Policy to fight domestic violence in Portugal: challenges on its implementation in urban and rural municipalities

Abstract

Domestic violence is a persistent social problem in several countries in the world. Portugal is not an exception to this trend and has therefore been developing several programs to deal with this problem, adopting a territorialized approach. However, these programs have been having limited success considering the still high figures. Using the Integrated Model of Implementation from Soren Winter as a theoretical framework, this study aims to identify the main challenges in the implementation of the policy to deal with domestic violence in two Portuguese municipalities, one urban and one rural, thus trying to understand if there are significant differences between them. Thereunto, we analyzed official documents and interviews with implementing actors. The analysis enables us to understand that the main challenges are the existence of teams of street-level workers in an insufficient and unstable number and sometimes without proper training, as well as little mobilization from the “target groups” due to a patriarchal culture and neighbors’ pressure. On the other hand, the territorialized approach, the definition of national and local plans and the articulation of networks of actors are identified as key factors for some successes.