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Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
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Treatment of Offenders

The treatment, control, and punishment of offenders who engage in child abuse, intimate violence, or elder abuse have been fragmented across many different legal and social service systems in American society. Some forms of assault come within the scope of criminal law where victims may claim protection from law enforcement agencies. In many areas, however, the role of the law in addressing the offenders is very limited or uncertain.

Responding to those who commit acts of violence against children is problematic because current institutional systems rely heavily on self-reports or reports by relatives, neighbors, school officials, or social services or health professionals who may see signs of physical evidence or hear accounts of the assault from the child. Yet law enforcement officials or judges may be reluctant to seek or impose penalties on the offender if physical evidence is not convincing or if a child's testimony is inconsistent.

In addition, some forms of physical abuse may result from corporal punishment or lack of parental awareness of developmental abilities (especially in the area of feeding and toilet training). Effective treatment of such offenses may require therapeutic or educational interventions focused on changing parent or caretaker perceptions or expectations of child behavior. Distinguishing abusive behaviors that result from ignorance or inappropriate perceptions from those that are characterized by a desire to harm a child can be a challenging task for caseworkers and other public officials.

In the field of intimate violence, the law enforcement system has played a more prominent role in dealing with offenders through a variety of instruments, including the use of restraining orders, anti-stalking legislation, increased sanctions, monitoring systems, and mandated treatment programs. However, there is uncertainty within the legal system regarding the extent to which those who commit violence against family members or intimate associates are capable of violence against others in the community. The traditional view of domestic violence cases as “family matters” has impeded the search for public safety measures that could deal effectively with the identification and control of offenders. There is also uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of alternate forms of batterers' treatment programs, which may be voluntary or mandatory as part of a judicial strategy in settling specific offenses.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

The evolution of offenders' treatment programs has occurred in a variety of settings, primarily in mental health services and law enforcement settings for batterers and sexual offenders and in social service agencies for physically abusive or neglectful parents. A range of conceptual models, including cognitive, psychoeducational, therapeutic, use of medications, lie detectors, deterrence, and other control/monitoring mechanisms has been used to identify and treat offenders.

In the following presentations, service providers and researchers review a portion of offenders' treatment programs, focusing primarily on cognitive or psychoeducational approaches designed to reduce recidivism among incest offenders and men or parents who are reported for the physical abuse of women and children. In the field of elder abuse, the treatment of offenders has received only minimal attention and has not yet supported the development of specific intervention programs.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

ECOBEHAVIORAL MODELS FOR TREATMENT OF CHILD ABUSE PERPETRATORS

John R. Lutzker

After the recognition of child abuse syndrome in the early 1960s, treatment literature in the form of simple case studies and single-case experiments began to appear in the mid-1970s. The focus of these efforts revolved around either the teaching of parents in simple child behavior management techniques (Jeffery, 1976; Crozier and Katz, 1979) or in teaching parents anger control (Polakow and Peabody, 1975) or other stress reduction techniques (Sanford and Tustin, 1974). This work represented a promising beginning for treatment of the parental perpetrators of child abuse, but it was too simplistic when the many mitigating factors that correlate with risk of child abuse are considered. These factors include poverty, child-rearing and problem-solving deficits, lack of knowledge about child development, money management deficits, home safety and cleanliness (health) hazards, inadequate knowledge about maternal/child health and nutrition, inadequate or absent bonding or infant stimulation, poor adult relationships, and delayed basic skills of the child who has been abused.

The ecobehavioral model (Lutzker, 1992) was developed in order to try to address several of these factors by providing in-home multifaceted assessment and services related to many of these factors. These services have included parent-child training, stress reduction, basic skill training of children, money management training, problem-solving skill training, health and safety training programs, pre- and postnatal maternal/child health training, behavioral pediatrics, and the development of bonding through planned activities training and infant stimulation.

Since 1979, Project 12-Ways has offered these ecobehavioral services to families referred for child abuse and neglect in rural southern Illinois. A systematic replication of the Project 12-Ways model (Lutzker, 1984) has been ongoing in southern California since 1988 through Project Ecosystems (Lutzker et al., 1992). This is an in-home service to families whose children are at high risk for child abuse because of their severe behavioral excesses and deficits as a function of developmental disabilities. Also, recently funded by the California Wellness Foundation, Project SafeCare is another systematic replication attempting to provide parent training and health and safety training to families within a 15-week package. This treatment and research project is aimed at examining several issues of replicability of the ecobehavioral model. The average duration that a family is seen by Project 12-Ways is nine months. Thus, one question is whether this 15-week package can be as effective in a more succinct

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

format. Also, families served by Project 12-Ways, Project Ecosystems, and replications in Florida and Mexico all employ highly trained graduate students as the service providers. Although these developing professionals provided competent services, another question is whether or not these services can also be provided successfully by caseworkers and nurses, and perhaps more indirectly through video formats. Thus, another experimental question being addressed by Project SafeCare is whether or not these other formats can be effective.

There are five methods to evaluate the ecobehavioral model, or any similar model in providing family services. First, “clinical” data should be collected. That is, data are collected whether or not they will be used within experimental designs and whether or not they are necessarily reliable. These include data collected directly by counselors or self-report data collected by the client. For example, a parent might be asked to count the number of criticisms directed at her child during the week. These data, although of little scientific merit, are of great value. First, they can be used to show a parent progress, or lack thereof, in treatment. Another use for these data is for counselor supervision. The counselor can present the data to a supervisor in order to embellish supervision and for the supervisor to have a more complete image of treatment experience with the family. Finally, the data can have a helpful reactive effect. For example, the parent who begins to count and record the frequency of criticisms may actually reduce the frequency as a function of awareness through self-recording.

Case studies represent the next level of evaluation. These are reports that are published in the literature, though lacking the usual scientific criteria for publication. The data often lack reliability or robust research designs, but there are detailed descriptions of dramatic change in highly resistant behavior. For example, Lutzker et al. (1984) described significant household cleanliness and children' s hygiene in a family referred for neglect in which the parents displayed developmental delays. The value of these case studies is that they provide researchers and service providers with published accounts of novel treatment techniques that can be replicated and tested for their generality.

