Title: Listening to stakeholders in the prevention of gender-based violence among young people
in Spain: a qualitative study from the PositivMasc project
Version: 0 Date: 07 Apr 2023
Reviewer's report:
This article seeks to deepen our knowledge of gender violence in Spain among young people
by listening to key stakeholders in the field. It consists of 23 semi-structured interviews
with professionals working in different areas of intervention in order to detect the main
prevention strategies, the barriers they encounter and the possible transformative programs to
be implemented from a socio-ecological perspective.
The article is technically deep and the experimental data mostly support the statements made
and their discussion. The approach represents an advance in the scientific literature in that it
provides the perspective of professionals who work directly with the young people and therefore
have an authoritative voice to highlight the limitations, advances and needs in the prevention
of violence. We consider that the discursive analysis of the testimonies collected through semi-
structured interviews provides a deep and valuable insight to reveal the barriers and progress
in prevention, emphasizing the need to intervene in the field of new masculinities or digital
violence in a structural way, taking into account the discursive construction of gender.
After a careful reading of such a stimulating study, we present some suggestions that could
contribute to its better understanding and deepening.
Although the article recognizes its limitations in terms of not taking into account territoriality,
sexual orientation or gender identity among the sampling criteria, we consider that, taking into
account the characteristics of the study, the issue of territoriality should have been taken into
account as a fundamental parameter. The fact that the interviews were conducted with people
working in Madrid represents an important bias, because the intervention in urban and rural
contexts may involve differences, as well as in a large or a small city. The context in which the
study was carried out necessarily conditions the results.
On the other hand, we believe that the text should be more cautious about the objective of
covering "all areas of intervention and decision-making on this matter in Spain", bearing in mind
that, although a holistic study can be considered, there could be areas of intervention that are
not covered, such as those referring to the health field, for example.
It would also be necessary to specify the age range when the text refers to "young population", as
well as to delimit whether the intervention takes place in the public or private sphere, specifying,
as far as possible, whether the general context is public policy or whether there are areas of
private intervention that have also been taken into account.
In some of the interviewees' verbatim we clearly find a personal projection of their gender
identity and their way of dealing with gender violence. We believe that it could be enriching to
address this issue, given that we have the testimonies of those who intervene with young people
and not of those young people, who "speak" through the interviewees.
We found that at some points in the articles there is little scientific literature that would allow
for a richer and deeper discussion. This is the case, for example, of digital violence or new
masculinities.
Likewise, we think that there are two concepts that are mentioned but barely developed, which
in our opinion would bring more clarity and richness to the text. Although the socio-ecological
perspective is mentioned on several occasions, it is not clear what it refers to. On the other hand,
"emotional illiteracy" is also mentioned, a concept that could be expanded due to its relevance
to the study.
Generally speaking, and bearing in mind that this is a study that covers a specific problem in
Spain, we believe that the article would require more context, especially with regard to aspects
addressed in the text such as the rise of the extreme right and the growing anti-feminist resistance
and how this is leading, for example, to the fact that the concept of domestic violence is included
in public policies as opposed to that of gender-based violence.
Although it is a phenomenon with many confluences outside Spain, we believe that there are
specific issues, such as the special legislation with different criminal types for women and
men, which is particular in dealing with violence at the local level. It would also be of interest
to address, albeit briefly, the context that results in the fact that educational interventions are
reduced to sporadic initiatives, which does not facilitate the approach to violence prevention in
a systematic and structural way.
We caution that what is raised in lines 482-488 could contribute to the impact on stereotypes
regarding gender roles linked to gender-based violence. Why not emphasize, in turn, that young
men who engage in cyber-violence understand the scope of their practices?
Finally, we consider that, despite being aware of the limitations of the study, not contemplating
the issue of intersectionality is an important bias when it comes to understanding the testimonies,
barriers, limits and possibilities in the intervention with young people in gender-based violence.
The diversity of contexts in the city of Madrid in terms of class and ethnicity is so wide that not
considering this aspect could somehow compromise the value of the results provided. If it is not
possible to take this into account, it should at least be considered as an important limitation and,
above all, it should not be intended, as stated in the objectives, to cover all types of intervention,
but rather to adjust the results to the biases with which the testimonies of those who participated
were obtained.