Summary

Our project addresses a key challenge in the study and prevention of VAWG: the limited understanding of how socioeconomic disadvantage translates into heightened risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) in everyday life.

While there is strong evidence that VAWG is socially patterned, much of the existing research focuses on distal factors such as attitudes or broad structural inequalities. These explanations are important, but they remain relatively removed from the situations in which violence actually occurs, making it difficult to identify timely and actionable points for prevention. We focus instead on proximal, situational mechanisms—specifically patterns of time use and substance use—that shape exposure to risk in daily routines. By examining how disadvantage influences unstructured time and substance use across the life course, the project aims to better understand how risk accumulates and materialises in specific contexts and interactions.

This challenge is important to us both academically and from a policy perspective. As researchers, we are interested in advancing more precise, mechanism-based explanations of crime and violence. From a policy and practice perspective, improving understanding of these pathways is essential for developing earlier, prevention-oriented interventions that operate outside the criminal justice system, for example in education, employment, and public health settings.

Ultimately, the project seeks to contribute to a shift from reactive responses to VAWG towards more proactive, evidence-informed prevention strategies grounded in the realities of people’s everyday lives.