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Abstract
Domestic violence is an enduring social problem in South Africa and call for a competent response to reduce the high rates of its occurrence (Kruger, 2006). The South African government developed a legal reform to deal with the implementation of Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998. However this legal reform alone is insufficient to reduce domestic violence as its still prevalent up to date. Other strategies and programmes have been developed by other relevant stakeholders such as NICRO in the fight against domestic violence. NICRO developed a feminist orientated Perpetrator of Intimate Partner Violence programme. There has been much contention with regard to working with perpetrators thus this study sought to contribute to the debate by examining the effectiveness of the NICRO PIPV programme.The goal of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the PIPV programme in promoting positive gender relations and preventing domestic violence . A sample of 8 respondents was used for the qualitative study. The results from the study indicated that positive gender relations are a key to reducing domestic violence as all participants stopped physical domestic violence perpetration. It was also apparent from the study that successful perpetrator programmes have to be coupled with legal reforms, such as the Domestic Violence 116 of 1998 to ensure compliance and effectiveness.
Key words: domestic violence, perpetrator pprogrammes, gender relations
Introduction
It is no secret that South Africa has one of the highest rates of domestic violence in the world as it occurs in at least one out of three households (De la Harpe & Boonzaier, 2011). To address domestic violence, the Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998 (hereinafter referred to as DVA) was developed to provide a holistic law enforcement response to protect victims of domestic violence primarily through the granting of protection orders (Dissel, 2010). The DVA has however been faced with many criticisms and challenges as it has failed to effectively address the issue of domestic violence. According to Summers and Hoffman (2002), one such criticism is that the DVA does not provide for state sponsored mandatory rehabilitation and counselling programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence. There also has been poor implementation of the DVA owing to lack of resources (Dissel, 2010). The rate of domestic violence in...