ABSTRACT
This final chapter returns to the scene with which the book began, that is to the conference on Violence in the Family at which all the papers in Part II of this book were presented. The conference was designed so that the presentation of research findings was followed by discussion group sessions in which all participants were able to contribute from their own experience to a discussion of the problems thrown up by the research. The participants included social workers and health service workers, members of the police and of the legal profession, workers from a number of Women's Aid refuges, representatives of Women's Aid from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, housing managers, policy makers from a number of government departments, and representatives of a wide range of voluntary organisations. Each discussion group contained a broad spectrum of expertise and at the end of the seminar the groups made written recommendations which reflected their discussions over the previous three days. This chapter draws on the reports of the discussion groups and on the findings of the research, to make recommendations for future policy and practice in the field of wife abuse. Finally, the chapter returns to the more general theoretical issue of the ways in which conceptions of privacy can militate against both short-term and long-term solutions to wife abuse.
