Annual Conferences

The WWP EN Annual Conference is a unique annual event that brings together practitioners, researchers and high-level policymakers to discuss developments and innovations in European domestic violence perpetrator work.

Upcoming Conference

Save the date for our 2024 annual conference and join us to reflect on a decade of progress and lay the groundwork for an even more impactful future under the theme of 10 years of innovation.

You can sign up to our event mailing list here for information on when registration opens

Past Conferences

2023: Critical Cases - Understanding & responding to high-risk domestic violence perpetrators

  • See the conference programme here
  • Watch the conference recordings here

Working with high-risk perpetrators puts special demands on perpetrator interventions regarding risk management, safety planning, and collaboration with other agencies, especially victim support services and the criminal justice system. We often encounter high-risk perpetrators with multiple issues – substance abuse, mental health including trauma, and other co-occurring factors. Not all men clearly fit our programme exclusion criteria. So how can we address these topics with high-risk men in our groups? What do and should high-risk cases mean for the support to victim-survivors? What do they mean for our multi-agency work?

The conference promoted a better understanding of the needs and challenges of working with high-risk perpetrators. The goal was to increase the capacity of practitioners to respond to these demands.

2022: "From Harm to Hope – Youth Interventions against Domestic Abuse"

  • See the conference programme here
  • Read the conference report here
  • Watch the conference recordings here

Why Youth Interventions?

Adolescence and early adulthood are formative periods where young people develop strategies for dealing with disputes, both in early relationships and within the family. It is, therefore, a critical stage to address early abusive or violent behaviour. Indeed, child/adolescent violence towards parents can later become violence in intimate partnerships.

As most perpetrator programmes target adult men, there is often a lack of specialised interventions for working on intimate partner violence with a younger age group. This leads to young men being referred to adult programmes that often cannot adequately respond to their particular needs. Likewise, youth interventions may not be specialised in dealing with violence committed toward the parents.

2021: "Migration and barriers to perpetrator work – Developing Pathways to Engagement"

  • View the conference programme here
  • Watch the conference here

In 2021, we focused on promoting safe, accountable and effective work with perpetrators of domestic and/or sexualised violence who have a migration background. More specifically, we addressed the issues facing practitioners in the field when overcoming language and cultural barriers at the same time as upholding anti-racist and trauma sensitive practices.

2020: “Prison, Probation & Perpetrator Programmes – Collaboration for Change”

  • Download the conference programme here
  • Watch the conference here

Perpetrator programmes are part of a wider strategy for preventing domestic and sexual violence, through fostering change as well as ensuring responsible risk assessment and management. Perpetrator programmes offered as part of the prison and probation system can pose a number of specific challenges – these may be related to the particular setting they are delivered in, to multi-agency work, or victim support.

The conference explored these challenges and provide space for discussions on how to ensure that interventions are as effective and safe as possible. An important factor in this is strengthening cooperation between prison or probation services and community-based organisations where these deliver perpetrator programmes on behalf of the criminal justice system.

2019: "Let's talk about it - Advancing interventions on sexual violence in perpetrator work"

All documentation of workshops and the keynote, as well as the Annual General Meeting is available to members in the internal area of the website.

2018: "Journey to Accountability: Practice and Theory"

Read the conference programme here

All documentation of workshops and the keynote, as well as the Annual General Meeting is available to members in the internal area of the website.

Last changed: 22.03.2024