Insights into Perpetrators of Violence and Domestic Violence: Prevention and Risk (INNFRI)

The main objective of the study is to develop knowledge about risk factors, treatment, and outcomes among children and adults who perpetrate domestic violence.

The project will provide increased knowledge about perpetrators of domestic violence and their contact with mental health services, both as children, adolescents, and adults. This knowledge is crucial for enhancing the efforts of healthcare services aimed at individuals who perpetrate or are at risk of perpetrating violence and abuse. Through a survey among children and adolescents referred to Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services (BUP), we will learn more about children and adolescents who perpetrate or are at risk of perpetrating violence, including their experiences related to violence and abuse, as well as risk and protective factors. Using register data, we will describe substance use and mental disorders, treatment, and associations with recidivism among all adults convicted of domestic violence. The knowledge gained from this study can form the basis for the development of effective interventions and targeted treatment and prevention measures. In the long term, the knowledge can be used for policy changes by implementing these measures nationally for both prevention and treatment.

The main research questions of the project will be addressed in collaboration with the PriSUD (Diagnosing and treating substance use in prison) project at the Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research (SERAF), University of Oslo, and through questionnaires from BUP patients.

The PriSUD project (www.prisud.no) is led by Anne Bukten at SERAF and has a cohort (the nPRIS cohort, www.prisud.no/npris) that includes data on all individuals who have been convicted in Norway (who have served in prison or under community corrections) between 2000 and 2022. The cohort consists of approximately 200,000 individuals linked with the Norwegian Patient Registry, the Criminal Records Database, demographic data from Statistics Norway, the Cause of Death Registry, and the Prison Registry. This allows us to examine trends over time (in the proportion of those convicted of domestic violence and for which crimes). Therefore, this project will offer the opportunity to investigate domestic violence in Norway in a way that has not been done before. The project has an existing user collaboration with the WayBack Foundation.

The survey of children and adolescents in BUP is led by Ane-Marthe Solheim Skar at the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS). The questionnaire was developed based on input from an expert panel consisting of practitioners and experts in the field of perpetrators, including representatives from REBESSA, V27, and the Regional Centers for Violence, Trauma, and Suicide Prevention (RVTS), as well as a user group of children and adolescents. Through data collection, we will gather the following data from children and adolescents aged 12-18 referred to BUP between spring 2025 and the end of the year: demographic background, mental health, quality of life, hobbies/activities, friendships, use of pornography, exposure to and perpetration of violence and abuse.