Understanding Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence: prevalence, policy and practice

Abstract

Whilst domestic abuse and sexual violence are not new phenomena, the past thirty years have seen increasing public awareness and a growing political consensus that something needs to be done, even if what should be done is less clear. Until relatively recently across the European Union, domestic violence was viewed as a private matter demanding minimal state intervention (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2014). It is only since the 1990s that domestic abuse and sexual violence have been understood as fundamental human rights concerns warranting legal and political responses. At both national and international levels, governments in most industrialised nations have developed and ratified a range of policy initiatives and strategies designed to reduce the incidence and prevalence of both domestic abuse and sexual violence (Council of Europe, 2011). This has also been the case in both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland.