Please note, the Public Health Research (PHR) Programme would like to draw researchers’ attention to the commissioning brief below, which was first advertised in Spring 2022. This is a brief that we have previously advertised as a commissioned funding opportunity. We are still interested in receiving applications in this research area, as it remains a priority in our portfolio. However, please note that the commissioning brief, along with the underpinning literature searches, has not been updated since originally written.
Research question
What interventions prevent male violence against women and girls and what are the resulting health impacts?
Male violence against women and girls is a major public health concern and has been described as a crisis of epidemic proportions. It permeates communities with considerable and devastating consequences at an individual, relationship, group and population level. Male violence against women and girls profoundly affects women’s physical and mental health as well as causing substantial negative social and economic impacts and costs.
The term male violence against women and girls covers a range of crimes and behaviours that disproportionately affect women and girls. This includes, for example, sexual violence and abuse, physical violence, domestic abuse, sexual harassment, street harassment, verbal abuse and threats, stalking, coercive control, online abuse, forced marriage, honour-based abuse and female genital mutilation. There is a vast amount of data on the scale of male violence against women and girls in the UK. Figures reported in the recent government strategy Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls state that one in five women in England and Wales are victims of sexual assault (or attempted sexual assault) in their lifetimes and that one in five women have experienced stalking at some point between the ages of sixteen and seventy-four.
Male violence against women and girls is deeply rooted in inequitable gender norms and social and cultural attitudes about women and girls, their roles and value. These enable the violence, and/or the fear of violence, to be perpetrated and a subsequent societal response through which the violence can be normalised or trivialised. It is an obstacle to achieving gender equality and sustainable development and impedes the fulfilment of women’s and girls’ human rights.
Male violence against women and girls is preventable. Experts have highlighted the need to prioritise the implementation and evaluation of preventative interventions that take a public health and woman-centred approach to tackle the root causes. The evaluation of early intervention strategies that focus on the deconstruction of current gender patterns and challenge attitudes, behaviours and practices is prioritised.
The PHR programme is predominantly interested in interventions that are likely to have impact on populations at scale, addressing health inequalities and the underlying wider determinants of health. We are less interested in receiving applications for evaluations of interventions that are focused on changing the behaviour of women and girls to reduce their own victimisation.
Research areas of interest include (but are not limited to):
- Evaluations of interventions that are intended to bring about cultural change and challenge existing attitudes, behaviours and norms including programmes delivered in community, school, workplace and social settings, mass and social media messaging and mechanisms that modify environments to promote gender equitable norms.
- Evaluation of prevention programmes that operate at a societal level, especially comprehensive, multi-level, multi-component programmes involving a multi-agency response. This includes interventions that are challenging to evaluate such as legislative changes and institution-wide and policy reforms.
- Studies evaluating the implementation of an eco-system of approaches and interventions.
- Evaluations of interventions aimed at perpetrators.
- Explorations of new and existing bystander interventions adapted for different populations and environments.
- Studies of early intervention prevention programmes including, for example, those focused on primary and secondary school-age boys.
- Studies of interventions to prevent domestic abuse and violence by adolescent boys and young men.
- Evaluations of culturally competent interventions.
- Evaluations of under-researched priority areas, including, for example, adolescent to parent violence, interventions to prevent coercive control, exploitation and trafficking of women and girls, culturally sensitive interventions including those which seek to prevent honour-based abuse, forced marriage and female genital mutilation, interventions that target older people and studies that explore how prevention programmes intersect with the needs of, for example, LGBTQ+ people, people from ethnic minorities, disabled people.
- Evaluations of mobile and online interventions / policies.
- Research that aims to better understand the impact of other policy area interventions on male violence against women and girls. For example, investigations of how alcohol pricing, outlet density, bar management, interventions related to the night-time economy and sexist alcohol marketing affects male violence against women and girls.
A range of study designs and outcome measures can be used. Researchers will need to identify and justify the most suitable methodological approach. Researchers will also need to specify key outcomes and how these will be measured in the short, medium, and long term. Primary outcomes must be health related. However, we will accept proxy measures for health as long as the link to health is justified. Therefore, primary outcomes could include direct measures such as a reduction in violence, or indirect measures such as a reduction in fear.
Understanding the value of public health interventions - whether the outcomes justify their use of resources - is integral to the PHR Programme, where resources relating to different economic sectors and budgets are potentially relevant. The main outcomes for economic evaluation are expected to include health (including health-related quality of life) and the impact on health inequalities as a minimum, with consideration of broader outcomes welcomed. Different approaches to economic evaluation are encouraged as long as they assess the value and distributive impact of interventions. Applications that do not include an economic component should provide appropriate justification.
Researchers should ensure that there is involvement from people with lived experience of male violence against women and girls in the design of the evaluation and where possible, in the research team. Applicants will need to assure us that the research team includes, or has access to, researchers with prior expertise within this field. We will consider inclusion of experts as costed members of the study team if appropriately justified.
Researchers should demonstrate the relevance of their proposed research to women and girls who have experienced male violence, their families, carers and support networks, to charities dedicated to supporting women and girls who have experienced male violence, to local decision-makers and other relevant national and third sector organisations. This is a broad topic area; researchers are expected to be aware of other studies and ensure their proposed research is complementary. Furthermore, this is a rapidly evolving policy field and applicants need to be aware of relevant strategies and developments.
For further information on submitting an application to the PHR Programme, please refer to the PHR supporting information for applicants submitting Stage 1 and Stage 2 applications.