.
- Group B: Criminal History without Domestic Encounters – previous criminal charges (none DV-related) and no domestic encounters.
- Group C: Intermittent Domestic Encounters without Criminal History – one or more domestic interactions but no criminal charges.
- Group D: Criminal and Domestic Encounter History – one or more criminal charges and one or more domestic encounters.
- Opportunities for Early Intervention: The research highlights clear trajectories in criminal activity and domestic encounters that suggest opportunities for earlier intervention, particularly within the 2 years preceding a DV charge.
- Policy Implications: These findings underscore the need for a multifaceted approach in preventing DV, shifting the focus from survivors of violence to potential perpetrators and the way police and community agencies can intervene proactively.
Quick Facts
- 73% of perpetrators in Shift’s November 2024 study had at least one interaction with police, either as a criminal charge or as a DV police encounter, prior to their charge in 2019. Of that 73%, 40% had extensive interactions and were well-known to police.
- 64% of perpetrators in Shift’s November 2024 study had a history of police interactions, pointing to a clear upward trajectory culminating in a 2019 criminal charge involving domestic violence in 2019.
- 27% of perpetrators in Shift’s November 2024 study had no interaction with police prior to their 2019 charge.
Associated Resources
- Report 2: “Exploring Typologies of Domestic Violence Perpetrators: Insights into Male Patterns and Behaviours”
- Report 1: “Disrupting Trajectories Leading to Domestic Violence”
- Shift’s work with men and boys
- Shift’s work with Calgary Police Services on “The Signal System” (formerly Changing Contexts: Art of the Nudge)
