Dr Jane Mulcahy at Confederation of European Probation workshop on gender-based violence in Barcelona

Dr Jane Mulcahy attended the Workshop on Gender-based Violence in Probation on 29 November in Barcelona.

The workshop took place in the Centre for Legal Studies and Judicial Training with financial support from the AHSS Faculty Research Committee.

It is a strategic objective of criminal justice agencies in Ireland and abroad to effectively address gender-based violence, including domestic abuse and sexual violence in terms of prevention, prosecution, punishment and rehabilitation of those who harm.

Jane's own past and present research has found that exposure to domestic violence and coercive control often features in the childhood back-stories of people with offending behaviour.

The workshop hosted by the Confederation of European Probation included a wide range of valuable inputs including:

"European overview on Gender-based violence in Probation" by Professor Kieran McCartan,

"Lessons learned over the past two decades in preventing child sexual abuse in Latvia by Janeta Bokaldere, Head of Counseling department at Centre for a safe childhood

“Dardedze”, "Help-seeking behavior in people at risk for sexual abuse: how can we install and promote secondary prevention measures?" by Professor Katarzyna Uzieblo,

"Working with gender-based violence offenders: Gakoa and Aldatuz programs" in the Basque Country by Endika Biota

and "Overcoming the challenge of assessing the outcome of perpetrator programmes: The Impact Outcome Monitoring Toolkit" by Berta Vall, Research and Development Manager at European Network for Work with Perpetrators.

The highlight of the workshop was Lynn Harris's presentation entitled "Compassionate Vision Within - Personal Experience".

Lynn is Founder and Managing Company Director at No Feart CIC, Glasgow, Scotland.

She has lived experience of domestic homicide and has designed a trauma-informed perpetrator programme called "Aware & Recover" for men and women who have harmed intimate partners.

Lynn was invited to share her perspective at the workshop at Jane's recommendation following a "Relationships Matter" interview she recorded with her. Watch it on Youtube