Understanding Participant (Dis)Engagement From Domestic Violence Perpetrator Group Programs: A Review and Qualitative Synthesis

Men’s behavior change programs are a crucial component of contemporary efforts to address domestic violence, particularly (though not exclusively) across the Global North. Yet studies of program effectiveness consistently report high attrition rates and, importantly, an association between non-completion and recidivism. Scholars are thus increasingly concerned with understanding factors that predict program completion. However, limited research examines engagement beyond this binary notion of completion/non-completion. Adopting a broader scope, our systematic review examined English language, peer-reviewed research into the risk and protective factors that may influence engagement with/disengagement from all-male domestic violence perpetrator group programs. Our review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. Databases searched include ProQuest, Ovid, EBSCOhost, and Web of Science, from which 164 sources were subject to full-text review, and 80 sources (published 1988–2023) were included. The sources report on studies that use quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research designs, based in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Portugal, and Spain. Through narrative synthesis, we explore how this research conceptualizes completion, considers (or indeed overlooks) engagement, and makes sense of risk/protective factors for non-completion and disengagement. Our findings highlight the inconsistent and often arbitrary definition and measurement of program completion across studies, calling into question its usefulness as a proxy for program effectiveness. Most crucially, our findings support the need for more nuanced analyses of program outcomes that capture the non-linear, relational process with which people engage in perpetrator programs, and behavior change more broadly.