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We conducted this review between November 2024 and April 2025, to identify evidence on early intervention (secondary prevention) in gendered violence prevention, including frameworks and policies, practice guides, intervention studies and reports on relevant programs and interventions.
The review questions were:
- How is early intervention defined and conceptualised in prevention of gendered violence?
- What types of programs, interventions and strategies are typically categorised as early intervention?
- What early intervention programs and interventions have been implemented, and what are their key components, strategies and practices?
- What are the principles that commonly underpin early intervention work?
- What are the aims and intended outcomes of early intervention programs and interventions?
Search strategy
We undertook a systematic search of peer-reviewed and grey literature using the search strategy outlined below to identify relevant evidence on early intervention in gendered violence prevention. We conducted two separate searches via the EBSCOhost Research Platform, which combines a large range of academic databases and journals. The first search sought to identify documents that described early intervention principles, practices or strategies; and the second search sought to identify prevention frameworks and program and practice guides.
We then conducted a web search via a general Google search and targeted website search to identify government policies, plans and strategies; prevention frameworks and practice guides; and reports on early intervention programs and interventions.
EBSCOhost Search 1
Abstract: ("early intervention" OR "secondary prevention")
AND
Abstract: ("gender-based violence" OR "violence against women" OR "intimate partner violence" OR "domestic violence" OR "family violence")
AND
(principles OR practice OR strategies)
English only.
- Published between November 2014 and November 2024
- Published in English
- Must contain the terms ‘early intervention’ or ‘secondary prevention’ with one of the following terms: ‘gender-based violence’, ‘violence against women’, ‘intimate partner violence’, ‘family violence’
- Peer-reviewed articles only
- Full-text articles only
- Publication types: all literature review types (i.e. systematic reviews, scoping reviews, policy reviews); intervention and program studies; protocol studies; program evaluations; conceptual/theoretical studies or frameworks; evidence reports
- Published prior to 2014
- Languages other than English
- Publication types: editorials, conference abstracts, letters, blogs and news articles
- Does not contain either a definition of early intervention/secondary prevention or describe a GBV framework, program, intervention or other practice evidence
EBSCOhost Search 2
Title: ("violence against women" OR "intimate partner violence" OR "gender-based violence" OR "family violence" OR "domestic violence")
AND
Abstract: ("early intervention")
AND
Abstract: (practice OR program OR guidelines OR framework OR guide)
English only
- Published between November 2014 and November 2024
- Published in English
- Must contain the terms ‘early intervention’ or ‘secondary prevention’ with one of the following terms: ‘gender-based violence’, ‘violence against women’, ‘intimate partner violence’, ‘family violence’
- Publication types: all literature review types (i.e. systematic reviews, scoping reviews, policy reviews); intervention and program studies; protocol studies; program evaluations; conceptual/theoretical studies or frameworks; evidence reports
- Published prior to 2014
- Languages other than English
- Publication types: editorials, conference abstracts, letters, blogs and news articles
- Does not contain either a definition of early intervention/secondary prevention or describe a GBV framework, guide/guideline/program, intervention or other practice evidence
Web search
- Google (first 20 pages)
- Australian Government websites
- State and territory government websites
- Prevention agencies
- World Health Organization (including regions)
- United Nations agencies
- Family violence policies, plans, strategies
- Prevention of violence against women policies, plans, strategies
- Violence prevention frameworks
- Violence prevention guides
- Violence prevention guidelines
- Violence prevention evaluation and reports
- Published between November 2014 and November 2024
- Published in English
- Must contain the terms early intervention or secondary prevention with one of the following terms: ‘gender-based violence’, ‘violence against women’, ‘intimate partner violence’, ‘family violence’
- Does not contain either a definition of early intervention/secondary prevention or describe a GBV framework, guide/guideline/program, intervention or other practice evidence
Search results
We identified 63 documents that met the criteria for inclusion in this review via the two EBSCOhost searches and initial web search. These included: 13 Australian-based government documents (plans, strategies and frameworks), four violence prevention frameworks, 20 peer-reviewed articles, 15 published reports, and 11 practice guides (including technical and practice briefs).
We also identified 23 early intervention programs and interventions that had either been implemented in Australia, or were being implemented at the time of this review. Most of these were identified through a secondary analysis of the policy documents and published reports identified through the initial website search.
Data analysis, extraction and synthesis
We developed a coding framework to guide analysis of the documents included in this review, and to systematically extract and organise the information into categories that aligned with the review questions. The coding categories were: document type (i.e. framework/plan, article, report, guide), definitions, principles, strategies and outcomes.
We analysed the content of each document to identify whether they contained these components and assigned a ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘partially’ against the coding categories. We then extracted relevant content on these components from the documents and organised them into their corresponding coding categories in a Microsoft Excel database. We also annotated each document with notes to support analysis, interpretation and conceptualisation of early intervention in the review findings.