A more sophisticated level of evaluation is the use of single-case experiments. These are published studies in which a single individual or family is the subject of the research. If the data are reliable, single-case design allows for confidence that there is internal validity, showing definitively that the treatment is responsible for changes in behavior. For example, Campbell et al. (1983), through a withdrawal research design, showed that stress reduction techniques were responsible for a dramatic reduction in migraine headaches in a mother who was at high risk for child abuse. In addition, a multiple baseline design across responses showed that parent training techniques produced significant change in maternal use of behavior management procedures and instruction-following by the child. Single-case experiments lack external generality; however, like case studies, they allow for possible replication and thus subsequent demonstrations of external generality.

Research using single-case designs with more than one family or group (statistical) research designs represent the next level of evaluation. This kind of

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

research extends the generality of treatment procedures reported. For example, Barone et al. (1986) used a slide-tape program to reduce household hazards accessible to children whose parents had been referred for abuse or neglect. A multiple baseline design across families clearly showed that the slide-tape program was responsible for the dramatic improvements.

Finally, program evaluation represents the most comprehensive level of evaluation. This can take several forms such as measuring recidivism and comparing it in families treated in one model to another. For example, Lutzker and Rice (1987) showed that there was a lower risk of repeated incidence of abuse among families treated by Project 12-Ways than families in a comparison group who were matched demographically, lived in the same region, but received other services provided by the child protective agency. Other possible program evaluation data can include placement and social validation. Social validation involves questionnaires sent to consumers asking about the quality of the goals, process, and outcome of treatment. O'Brien et al. (1993) explored these issues with consumers who received services from Project Ecosystems. They also asked these questions of agency personnel who referred families to the project. Social validation and other program evaluation allows an examination of the larger questions associated with services aimed at the treatment and prevention of child abuse and neglect. Ideally, all five forms of evaluation outlined here should be included in examining treatment services.

The ecobehavioral model shares some similarities with, but also differences from, other large-scale in-home wrap-around services for families. The primary differences are in the direct observation of behavior and collection of data. For example, in looking at parent-child interactions, independent observers record several operationally defined parent and child responses. Research designs as described above are used to evaluate the effectiveness of each new treatment. In addition, there is a focus on criteria-based performance in teaching staff each ecobehavioral treatment strategy.

Several challenges face all treatment providers in child abuse. Parent compliance to recommended treatment regimens remains one of the biggest of these challenges. Parents who are court-mandated seem to cooperate better than those who are not. Behavioral contracts between the service provider and the family are helpful in assuring compliance. Good humanistic counseling skills of the counselors add to the likelihood of compliance to the otherwise invasive strategies offered within the ecobehavioral model. Some families may comply as a function of negative reinforcement. That is, they do so because they are aware that their compliance will ultimately cause the service provider to go away! Although we would always like to think of ourselves as positive, this reason for compliance may not be problematic as long as change seen in the family is durable. Finally, it must be noted that every treatment provider faces failures, and that often noncompliance cannot be solved.

Although the ecobehavioral model in treating perpetrators of child abuse appears to be effective, several areas deserve future research. More empirical work is needed on the effects of treatment on child victims. Strategies can be explored for teaching children to be aware of cues that might lead to abusive incidents and they can be taught

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

strategies that could aid in their protection. Empirical approaches need to be improved in teaching parents to have more appropriate child development expectations. Also, there should be explorations into very intensive treatment services, such as, perhaps, a 3-week, 24-hour camp-like experience in which families are provided constant feedback on their parenting and problem-solving practices. Finally, evaluation and assessment procedures should continue to be emphasized.

REFERENCES

Barone, V.J., B.F. Greene, and J.R. Lutzker 1986 Home safety for parents being treated for child abuse and neglect . Behavior Modification 10:93-114.

Campbell, R.V., S. O'Brien, A. Bickett, and J.R. Lutzker 1983 In-home parent training, treatment of migraine headaches, and marital counseling as an ecobehavioral approach to prevent child abuse. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 14:147-154 .

Crozier, J., and R.C. Katz 1979 Social learning treatment of child abuse.Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 10:213-220 .

Jeffery, M. 1976 Practical ways to change parent-child interaction in families of children at risk. In R.E. Helfer and C.H. Kempe, eds., Helping the Battered Child and His Family. Philadelphia, Penn.: JB Lippincott.

Lutzker, J.R. 1984 Project 12-Ways: Treating child abuse and neglect from an ecobehavioral perspective. Pp. 260-291 in R.F. Dangel and R.A. Polster, eds., Parent Training: Foundations of Research and Practice. New York: Guilford Press.

1992 Developmental disabilities and child abuse and neglect: The ecobehavioural imperative. Behaviour Change 9:149-156.

Lutzker, J.R., and J.M. Rice 1987 Using recidivism data to evaluate Project 12-Ways: An ecobehavioral approach to the treatment and prevention of child abuse and neglect . Journal of Family Violence 2:283-290.

Lutzker, J.R., R.V. Campbell, and M. Watson-Perczel 1984 Utility of the case study method in the treatment of several problems of a neglectful family.Education and Treatment of Children 7:315-333.

Lutzker, J.R., R.V. Campbell, M. Harrold, and K. Huynen 1992 Project Ecosystems: An ecobehavioral approach to families with children with developmental disabilities. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities 4:17-35.

O'Brien, M., J.R. Lutzker, and R.V. Campbell

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
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1993 Consumer evaluation of an ecobehavioral program for families with children with developmental disabilities. Journal of Mental Health Administration 20(3): 278-284 .

Polakow, R.L., and D.L. Peabody 1975 Behavioral treatment of child abuse. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 19: 100-103 .

Sanford, D.A., and R.D. Tustin 1974 Behavioural treatment of parental assault on a child. New Zealand Psychologist 2: 76-82 .

