Engaging Men in Domestic Violence Prevention: Building a Collective-Cultures Approach
Abstract
The United Nations and the World Health Organization recognized domestic violence as the most severe form of gender-based violence. While men are the primary perpetrators of sexual abuse and domestic violence causing injury and death, preventing domestic violence is commonly viewed as a woman’s issue. Research emphasizes that socialization towards male dominance in both public and private spheres and intergenerational patterns of abuse contribute to intimate partner violence. A growing body of literature also suggests that domestic violence can be influenced by colonization; racism; migration and resettlement; and class/poverty, among other forms of structural inequality.
Within the last two decades, there has been an increase in the number of initiatives by men to address domestic violence; however, research in this area is limited. In particular, there is a need for Canadian studies on promising approaches to engaging men in violence prevention that incorporate Canada’s multicultural and Indigenous contexts. This dissertation used a feminist participatory action research framework grounded in an intersectionality analysis to engage 20 community men and five women violence prevention leaders in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Through this work, a collective-cultures theoretical/practice model was developed that reflects a multi-layered and multi-faceted approach to domestic violence prevention. This model and other collective knowledge from the study were used to promote men’s leadership roles and address domestic violence from an intersectional lens. The emergence of a male-led violence prevention group, Men’s Action Network Calgary, was an important outcome of the research. This study contributes to the exploration of new and potentially innovative ways to prevent domestic violence and reduce its impact.
Description
Keywords
Social Work
Citation
Lorenzetti, L. (2016). Engaging Men in Domestic Violence Prevention: Building a Collective-Cultures Approach (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25892