Effective interventions for adult victim/survivors of sexual violence – Researcher Forum 1 February 2008

 Project links

• MWA leading research in partnership with Ministry of Justice, New Zealand Police

• Accident Compensation Corporation, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, Te Puni Kōkiri

• Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence (TASV)

• National Network – Ending Sexual Violence Together, National Collective of Rape Crisis  

Objectives

• Generate a research evidence base that will:

- identify ways of improving the safety and longer term well-being of adult victims of sexual violence
- provide a strong evidence base for policy and operational responses

Definitions

• Adult = 16+ at time of offence

• Childhood sexual abuse outside scope

• Sexual violence = sexual violation

• Rape and unlawful sexual connection (s 128, Crimes Act 1961)

Parameters

• Explore victim/survivors’ needs and system responses at different stages

- Crisis
- Longer-term / follow up

Support sources

• Formal

- Medical
- Justice and allied
- Emotional support
- Advocacy
- Religious organisations

• Informal

- Family / whānau / friends

Diversity perspective

• Women
• Young
• NZ European
• Māori
• Pacific
• Disability
• Rural
• Men
• Ethnic, migrant, refugee (EMR)
• Others: GLBTI, elderly, sex workers
• Ethnicity, disability, sexuality – self-defined demographic data
• Intersections across diverse groups
• Māori - impact on wider whānau?
• How to include hard to access groups
• Diversity of Pacific and EMR
• Capture the impact of location

Project framework

• Gendered perspective

• Human rights perspective

• Other perspectives?

    - Cultural
    - Same-sex
    - Male victims

Requirements

• National focus
• Research useful for policy purposes: provide an evidence base for policy development in justice and social sector agencies
• Researchers required to offer conclusions based on findings not recommendations or policy advice
• MWA will formulate policy options based on research evidence
• Police vetting, confidentiality agreements
• May be evaluated by external ethics committee
• Deliverable dates for draft and final reports staged across 2008
• Two stage peer review

    - Advisory Group
    - International expert

Why collaboration?

• Collaboration to form research teams:

    - Expertise in sexual violence / violence against women
    - Diversity – address comparable issues using appropriate methods
    - Networks for hard to access groups
    - Multi-disciplinary / multi-sectoral focus
    - Mixed methods

• Conversations across work streams

    - Work streams linked
    - Desirable to have some comparability, consistent language

• MWA has links to some networks that want to participate. Will provide contact details to contractors

Key dates

Work streams

• Pathways from crisis to recovery
• Key informants and service providers
• Attrition of sexual violation charges
• Literature review of best practice and challenges in service delivery
• approximately $300,000 across four work streams

Key research questions

• Key points at which and reasons why different groups of victim/survivors opt in and out of the criminal justice system
• Basis for victim/survivors’ decisions about accessing non-criminal justice services
• Key points at which government and non-government intervention and support is most effective

1.    Pathways from crisis to recovery

• Individuals’ journeys to recovery, particularly factors influencing which support sources they engage with
• Formal and informal support sources
• Types of solutions sought
• Victim/survivors’ views on whether their needs were met by different support sources
• What promotes recovery and resilience
• Factors inhibiting or promoting engagement with the criminal justice system
• Victims across New Zealand who have

    - Reported to Police
    - Been through different stages of the criminal justice process
    - Used other formal systems, but not Police
    - Used informal and formal support

• Victims with ‘live’ cases excluded
• Ethical / safe ways of engaging victims who do not access formal services?
• Methodological and related issues

    - Participant safety and well-being
    - Addressing comparable issues across diverse groups using appropriate methods

• Survey
• Interviews e.g. intellectual disability, Māori, Pacific, some migrants

    - Accounting for cultural differences in perspectives / ways of talking about SV
    - Impact of location

• Methodological and related issues

    - Sample size / sub-samples
    - Quota for Māori?
    - Sampling / recruiting methods
    - Debriefing / follow–up
    - Acknowledging interviewees’ participation
    - Working with SV and other services
    - What is in and out of scope?
    - Timeline?

2.    Survey of key informants and service providers

• Focus on the way that systemic factors influence victim/survivors’ decisions and recovery
• Two components
• National survey of key informants and service providers
• Case studies in three areas, including interviews with victim/survivors

2.1    National survey

• Medical, legal, emotional and other support needs
• Capacity to meet needs
• Systemic / organisational issues for different sectors e.g.

    - Recovery and resilience (SV services)
    - Attrition (criminal justice system)

• Formal systems

    - Medical e.g. DSAC, Emergency Departments, GPs, Family Planning
    - Justice and allied e.g. Police, Prosecutors, Judges
    - Emotional / mental health e.g. counsellors (ACC and others), student services, psychiatrists

• Formal services, non-government

    - Specialist SV services e.g. Rape Crisis, Wellington HELP, Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust
    - Non-specialist victim services e.g. Refuge, Shakti, Pacific Island Safety and Prevention Project, Victim Support
    - Non-victim services e.g. Refugees as Survivors, Age Concern, IDEA Services

• Key informants

    - Advocacy / umbrella groups e.g. Prostitutes’ Collective, Disabled Persons Assembly, NNEST, National Network of Stopping Violence Services
    - Non-mainstream services e.g. Outline
    - Religious leaders
    - Community leaders
    - Community workers

• A way of gathering information on groups that are hard to reach or not talking about SV?
• National survey

    - North and South Island coverage
    - Focus on organisations / informants that respond to victims or have special insight into issues for their members

• Methodology and related issues

    - Comparability across sample plus tailored questions for different sectors
    - Mixed methods: mail, telephone, internet, interview?
    - Will advise on engagement with criminal justice personnel
    - Quantitative analysis desirable

• Timeline?

2.2    Case studies

• Three geographically and socially distinct areas

    - urban, rural, ethnically diverse, Māori, Pakeha, student population, different levels of victim services

• Impact of systemic factors on reporting / non-reporting and attrition
• Not a comparative analysis
• Interviews with victim / survivors, SV services, other services (e.g. DSAC, student services)
• Link results with survey of criminal justice personnel
• Possibility of gauging attrition prior to reporting e.g. through SV services’ client statistics?

3.    Attrition study

• Retrospective analysis of a national sample of recorded sexual violation offences against adults
• Around 1,700 offences recorded by Police between July 2005 and December 2007
• Will provide a baseline for future attrition analyses
• MWA and Police have selected victim, offender, offence, investigation and outcome variables
• Attrition rates at successive stages of the criminal justice process
• Conviction rate
• Correlates and / or predictors of outcomes
• Outcomes for diverse population groups
• Compare results for Police Districts against national results
• NZ Police will extract and code the data
• Data will be supplied in an Excel spreadsheet – timing to be confirmed
• Definitions of all terms and coding schedule will be supplied
• Will need some familiarity with previous attrition studies – importance of variables, etc.

4.    Literature review

• Range of systems involved in effectively responding to victim/survivors’ needs over time
• Medical
• Justice / allied
• Support /advocacy
• Crisis
• Longer-term

• What does the international and NZ literature say about:

    - How these systems could / should  work together?

• What does best practice mean?

    - In a crisis situation
    - A longer-term response

• Evaluations of initiatives e.g. multi-agency centres
• What best practice guidelines exist in NZ?
• Guidelines for Māori, Pacific, people with disabilities?
• Challenges to implementing best practice in NZ, particularly for diverse population groups
• Timeframe?