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
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EVALUATION OF BATTERERS' TREATMENT PROGRAMS

Richard Tolman

Despite the growing use of the criminal justice and social service interventions designed to help change the behavior of perpetrators, the efficacy of such interventions has not yet clearly been established. Although the number of arrests has increased, efforts to assess their effectiveness as a deterrent or as an intervention have shown mixed results. A 1990 research review of group treatment for batterers (Tolman and Bennett, 1990) revealed one consistent finding: in a range of programs, using various methods of interventions, a large proportion of men report that they stop their abusive behavior following involvement in the programs. These outcomes deserve further analysis, however, because of variation in the range of success reported for different treatment programs (from 53 percent to 85 percent) and because “success” is often defined simply as an absence of physical abuse. Various explanatory factors should be considered in this analysis, as well as methodological shortcomings of the studies. For example, lower percentages of success tended to occur in programs with longer-term follow-up and in programs that rely on reports of the women victims rather than self-report measures. More importantly, many treatment programs experience high levels of offender attrition, which dilutes the overall effectiveness of the studies.

The scarcity of experimental studies in the field of batterers' treatment programs is a major shortcoming because it is not clear whether the intervention programs for batterers are responsible for changing men's abusive behavior. Some studies that compare treatment drop-outs with men who have completed treatment demonstrate only modest gains for those who have completed intervention programs.

Additional research is needed that views interventions for batterers in a broader context, including their interactions with the criminal justice system as well as with their partners. For example, the availability of services for battered women is related to an increase in the use of orders of protection as well as in arrest and successful prosecution of batterers. The effects of services for battered women must be considered in evaluations of batterers programs because changes in batterers' behavior may be mistakenly attributed to the interventions for batterers, when, in fact, the changes may be the result of the empowerment of battered women.

In order to improve the evaluations of treatment programs, researchers should look beyond the measurement of the cessation of physical abuse to other indicators of success. Further research is needed to develop measures of sexual and psychological maltreatment, especially since some studies suggest that psychological abuse may

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

increase as physical abuse decreases. It is possible that if success is described as the absence of threats, intimidation, and other forms of psychological abuse, as well as the absence of physical abuse, then the modest successes in batterers' programs may drop even more.

Measures of separation abuse, such as work and telephone harassment and misuse of child visitation privileges, often are missed in evaluation studies of batterers' treatment programs. Measures are also needed for assessing positive, caring behaviors in egalitarian relationships, not simply measuring the negative skills in relationships. Finally, there is a need for outcome observational measures that can be reported by battered women themselves who may have important perceptions of their partners' behavior or well-being. The well-being of the woman, especially in areas such as safety, stress, self-esteem, and fear, can be an important indicator of effectiveness of a selected treatment program.

One area that has received little attention in the evaluation of batterers' treatment programs is the assessment of relationships between offenders and the children of battered women. If an intervention program is fully effective, improvements may be seen in the aggressive behavior and developmental adjustments of children who often witness scenes of intimate violence. When regarded in this way, treatment programs for batterers could be conceptualized as programs that prevent the use of violence by the children of batterers. Another area that may serve as a good target for early intervention is the pattern of relationships that emerges in high school dating. Some studies suggest that a high incidence of intimate violence occurs in these relationships, but we have little knowledge about what forms of intervention programs are most effective for adolescents who may be experimenting with violence early in their dating relationships.

In conclusion, much effort is needed to improve the variation in the models of treatment that are available for different categories of batterers. Such variation is needed to respond to the needs and impulses of different categories and types of offenders that has emerged from earlier research studies. Studies by Levesque (1995) and others, for example, suggest that batterers at different stages of motivation may respond differently to selected treatment programs. Experimental studies that examine the comparative effects of mandatory versus voluntary programs, the effects of sanctions associated with participation in batterers' treatment programs, and the enhanced use of surveillance and monitoring efforts would help improve the quality of the knowledge base that could guide programmatic efforts in this field.

REFERENCES

Levesque, D. 1995 Battering Men and Women: Applying the Transtheoretical Model to Resistance and Change. Unpublished manuscript, University of Rhode Island Family Violence Research Program.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

Tolman, R., and L.W. Bennett 1990 A review of research on men who batter. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 5(1): 87-118 .

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

TREATMENT OF SEXUAL OFFENDERS

Robert A. Prentky

Research suggests that exclusive intrafamilial sexual offenders have the best treatment prognosis and the lowest recidivism rate of all child molesters. Even incest offenders, however, fall into different categories and vary substantially in amenability for treatment and the risk for offending again. Indeed, incest offenders are differentiable on most of the dimensions that are important for nonincestuous child molesters (e.g., level of social competence, degree of sexual preoccupation with children, and lifestyle impulsivity). By and large, incest offenders are not differentiable along the dimensions of amount of contact with children and degree of physical injury.

Treatment programs for sex offenders should include protocols for baseline assessment, progress evaluation, risk assessment, and discharge. On the basis of data obtained from these protocols, informed judgments can be made about differential prognosis, especially in the area of risk assessment.

TREATMENT OR REHABILITATION OF INCEST OFFENDERS

Incest offenders are most successfully treated in group with a cognitive behavioral orientation, often based on a model of relapse prevention. Treatment regimens often include victim empathy training and cognitive restructuring, as well as psychoeducational classes that augment the work in group. Psychoeducational classes provide the cognitive preparation for the affective work that takes place in group. A key to maximizing long-term treatment effectiveness appears to be the affective component of treatment (i.e., awakening genuine feelings of sadness, remorse, guilt, shame, etc.). When these feelings are internalized (e.g., feelings of sadness or shame about one's own victimization, feelings of sadness, or remorse about one's victimization of others) they will provide a powerful defense against re-offending. The potential utility of medication, particularly the SSRI antidepressants (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor, such as Prozac), should be considered, as appropriate.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
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RISK ASSESSMENT

Risk assessment with child molesters occupies a very substantial literature that cannot be reviewed in this brief summary. One of the most enduring themes in this literature concerns victim gender, the notion that same-sex molesters are at the highest risk to re-offend, opposite-sex molesters are at the lowest risk, and bisexual molesters fall somewhere in the middle. As the victim gender theory would predict, incest offenders, who are predominantly opposite sex (father-daughter), are at lowest risk to re-offend.

The victim gender hypothesis has not, however, received uniform support. Our own work (Prentky et al., 1995) on the development of an archival risk assessment scale for child molesters failed to provide any support for the usefulness of victim gender in predicting recidivism. In a 24-year follow-up of 111 treated child molesters, 6 of 10 variables significantly differentiated those who re-offended and from those who did not re-offend. The most powerful predictors of sexual recidivism were strength of pedophilic interest (which assesses the extent to which children are a major focus of the offender's thoughts and fantasies), paraphilias, and number of prior sexual offenses. The most powerful predictors of nonsexual recidivism were amount of contact with children, juvenile antisocial behavior (e.g., problems in grammar school and junior high school, fighting, vandalism, assaultiveness), adult antisocial behavior (e.g., fighting, assaultiveness, vandalism, illegal drug use), and paraphilias.

