Thirty-seven in-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with male perpetrators of intimate partner violence to inform development of the family violence social marketing strategy (FVSMS). The FVSMS aims to assist reduce the level of family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand through both social marketing and community action strategies.
Pakeha (n=8), Maori (n=12), Pacific Island (n=12) and Chinese (n=5) men were interviewed. Interviews were conducted in Northland (5), Auckland (17), Hamilton (3), Gisborne (4) and Wellington (8). All participants were in some form of intervention for their violence, typically a stopping violence re-education programme. Participants were either mandated or self referred to interventions and were at different stages of completion of the intervention.
Interviews were conducted with perpetrators to understand their behaviours, attitudes and feelings about family violence and their readiness and motivations to change their behaviour. Specifically, the interviews sought to identify and understand:
- Variations in attitude and behaviour relating to family violence and changing violent behaviour.
- The key sources of tangible and intangible influence on perpetrators.
- Enablers of and barriers to behaviour and attitude change.
- Perpetrators’ readiness to change their behaviour and the motivations for doing so.
To understand different potential audiences for the FVSMS, how social marketing interventions may assist perpetrators towards change and the different strategies required to reach different audiences, profiles of perpetrators motivations to change were developed from the research findings. Conclusions drawn from the motivation profiles and the perpetrator findings generally are used to provide strategic direction to the development of the FVSMS.