Kathrine Skoland

In recent years, Norwegian authorities have intensified their efforts to prevent and prosecute domestic violence while prioritising the protection of victims, with initiatives such as action plans, strategic measures and various programmes, with a particular focus on children. Despite increased awareness of violence towards children, a significant portion still goes unreported. Our study aims to examine patterns in disclosure attempts among Norwegian teenagers. We studied 11,615 teenagers from the Local Youth Survey between 2014 and 2016 who confirmed experiencing physical violence from an adult family member. Our findings indicate that, among those who did try to disclose, informal confidants like parents or friends, rather than school employees, were the preferred choices. When examining the factors that influence the likelihood of attempting to disclose, we observed that the frequency of violence played a significant role in explaining variation. The likelihood of attempting disclosure was also higher among girls and among those with a low socioeconomic background. Part of this pattern was confirmed also when studying the subgroup that had tried to disclose: the probability of attempting to tell a school employee was higher among those who had a low socioeconomic background and was exposed to violence more frequently. In this subgroup, however, no significant gender differences were observed.

This study explores Norwegian professionals' experiences of working within partner violence (PV) prevention area, including, cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary cooperation as well as possible successful strategies and measures in this area. This report is one of the deliverables of the “Integrated System of Domestic Violence Prevention” (ISDVP) project and of the agreement with The State Treasury, the Institute of Justice in Warsaw, Poland. This study contributes to research on professionals’ experiences of interprofessional collaboration in the domestic violence prevention area – a similar study was conducted in Poland. To facilitate an interdisciplinary and interagency group discussion, five focus groups (with 19 participants) were conducted. The analysis reveals that there is inter- and intra-sectoral collaboration in the domestic violence prevention area. There are marked challenges but also notable success stories. The participants talked about several barriers to cross-sectoral collaborations, such as i) professional requirements of confidentiality, mandate, and/or duty to report, especially in the domestic violence prevention stages; ii) the complexity and plethora of practical and organizational measures and initiatives as well as who does what and when, particularly when helping a client navigate through the system; and iii) the difficulty in defining as well as uncovering domestic violence because it can be understood differently by various parties, especially from a cross-cultural perspective and gender stereotypes. In terms of effective management of multisectoral collaboration, the participants mentioned i) several tools and models, e.g., SARA and Flexid, and ii) organization of emergency shelters; and iii) networking. Besides, the participants reported a need for a nuanced and multifocal approach to domestic violence prevention, including addressing the specificities of different vulnerable groups such as the elderly and the LGBQT+ community. They also talked about the importance of initiatives aimed at removing the stigma and taboo around domestic violence, also through targeting higher education establishments.

This report is a delivery within the “Integrated System of Domestic Violence Prevention” (ISDVP) bilateral project between Poland and Norway. The bilateral ISDVP project is implemented within the framework of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism (Norwegian FM) 2014–2021 and founded by Norwegian EEA grants. EEA grants represents the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway towards a green, competitive, and inclusive Europe. The PL- Justice programme is within program area no22 “Prevention of Domestic and Gender-based Violence” in Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway grants priority sectors and programme areas for 2014-2021. All planned activities shall follow the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence. The main objective of the ISDVP project is to improve the system for the prevention of domestic violence (DV) and gender-based (GBV) violence. This report intends to contribute to the fulfilment of the ISDVP project’s overall aim to adopt and implement state-wide effective, comprehensive, and coordinated politics encompassing all relevant measures to prevent and combat all forms of violence in Poland. Moreover, following the PL‑Justice–Norwegian FM Programme’s agreement, the aim of this report is to present existing solutions and alternative measures for preventing DV in Norway and to review existing methods used in Norway for providing relational support. To achieve these objectives, desk research has been the preferable method. Desk research (also known as secondary research) reviews governmental documents and reports (e.g., child welfare services), supranational-level documents and reports (e.g., the UN and EU levels), Norwegian research reports, social services acts and academic literature. The review shows that the Norwegian approach to prevention is very broad, as it reflects the diversity and complexity of the problem as well as the understanding of DV. The Norwegian government emphasises the interactional aspects of violence in that violence involves an influential and continuous interaction between individuals and the various situations they encounter. Important risk factors are an interaction of societal and individual factors, such as unequal power relations between the sexes; childhood experiences of violence; cultural and subcultural factors; consumption of alcohol and drugs; family disagreements; and conflicts. DV occurs in different ways, varies in severity, occurs in many types of close relationships and can affect individuals at all ages. DV is gender biased and produced within and part of a gender order. Persons of both sexes are victimised, but generally, women are more severely hit than men. Children are also an important group here, as they become disturbingly affected by DV. Moreover, the Norwegian experiences, positive as well as negative, also point to a set of recommendations that could possibly be related to the challenges of the ISDVP project, as it aims to improve the system for the prevention of DV and GBV and to take the necessary legislative and other measures to adopt and implement state-wide effective, comprehensive efforts to prevent and combat all forms of violence. Our recommendations include experiences and factors which may be related to the task of successfully dealing with couples, or previous couples, in partnerships that are at risk of falling into violence. Hence, we recommend the following. The actual services should have different relational and individual tools at their disposal to cope with diversified needs. The recruitment of couples to the service should be voluntarily based, with opportunities for access by different channels. A new kind of service needs promotional efforts of a different kind. This must be planned for. The development of integrated services requires a cross-sectoral competence strategy aimed at increasing phenomenon knowledge, competence in action and interaction competence among individual service providers and in individual services. Finally, although the focus in the project is on couples, it is very important to integrate gendered perspectives in all the main components of the project, it’s content and implementation. Given the severity of DV, including GBV, the prevention of violence before it occurs is urgent and inevitable to combat GBV/ DV. Because the boundaries between prevention and treatment can be difficult to draw, prevention at all levels is important.