Although risk assessment procedures and scales for sex offenders exist that are empirically informed and reasonably accurate, low base rates of re-offending hamper the overall effectiveness of risk assessment. The base-rate problem is particularly serious with exclusive incest offenders who have a very low re-offensive rate. Assuming a sexual recidivism rate of 10 percent with endogamous incest offenders, a prediction device would have to exceed 90 percent accuracy to improve upon a chance prediction of no re-offense. Nevertheless we have a reasonably good idea of what constitutes “risk” for many sex offenders.

CHILD MOLESTER RISK ASSESSMENT SCALE

The child molester risk assessment scale includes the following classification criteria for scale variables:

  • Amount of Contact with Children. The amount of contact with children variable is derived from work on the development of a classification system for child molesters (Knight et al., 1989). The amount of contact is a behavioral measure of the time that an offender spends with or near children, and includes sexual and nonsexual situations, but excludes parent-related contact. Any involvement in a job and/or social or recreational activities that requires regular contact with children qualifies as nonsexual contact.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×
  • Strength of Pedophilic Interest. The strength of pedophilic interest, or “fixation” variable, assesses the extent to which children are a major focus of the offender's thoughts and fantasies.

  • Impulsivity. This variable is a measure of lifestyle impulsivity and includes seven components: (a) unstable employment history, (b) financial irresponsibility, (c) aimlessness or failure to settle down, (d) reckless behavior, (e) inability to maintain an enduring attachment to a sexual partner, (f) repeated instances of aggressive behavior in response to frustration, and (g) subjective experiences of acting on “irresistible impulses.”

  • Juvenile Antisocial Behavior. The score for juvenile antisocial behavior is derived from six items: (a) problems in grammar school, (b) problems in junior high school, (c) verbal or physical assault on peers at school, (d) vandalism, (e) fighting, and (f) number of nonsexual, victimless offenses.

  • Frequency of Prior Sexual Offenses. This variable is the total number of charges for serious sexual (i.e., victim-involved) offenses committed as a juvenile and as an adult.

  • Paraphilia. This variable is a six-item scale that included exhibitionism, fetishism, transvestism, voyeurism, promiscuity, and compulsive masturbation.

  • Substance Abuse History. The score for substance abuse history is derived from three items: (a) frequency of drinking, (b) lifetime alcohol use, and (c) drug use history.

  • Social Competence. The score for social competence includes three items: (a) the quality of peer relationships in adulthood, (b) the level of heterosexual attachments in adulthood, and (c) marriage.

  • Victim Gender. Victim gender is coded for up to 3 victims per offense and for up to 10 separate offenses. When all known victims are female, the code is “opposite sex.” When all known victims are male, the code is “same sex.” All other cases are coded as “mixed.”

COMMUNITY NOTIFICATION

The issue of community notification of released sex offenders has recently become a major subject of political debate at both the state and federal level. This debate has both statutory and social policy implications and raises at least three major problems. First, we assume that those individuals who are informed about the identity of a recently discharged sex offender will act in a responsible manner. There is little evidence to support that assumption and considerable evidence to support the opposite conclusion, that people will take “matters” into their own hands and the result will be further violence (such as the neighbors who burned down the home of an identified child molester in the state of Washington, or the neighbors who assaulted a man that they mistakenly thought to be a child molester in New Jersey). In general, some degree of vigilantism, resulting in more crime and more injury, should be anticipated as a consequence of community notification.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

Second, the purpose of notifying neighbors is for protection (so parents can keep their children away from potentially dangerous people). Although the immediate community may effectively keep their children away from an offender, the offender is not prevented from going to an adjacent community, or getting into his car and driving to an even more distant community. Community notification may accomplish nothing more than forcing the offender to seek his victims elsewhere.

Third, it is possible that some offenders will re-offend because of the stress and pressure imposed by a hostile, rejectionist community that has branded the offender as a pariah. Thus, community notification may unwittingly increase the likelihood that some sex offenders re-offend.

TREATMENT AND PAROLE

Some constructive responses to the problem of potentially dangerous sex offenders include the following:

  1. Risk assessment can be routinely instituted for all sex offenders who, at time of discharge or parole, are deemed to be dangerous by virtue of violence and/or repetitiveness. At the very least, those who are deemed to be at high risk should be mandated for treatment.

  2. Lifetime parole supervision should be considered for highly repetitive sex offenders and those who have committed particularly violent acts. Although this would rarely be necessary for incest offenders, it may be appropriate for many extrafamilial child molesters. Lifetime parole is vastly cheaper than imprisonment, more acceptable than indeterminate sentences on constitutional grounds, and a reasonably good compromise for protecting society. For offenders who are mandated to be in treatment or who need to be on medication (such as Depo Provera), parole supervision substantially increases compliance.

  3. The confidential notification of local police departments and the District Attorney's office is entirely reasonable and can often be an important element of maintenance in the community.

  4. Well-coordinated treatment services provided by trained therapists who are experienced working with sex offenders should be available, both in prison as well as after a prisoner returns to the community. Treatment in the community is particularly critical for adjustment and maintenance. Treatment should be considered one aspect of an overall maintenance program that is coordinated by a parole officer.

  5. Intensive parole supervision should be implemented by hiring additional parole officers who will carry small caseloads and who will he highly trained in assessment, evaluation, and community maintenance of sexual offenders. Caseloads should not exceed about 15 offenders to ensure effective supervision. This program of intensive community supervision will be less expensive than keeping sex offenders in prison and more effective than community notification.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

Consider, for example, what the cost savings would be in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It costs $25,000 per year to house an inmate in one of the state correctional facilities. A parole officer's average salary is $35,000/yr. If one parole officer had a caseload of only 15 sex offenders, the Commonwealth would save approximately $340,000 by supervising those 15 men in the community rather than keeping them incarcerated ($25,000 × 15 = $375,000 − $35,000).

