DAIP / "Stop!" — Malta's National Behaviour-Change Programme for Domestic-Violence Perpetrators

Malta's Domestic Abuse Intervention Programme (DAIP), part of the government's Managing Abusive Behaviour (MAB) service delivered by Agenzija Appogg (Foundation for Social Welfare Services), was established in 1994 as the country's first dedicated service for male perpetrators of intimate-partner violence, making it one of Europe's longest-running perpetrator programmes. It is now publicly known as "Stop!" and sits alongside sister services for women who use force (added 2015) and child-to-parent violence (added 2017).
Cases reach the programme through both voluntary self-referral and court mandate, with an individual suitability assessment before entry into a 28-week group programme addressing patriarchy, misogyny and responsible fatherhood, followed by an open aftercare support group. The service liaises directly with Malta's Domestic Violence Unit and Department of Probation and Parole and is funded through the FSWS state budget.
Malta's GREVIO baseline report records 111 MAB cases in 2017 and 119 in 2018, with only 6 of 12 initial participants completing the group programme in each of those years — a roughly 50% completion rate the government has not hidden. National Statistics Office data for 2023 put total users of all Maltese perpetrator services (Stop!, Probation and Correctional Services) at 390 people, over 90% male. As of the 2019 GREVIO submission, Malta had not yet completed a formal outcome evaluation of the service; an evaluation strategy was still being developed.

Read the full analysis: https://nso.gov.mt/crime/domestic-violence-2023/