An international-organisational response to domestic violence: The pivotal role of police in Porto, Portugal

• Main Author: Machado, Paulo
• Publication Date: 2021
• Other Authors: Pais, Lúcia G., Morgado, Sónia, Felgueiras, Sérgio
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/30363
• topic: Domestic Violence; IMPRODOVA Project; Police Work; Social Change

When studying the current Portuguese domestic violence landscape, some police professionals highlighted the case of Porto as a different approach to domestic violence occurrences. We discovered an organisational experience involving a broad partnership and an evident interest in the media. Corresponding to the IMPRODOVA2 Conceptual framework, the Porto experience merges both an organisational arrangement from the Public Security Police, which involves intra-organisational cooperation and inter-organisational cooperation between the police, several NGOs, health services, and public prosecutor services. Altogether, they aim to clarify the problem at hand, goals and stakes, resources and actors involved. In this article, the case study of the Porto experience is presented and discussed within broad critical thinking about social changes in contemporary societies.