There are approximately 3,000 sex offenders currently housed in the Commonwealth's penal facilities. If the Commonwealth paroled only 10 percent of the least dangerous offenders (e.g., many of the incest offenders) and hired 20 new parole officers to cover them, the Commonwealth would save about $6.5 million per year (300 × $25,000 = $7,500,000 − (20 × $35,000 = $700,000) = $6,800,000).

REFERENCES

Knight, R.A., D.L. Carter, and R.A. Prentky 1989 A system for the classification of child molesters: Reliability and application. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 4(1):3-23.

Prentky, R.A., R.A. Knight, and A.F.S. Lee 1995 Risk Assessment with Extra-Familial Child Molesters. J.J. Peters Insitiute, Philadelphia, Penn.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

MODEL COURT PROGRAMS FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Sharon Denaro

Domestic violence involves a complex set of dynamics which court systems are just beginning to address. In the absence of research studies, those who design systems that address domestic violence have, by necessity, depended on the collective wisdom and experience of many experts who work in the field.

Few jurisdictions have integrated systems that combine all the necessary components for development of a systemic approach to reduce domestic violence. However, many jurisdictions have developed one or more programs in specific areas such as:

  • Dedicated domestic violence units within the local prosecutor's office, the police department, or both.

  • Dynamic treatment modalities for the treatment of the batterer such as the model developed in Duluth, Minnesota.

  • Nonprofit corporations established to advocate for victims of domestic violence, which may provide victim advocacy, emergency shelter, legal advocacy, community education, and domestic violence training for court or other agencies.

  • Legal clinics sponsored by local law schools, Legal Aid, ethnic organizations, or other special interest groups.

  • Specialty courts dedicated to hear domestic violence cases exclusively. Some jurisdictions may feature one or more judges who hear petitions for civil protection orders, while other jurisdictions may focus on domestic violence criminal cases. A few jurisdictions may have courts that hear both criminal and civil domestic violence cases. An ideal approach is the creation of a Domestic Violence Division of the court with jurisdiction to hear all cases where domestic violence is an underlying factor. These cases would not only include protection orders, misdemeanors, and felonies, but also divorce as well as other cases traditionally heard in the family division. This model is currently being considered in Washington, D.C.

Many domestic violence programs were developed because of the determination and zeal of a specific agency or interest group. Many model courts developed because individual judges were dedicated to this approach. Until very recently, commitment for this approach from the highest levels of the court and government has been lacking in most jurisdictions. Well-developed, integrated domestic violence systems require

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

planning, best accomplished by interagency task forces and re-appropriation of precious public resources. However, without a unified effort at the highest levels of authority, domestic violence initiatives will remain fragmented and research will be hampered.

In 1992 the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges published a survey of selected outstanding model court programs. Few programs are found within completely integrated systems because few such systems exist. The model program initiated in Dade County, Florida, on November 1, 1992, for example (after the completion of the survey), is not included. In addition, the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has completed a survey of five jurisdictions that have dedicated civil injunction courts. The Pennsylvania Coalition study (Merryman, 1995) includes Miami, Philadelphia, District of Columbia, Denver, and Indianapolis.

BASIC ASSUMPTIONS

In the development of the Dade County Domestic Violence Plan, a set of the basic assumptions formed the theoretical framework for the court's initiative.

First, when ignored, domestic violence escalates, and many victims return to their abusers. Second, children who witness domestic violence are themselves victims of domestic violence. Third, inaction by the justice system including the police, prosecution, and the court, ensures that the same offender will return to the justice system repeatedly, increasing the possibility of serious injury to the victim. Fourth, the same inaction teaches the victim not to trust the system and teaches the perpetrator that domestic violence is permissible, thus perpetuating the cycle of violence.

System action, early in the cycle of domestic violence, is critical and eventually may stem recidivism. Specialized domestic violence courts, focused on injunctive relief and criminal prosecution of misdemeanors early in the cycle of violence, provide the best opportunity to stop violence before it escalates and also affords the best use of resources. Court-mandated treatment, including jail treatment, will reduce domestic violence. Such treatment should include both a domestic violence and substance abuse component, where appropriate.

Civil protection orders offer victims an additional doorway to the justice system and offer additional protection and support to the victim who may or may not be ready to pursue criminal prosecution. The court system must be “user friendly” to victims of domestic violence so that access to protection orders is assured 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Both victims and their minor children need treatment and support groups designed to help them recover from the effects of domestic violence. Domestic violence will diminish where there is accountability and strict enforcement of court orders, including:

  • court-mandated treatment in both civil and criminal cases;

  • monitoring of court orders by the appropriate probation agency;

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×
  • further monitoring through a process of judicial review by the judge who entered the order;

  • swift prosecution of criminal violations or criminal contempt by trained prosecutors; and

  • dependable, consistent police action, including statutory warrantless arrest of offenders, where there is probable cause to believe that a violation of an order of protection has occurred.

Additional assumptions include the belief that coordination of local victim service agencies, advocacy groups, and private treatment providers can provide better service to victims and treatment for offenders.

DADE COUNTY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PLAN COMPONENTS

The planning group recognized that the development of the initiatives enunciated in the Dade County Domestic Violence Plan would require a standing committee comprised of affected justice system and community representatives. They also determined that evaluation of the “success ” of the program would require that all components work together in the development of new services for victims in the future.

In addressing these assumptions, the planners recognized that many of these components already existed in Miami, though they were not necessarily working together or they required enhancement. For example, Dade County had a progressive state law that seemed to mandate interagency cooperation. The court system also had a chief judge who dedicated staff and resources to develop a model program that would include specialized domestic violence courts for both civil and criminal cases. Several judges were willing to help design and then serve in the new court, and a supportive state attorney had established a specialized domestic violence screening and prosecution unit. The system also had a progressive police department willing to make changes; two county-run model programs that included the women's shelter and the domestic violence offender treatment program; and the county manager's office established a unit dedicated to victim advocacy and the coordination of victim services. Finally, the county leadership was willing to fund the project, despite the absence of empirical data that recidivism would be reduced.

