Over the past two decades, Portuguese governments have been developing national action plans to tackle domestic violence and gender-based violence. Conducting research to monitor domestic violence phenomenon is crucial for policy design. The “5th National plan to prevent and combat domestic and gender-based violence 2014-2017” outlines the objective of doing an “evaluation study on the level of satisfaction of users supported by the national support network for domestic violence victims”, which will be presented. Promoted by the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG) and carried out by CIES, ISCTE–Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (2015-2016), this evaluation study acknowledges two approaches: a) the organizations running specialist support services for victims; b) the users of these support services, necessarily domestic violence victims. The research done identifies country’s particularities as well as the European Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence provisions. The presentation is mainly focused on the data obtained from organizations and its specialist support services: support structures, shelters and specific emergency shelters, as defined by Portuguese law. Methodologically, two online questionnaires were developed, allowing the survey of 88 organizations and its 128 support services (79 support structures, 32 shelters and 17 specific emergency shelters). The questionnaires collected quantitative and qualitative data about: geographical location and coverage; type of services and areas of intervention; users’ referral and follow up; institutions and support services’ procedures; cooperation and network with other institutions; human and physical resources; funding and budget for domestic violence; services self-assessment. Besides mapping and analyzing organizations and support services which are part of the national support network for domestic violence victims, recommendations for policy makers and governmental agencies have emanated from the research.

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Intimate partner violence,public policy,good practices,Portugal