Background:

Reported Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) cases have increased since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown. Understanding the general public’s view about DVA is vital, as it would help develop targeted interventions and effective public policies to tackle DVA. We investigated public awareness, attitudes and perceptions towards DVA, and explored mechanisms to tackle DVA in the community setting.

Methods:

In-depth personal interviews were conducted with 29 participants who responded to study invitations and adverts on social media. A topic guide was used to ensure consistency across the interviews, which were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically to detect emergent themes concerning DVA.

Results:

All respondents were aware of the concept of abuse. Thirty-eight percent declared either having experienced DVA directly or that they knew someone close to being abused. More than half of the respondents were not aware of existing DVA supportive services in the UK. Overarching themes generated from the contextual analysis included contributing factors for DVA, challenges and barriers facing victims and proposals for future interventions.

Conclusions:

The public has a broad understanding of the impacts of DVA. Simultaneously, the public fail to recognise specific instances or events in their daily lives. Raising public awareness, particularly in children through the school curriculum, highlighting existing support services and introducing the routine use of short screening tools for DVA in primary care can increase awareness, early identification and effective interventions. Sustained, multi-level community facing interventions are recommended to reduce stigma and fear associated with DVA.