The existing components were enhanced by a 24-hour hotline with access to an emergency judge 7 days a week; a domestic violence intake unit run by the court that assists petitioners with emergency petitions for temporary relief and emergency social service referrals; a domestic violence division of the court that hears petitions for civil protection orders, criminal misdemeanors, and provides judicial review of its treatment orders; a dedicated section of the probation department that provides an assessment and monitors compliance of treatment orders; county-funded treatment slots combined with a network of private treatment providers; and free group therapy for children through a division of University of Miami Medical School.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

The plan was written by the participants after a thorough examination of other national models. Certain components that were selected as critical to the model were identified, integrated, and coordinated prior to implementation.

Final components of the plan or enhanced components were added following implementation in the criminal misdemeanor and the civil injunction courts. These are described below.

Criminal Misdemeanor Court

Domestic violence criminal cases are filed with one of four judges in the Domestic Violence Division of the court, and these domestic violence judges preside over domestic violence hearings. The court is staffed by public defenders with knowledge of the dynamics of domestic violence. Domestic violence arraignment occurs within 21 days.

The State Attorney's Domestic Crimes Unit consists of specialized prosecutors, paralegal staff, and victim witness counselors. The Domestic Crimes Unit interviews the victim prior to arraignment. Diversion (for first offenders) or a plea is offered to the defendant at arraignment. Both diversion and plea offers mandate treatment (including substance abuse treatment where appropriate) as a condition of diversion or probation. Those defendants who wish to plea not guilty are set for trial.

Defendants deferred or adjudicated guilty are referred to assessment within the domestic violence unit of the probation department and then are assigned to a treatment group. Defendants are assigned according to their geographic location and financial ability to pay for cost of treatment. Indigent and low-income clients are treated by a county-run program or the probation department. Nonindigent clients are referred to private providers on sliding scale.

Compliance is tightly monitored by the probation department and the court. The probation department monitors the progress of the defendant in treatment. Judges review treatment progress on a judicial review calendar, similar to those utilized for drug courts. Probation violations are heard on a separate calendar.

Civil Injunction Court

The Domestic Violence Intake Unit (DVIU) of the court conducts an interview of every individual who wishes to petition for an injunction for protection against domestic violence. This unit, part of the Court Administrator's Office, is assisted by personal from the Clerk 's office. The petitioner is assisted with the actual filing for the injunction and emergency social service referrals. Emergency ex-parte injunctions may be obtained through this unit 7 days a week and an emergency hotline number can access an emergency judge 24 hours a day. The hotline number is shared with the local women's shelter. Petitions and ex-parte temporary orders, if they are issued, are served by the sheriff's department at no cost to the petitioner. Permanent injunction

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

hearings are set within 15 days before a judge in the Domestic Violence Division. Whenever necessary, judges are assisted by staff court coordinators, members of the Florida Bar, who assist litigants with minor children develop both visitation schedules and child support recommendations based on statutory guidelines.

If the court enters a permanent injunction and the respondent is ordered to treatment, the respondent is also ordered to report to the probation department for assessment and monitoring as described in the criminal description above. As in the criminal model, the court provides judicial review. Violations of the court's order may be enforced by either criminal or civil contempt as well as the filing of a new charge. Criminal violations or new charges are prosecuted by the State Attorney's Office.

OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND EVALUATION CRITERIA

In September, 1993, one year after the implementation of the Dade County Domestic Violence Plan, John S. Goldkamp from the Crime and Justice Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received a grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to study Dade County's domestic violence court process and the outcome of treatment in selected cases.

In addition, the State Justice Institute (SJI) awarded a grant to Dade County's court system to develop a dual-diagnostic treatment model for domestic violence offenders who are also substance abusers. Dr. Goldkamp was again chosen to evaluate this second project within the overall NIJ study. The results of these studies should be ready for publication by Dr. Goldkamp in late 1995.

In addition to this research, the Dade County Grand Jury, Spring Term, 1994 examined domestic homicides, attempted homicides, and stalking cases from the year 1991 (one year prior to the implementation of the domestic violence plan) and 1993 (one year after its adoption) (Final Report of the Dade County Grand Jury, Spring Term A.D. 1994, Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida In and For Dade County). These data indicate that domestic violence homicides decreased slightly, though overall nondomestic homicides increased. In 1993, 73 percent of the arrestees had a prior criminal arrest for general crimes at the time of arrest as compared to 60 percent of the arrestees in 1991. However, the number of prior arrests for domestic violence offenses among those arrested in 1993 was lower than those arrested in 1991.

With regard to other felonies (not homicides or attempted homicides), overall domestic violence felonies increased from 13 to 16 percent. It is not known whether this reflects an actual increase or increased reporting. In the area of stalking, 73 percent of arrestees had a prior criminal record and 35 percent had been arrested for crimes of domestic violence against their victim.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×
FINAL OBSERVATIONS

The development of model court programs in coordination and cooperation with other affected justice system agencies, treatment providers, and community advocacy group represents a promising opportunity for intervention services in the field of domestic violence. Coordinated efforts have several positive results:

  • the same offenders and victims may stop re-entering the system for repeated violence;

  • scarce resources may be utilized in an effective manner without wasteful overlap;

  • increasing numbers of defendants may modify their behavior in response to systemwide accountability;

  • victims of violence and their children may escape the cycle of violence; and

  • the community at large may be educated to the dynamics of domestic violence.

Some of the most challenging difficulties in developing intervention efforts in the field of family violence reside in achieving coordination among the various components. If coordinated systems prove to be an effective means of combating domestic violence, then the initial challenges include the need to identify the necessary system pieces and to convince leaders in the hierarchy of government, the court, and the other identified governmental and community system components to work as a team. Once this is achieved, domestic violence task forces or councils can be empaneled collectively to develop and implement coordinated systems and to develop standard protocols and procedures for each system component. After implementation, interagency boards or committees need to be in place to ensure the effective participation of each component. Funding sources need to be in place so that every community can develop and implement coordinated plans. Local communities would also benefit from the creation of national databases so that innovative programs can be shared with other jurisdictions. The development of standard evaluation criteria would assist each jurisdiction in the assessment of their own programs.

