FOREIGN CONCEPTS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PREVENTION: LEGAL AND SOCIAL-PREVENTIVE ASPECTS

Abstract

The article examines foreign concepts of domestic violence prevention. It is substantiated that foreign scholarly discourse demonstrates a gradual transition from a narrow punitive model, focused primarily on responding after a violent act has already been committed, to an integrated preventive model that combines criminal law, civil law, policing, judicial, social, educational, medical, psychological and community-based mechanisms. It is argued that contemporary foreign approaches consider domestic violence not as a private family conflict and not merely as an isolated act of physical impact, but as a complex socio-legal phenomenon associated with systematic control, coercion, isolation, psychological exhaustion, economic dependence, stalking, sexual coercion, manipulation involving children and other forms of restriction of the victim’s autonomy. The article systematizes the main foreign concepts of domestic violence prevention, including the gender and human rights-based concept, the concept of coercive control, the public health concept, the educational and preventive concept, the risk-oriented policing concept, the court-protective concept, the criminal justice concept, the concept of work with perpetrators, the intersectional concept, the cultural-religious concept and the community-oriented concept. It is revealed that each of these concepts focuses on a specific dimension of the problem: gender inequality, human rights, risk assessment, early prevention, judicial protection, interagency cooperation, behavioural change of the perpetrator, protection of vulnerable groups or the role of the community. Particular attention is paid to the practical risks of applying foreign approaches, including excessive reliance on criminalization, formalization of police response, incorrect identification of the primary aggressor, limited effectiveness of protection orders without social support, secondary victimization of victims, insufficient attention to post-separation violence, economic and housing factors, as well as cultural insensitivity of support services. It is concluded that, for Ukraine, the significance of foreign experience lies not in the mechanical borrowing of separate legal institutions, but in the formation of a comprehensive integrated system of domestic violence prevention. Such a system should be capable of responding not only to the fact of violence already committed, but also to its causes, risks, recurrence, latency, post-separation control and long-term consequences for victims. A promising direction for Ukraine is the combination of criminal law response, civil protection, police risk assessment, court support, perpetrator programmes, educational prevention, accessible support services and special protection measures for vulnerable groups.