Domestic abuse and sexual violence (DASV) are widespread social problems affecting countless individuals and families globally with devastating consequences for individuals, families and communities (Addis and Snowdon, 2023). Global recognition of DASV has risen; however, the responses to date have generally not been coordinated or sufficient (Bacchus et al., 2024). Tackling Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence: A Systems Approach, edited by Olumide Adisa and Emma Bond, addresses this very important issue by advocating from multiple perspectives. It discusses the importance of integrating theory and practice for any intervention to be effective and sustainable.
Both Adisa and Bond have extensive experience that shines through in this book. Olumide Adisa is a senior research fellow at the University of Suffolk and a founding member of the Domestic Abuse Research Network (DARNet), an authority on applying systems thinking to social change and violence prevention. Emma Bond is a pro vice-chancellor for research at the University of Suffolk, who is widely published in the field of online risk and safeguarding susceptible groups, such as gender-based violence victims.
The novelty of this book lies in its comprehensive focus to demonstrate how the systems encourage responses to abuse and other related violent acts through the use of critical system thinking (CST) and critical systems heuristics (CSH). CST is a type of system thinking designed by Gerald Migley and his colleagues at the University of Hull in the 1990s. This system highlighting three principles; first, critical awareness. In this book author appeals policymakers and practitioners to embrace different perspectives on DASV systems. To better deal with actual needs, the system will be able to analyze the various elements that contribute to abuse and its impact by combining the perspectives of victims, service providers, politicians and researchers. The second principle of CST is emancipation. CST in this book have goal to improve DASV system over time. Besides to preventing, protecting and providing justice for victims, it encourages moving away from simply responding to the need to fix those problems at their essential level and improving the system’s services, frameworks and approaches in relation to a wider range of cultural, organizational and governmental domains. And the third principle is methodological pluralism. A pluralistic approach in this book draw theories like ecological models, boundary criticism and socio-technical system to offer more flexible and adaptable ways to deal with DASV. Therefore, the theories dan methodologies of this book use interdisciplinary techniques and strategies that reflected DASV’s complexity.
CSH is an approach developed by Werner Ulrich in 1983 to understand and agreement with complex problems. This book discovers how CSH can be used to agreement with DASV more comprehensively through boundary critique. Boundary critique is a reflective method for identifying specific assumptions, values and perspectives. CSH observes the differences between feminist perspectives and institutional opinions in Rape Crisis Centers (RCCs) to come up with more inclusive and collaborative solutions. The book also highpoints the potential of CSH as an instrument to develop and enrich training programs, multi-agency interventions and improved system responses to victims. The application of CSH in the setting of volunteer training in RCCs shows how CSH is applied to recover training programs that are more representative and transformative, representing the perspective of victims. This book emphasizes that by understanding different limitations and perspectives and training development can be more responsive to improving the quality of training, which directly contributes to better services for DASV.
Approximately, this book is divided into three main parts. The first part is Multi Agency and Community-Based Systems Responses and Applications, the second part is Tools and Conceptual Ideas for Engendering Systems Thinking and the third part is Other Institutional Responses and Applications of Systems Approaches. The first part of this book argues the complexity of handling domestic violence cases with a community and multi-agency approach. This section also highlights collaboration in several sectors, including the court, health, household and community involvement sectors in handling domestic violence cases. The second part of this book argues the impact of technology on domestic violence. The technology being referred to includes smartphones and the Internet-of-Things, which have a direct correlation with sexual harassment. This section highlights the need for a new framework to understand and address the “tech abuse” by considering the role of technology and human behavior as users of the technology. This section also explains the importance of collaboration between policymakers, researchers and service providers to take preventive measures in dealing with sexual violence affected by evolving technology. The third part of the book argues the various forms of image-based sexual violence among teenagers and the importance of a systematic approach to prevent this from happening. One of the forms of image-based sexual violence is the dissemination of images without consent. This incident is often considered a normal thing among teenagers because it often happens. Given these conditions, it poses a challenge to the education system and the appropriate law. Therefore, this book aspires to involve teenagers in designing solutions to developing problems.
This book’s characteristics and strengths are: first, using retrospective case studies (examples of past events) to demonstrate the application of theory or the right way. In this example, the study is applied to cases of DASV in practice. Through this method, readers can assess the theory used to assess the efficiency, effectiveness and accuracy of DASV handling. Second, how this book presents an evaluative framework for system reform in policy allows policy makers to design integrated engagement across sectors – education; health and social services along with law can be used as partners of the justice sector in addressing DASV. This approach is not only reactive, but also aimed at preventing long-term failure. This approach should explain to readers the importance of bringing everyone together on this issue. Third, this book is able to give the impression to readers that violence is a wickled problem. In the eyes of the general public, this problem is considered to have an easy solution, when in fact it is not because there are many variables that interact with each other. By using CST and the idea of wickled problems, this text emphasizes that addressing DASV requires sustained efforts across policy domains.