Research on systemic approaches to the problem of domestic violence as well as new and better treatment modalities for offenders, victims, and their children would help to improve the operations of local systems. Many jurisdictions have developed one or more domestic violence court programs, such as specialized police or prosecutor units, dynamic treatment methods, victims advocacy groups, legal clinics, and specialty courts. However, few jurisdictions have integrated systems combining all the components for reducing domestic violence.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

REFERENCE

Merryman, M. 1995 Specialized Domestic Violence Courts: A New Means to Address an Age Old Problem. Prepared for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Reading, Penn.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

MANALIVE TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR MEN

Hamish Sinclair

Manalive Training Programs for Men has provided innovative batterer re-education programs to communities in the San Francisco Bay Area in California and consultations on male violence intervention programs, nationally and internationally, for over 14 years. The Manalive system of batterer interventions was developed in 1980 for the Marin Abused Women's Services (MAWS) in San Rafael, California, in response to women's experience of violence and their urgent need for it to stop. Since 1985 Manalive has been an independent organization that provides technical assistance and training for individuals and community agencies providing direct services to batterers. Recently we established the Manalive Education and Research Institute to support local programs, research and evaluate intervention methods, provide training services, and educate the public on men's violence.

There are over 20 Manalive community-based programs in the San Francisco Bay Area--several in San Francisco (one Spanish monolingual), including the San Francisco City Sheriff's Department, one at the California State Prison at San Quentin, and programs in Napa, Nevada, and Placer counties. Since 1986, Manalive classes for batterers have been offered 4 nights a week, for 50 weeks each year. Over 1,000 men participate in classes in the Bay Area, and the hotline responded to over 1,800 calls in 1994.

The Manalive programs seek to end men's violence to women by engaging men in changing the beliefs that result in violence to women and in fostering nonauthoritarian relationships of equality and intimacy with women. Manalive programs are based on a six-stage re-education process in a peer setting, utilizing an “each-one-teach-one” methodology under the supervision of a trained facilitator. In the first-, second-, and third-stage classes, each of which meet once a week for 3 hours for 16 weeks, men agree that they are emotionally, verbally, and physically violent to their intimates and agree to stop their violence. They also create a mutually supportive environment in which to change their own beliefs and behaviors and challenge community attitudes that sustain men's violence.

Since a principle of the program is that men must be accountable for their violence, they are required to pay, on a sliding scale, for these classes. Both the classes and the 24-hour hotline are operated by volunteer graduates of the program under the supervision of Manalive staff. As men progress through their own re-education process they assume more responsibility for presenting material, facilitating exercises, and

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

coordinating logistical support. Men who complete the first year of classes and remain violence-free may participate in an ongoing training program for volunteers. More than 140 men have become volunteers since 1980, and 35 men serve as facilitators, program advocates, and hotline volunteers as of June 1995.

THEORY OF INTERVENTIONS

The system of interventions developed in Manalive programs explicitly relies on a gender analysis of control and coercion. In this model, men's violence is seen as the socially approved enforcement of the cultural belief that men have authority over women and children. Four basic principles inform this model. First, batterers' abusive behavior is an effort to control through a broad continuum of coercive behavior, not limited to physical actions. Second, beliefs and attitudes support abusive behavior. Third, men require education to learn how to change these beliefs and attitudes in order to stop their violence. Fourth, once men are violence-free, they need to learn to express intimacy effectively.

This model generates the following assumptions for program design:

  • The intervention focus must be on men because men are the primary perpetrators of domestic violence.

  • The intervention focus must be on men's belief system because current social values support and teach male-role domination and the subjugation and subordination of women by men.

  • Changing men's loyalty from the male-role belief in their superiority over women to one of equality with women would render violence unnecessary.

The California Alliance Against Domestic Violence has adopted the gender-based intervention theory and has used the Manalive model to establish standards for court-ordered batterer intervention programs mandated in the 1993 California Assembly Bill No. 226. This legislation requires that batterer intervention programs include the examination of “gender roles, socialization, the nature of violence, (and) the dynamics of power and control (Chapter 221, Section 1000.93).

OUTCOMES

The goal of Manalive is attitudinal and behavioral change that will lead to the cessation of violence by men against women. The program seeks to measure its effectiveness by questions such as:

  • Has the man's emotional, verbal, and physical violence stopped?

  • Does the man take responsibility for his violence and for his efforts to stop it?

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×
  • Does the man demonstrate an understanding that attitudes and behaviors to maintain dominance are unacceptable in an intimate relationship?

  • Has the man learned that physical, verbal, and emotional abuse represent a male-role belief system that is based on men's domination of women?

  • Does the man demonstrate that he has learned intimacy skills to replace his violence?

  • Does the man genuinely care for himself and for those who care for him?

Positive responses to these questions are the expected behavioral outcomes of the belief-system change advocated by the program. However, the ultimate success of a program is based on women's reports that the violence has stopped. The practice of monthly partner feedback provides ongoing evaluation of program effectiveness. Not all women participate, either because of fear or unwillingness to continue the relationship. Those who do participate report the cessation of violence as well as marked changes in deep-seated attitudes within the relationships.

Nevertheless, negative outcomes can also be associated with any program. Through partner feedback it is sometimes reported that a man has learned to manipulate or oppress his partner. Attrition rates are also a source of concern. The last analysis indicated that 37 percent of the clients did not finish the entire 32 weeks of the program. This is a significant attrition rate, especially because the men who come to the program represent only a small percentage of the men who actually are violent and who would benefit from the program.

EVALUATIONS

No research team has conducted an evaluation of this program to date. The long-term outcomes of Manalive have not been measured in a systematic way, although one statistical analysis based on the class registration logs and violence-reporting instruments was done in 1988 by Harder and Kibbe, a community-service assessment consulting firm.

Since the program focuses on the development of a community of nonviolent men, there is subsequent contact, and thus there is much anecdotal evidence of its success. Following participation in the program, men talk to each other more openly about their history of violence and their ongoing struggle to stop it. The former participants are the program's best advocates when they declare how fundamentally the program has improved their lives. In fact, a number of men enter the program on the recommendation of men who have participated in the program rather than through the court system. Referrals also come from therapists and counselors who have been through the program and from the extensive 12-step network in the community.

