BMI Evaluation of the Violence Protection Act 2019

In Austria, a restraining order is issued almost every hour, although the number of unreported cases of violence in the private sphere is likely to be higher. The amendment to the Protection against Violence Act 2019, which came into force in 2020, is intended to help improve victim protection in the area of violence in the private sphere. As an accompanying evaluation of the measure is required by law, the Centre for Social Research and Science Didactics (ZSW) and Hochschule Campus Wien were commissioned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) to carry out a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the new measures of the Protection against Violence Act together with the Federal Criminal Police Office (BK). While the BK is responsible for the quantitative part of the study, the qualitative part is being carried out by ZSW and Hochschule Campus Wien in cooperation. For the quantitative evaluation, violence protection centres, advice centres for violence prevention and police prevention officers will be surveyed using online questionnaires. The data collected will be analysed, processed and evaluated descriptively. In the qualitative part, focus groups are conducted with representatives from the same areas, including child and youth welfare services.