Finally, many men who enter Manalive as batterers become volunteers in the program, sustaining and expanding it, and often becoming advocates to end other men's violence to women in their communities.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×
OPPORTUNITIES

The increased national interest and attention on the issue of men 's violence to women, and the violence of men and boys, has generated promising opportunities for intervention services focused on intimate violence. High-profile events such as the O.J. Simpson trial come at the culmination of an almost 20-year effort by the battered women 's shelter movement to place the issue of domestic violence at the center of national attention. This public awareness also provides the opportunity to increase individual attention and community interest in prevention programs focused on men. Manalive has already experienced a significant increase in referrals to the Bay Area programs, as well as requests for information and training services from other programs in the United States and other countries.

The Manalive Education and Research Institute is facilitating the development of neighborhood batterer intervention programs in the San Francisco Bay Area as a model project for the nation. The diverse multicultural population of the Bay Area offers unique challenges in designing culturally sensitive programs, which could provide a rich source of further knowledge about the sources of men's violence and the methods that will end it.

The willingness of program graduates to set up, facilitate, and maintain programs represents an opportunity to bring together a community of men dedicated to ending the current tragedy of men's violence in the home, and, in addition, campaigning to change the contemporary cultural standards that condone male violence.

CHALLENGES

The process of evolving from a direct intervention model to a community prevention model includes a number of distinct challenges. These include:

  • Educating men to give priority to the safety of women who choose to leave controlling, coercive relationships, and allocating significant resources to provide services for women who break the batterer's cycle of control.

  • Establishing batterer intervention program standards, for example, length of program, aims, content, and quality control methods. These standards would help programs that now exist to operate with greater effectiveness and accountability, and new programs would be based on the experience of the shelter-related intervention community.

  • Moving from an intervention strategy that engages men who have been referred to a batterer's program in changing their beliefs and behaviors to a prevention approach that engages all men in preventing male-controlling and coercive behavior.

  • Networking with the medical, judicial, probation, and law enforcement agencies to provide technical assistance to improve and integrate effective community responses that hold men accountable for their violent behavior in local cases of domestic violence.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×
  • Building a community of men dedicated to an alternative belief system of cooperation rather than competition and identifying and studying viable models that support this effort in order to reach the “critical mass” required to change sociocultural norms.

  • Exploring the role of formerly violent men as advocates to other violent men and as activist/educators in their communities.

  • Exploring additional strategies for holding men accountable for their violence, including legal and nonlegal social sanctions.

  • Creating an awareness of the essential role that men can play in identifying and preventing men's violence and developing strategies to educate men in regard to the full spectrum of abusive and violent behavior.

The high toll of male violence on the health and well-being of the families and the nation is increasingly a matter of public concern. Approaches need to be developed to reach the men who do the violence and who have it in their power to stop it. One strategy that deserves greater consideration is an examination of the social sources of men's violence and the methods that encourage men to account for and change their violent behavior.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

DISCUSSION HIGHLIGHTS

In the workshop discussion that followed these presentations, the participants noted that major attention in treatment services for offenders in the area of child abuse has been given to mothers, rather than fathers, often because service providers have more opportunities for access to mothers in health care and home visitation programs. More thought needs to be given to the role of fathers as caretakers, and opportunities for intervention could be developed in the workplace, health care settings that treat young men, recreational centers, or other settings.

The caretaker or partner's perception of behavior, and attribution of hostile intent or other negative attributes, may be important topics for the development of future intervention programs, both in the field of child abuse and intimate violence. Aspects of coercion and control, rather than just physical violence, deserve attention in developing the frame of reference of treatment programs. The use of power and anxiety in intimate relationships, rather than simple impulse control, are important indicators of behavioral change that have received little attention in offender treatment research. Service providers also need to improve the offenders' skills in dealing with acute confrontations as well as fostering changes in attitudes and beliefs that support abusive behavior.

The impact of batterers' treatment program on child-rearing practices is an additional area that deserves particular attention in future treatment studies. The time-frame for most evaluation studies is 6 to 12 months, which offers little opportunity for observing significant changes in relationships or parent-child dynamics. Domestic violence programs need to focus on children as well as women, which requires coordination and integration of comprehensive programs such as criminal justice and social work.

Panelists agreed that the issue of child abuse as a precursor of later abusive behavior is extremely complex. To understand the impact of abuse on a child in both the near term and later in adolescence, several factors require consideration: the age of onset and duration of the abuse, its invasiveness, and the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim. The notion that the vast majority of sex offenders were themselves abused and are simply doing what was done to them has come into question. While it is true that many sex offenders were abused sexually and otherwise, a large proportion were not.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×

In the area of domestic violence, one of the emerging challenges of perpetrator services is matching offenders with appropriate interventions. In the absence of demonstrated effectiveness for a particular approach, batterers need to be matched with different forms of treatment, including individual therapy, group counseling, or social change approaches.

The high rates of attrition and noncompliance require consideration in the evaluation of perpetrator interventions, which often seem to require higher standards of success than other interventions. The low success rate for treatment programs may reflect not just the efficacy of treatment but the fact that many batterers drop out or never begin. One participant suggested an analogy to the use of insulin in treating diabetes: the fact that some diabetics refuse insulin does not suggest that insulin treatment does not work; similarly, getting batterers into treatment should be viewed as a separate issue from the effectiveness of the treatment. Yet the issue of motivation and the range of variation among human personalities are crucial in understanding the rates of attrition in voluntary and mandated treatment programs. The factors that influence compliance with treatment are an especially important research topic because the consequence of low compliance is often harm to others.

Research on the reasons and circumstances that clarify why potential clients refuse to participate or drop out in the midst of a treatment programs can provide important insights in this area. The potential for treatment programs to provide surveillance opportunities for future abuse incidents should also be recognized. Additional empirical evidence is needed in assessing different forms of batterers' treatment programs to determine factors that contribute to or weaken their effectiveness.

Finally, it is important to determine the client's degree of participation in a treatment program in assessing the effectiveness of a selected intervention. To be effective, treatment requires a certain level of exposure to key concepts and appropriate feedback on behavioral reports. The efficacy of a program may be weakened if the client is chronically absent, late, or participates in a limited manner. Service providers may require more autonomy or authority in determining whether a client's participation is adequate to justify continuing treatment services in cases where the courts have resorted to this type of intervention as an alternative to punitive sanctions.

Suggested Citation:"Treatment of Offenders." National Research Council. 1995. Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9053.
×
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