Web resource:	https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/223029.pdf
Type:	Report
Title:	Introducing the impact of domestic violence on children into a batterer program curriculum : does an emphasis on the kids improve the response?
Authors:	Safe Horizon
Keywords:	Impact on children and young people;Perpetrators;Perpetrator programs;Criminal justice responses
Year:	2007
Publisher:	National Institute of Justice, New York
Notes:	General Overview:This report from the United States examines the effectiveness of introducing a fatherhood curriculum into perpetrator programs, based on an experimental study of domestic violence offenders enrolled in Safe Horizon’s Domestic Violence Accountability Program (DVAP) in Brooklyn. Despite hopes that emphasising the impact of domestic violence on children would increase participants’ engagement with and response to the program, the study found that there was little difference between the outcomes of offenders who participated in the child-focused program and other programs. Methods:The DVAP is the largest perpetrator program in the United States, with the vast majority of attendees mandated to attend the program by courts. The study involved interviews with perpetrators enrolled in the DVAP over an 18 month period. The study sample consisted of 256 program attendees who were assigned to the ‘treatment as usual’ (TAU) group; and 123 attendees assigned to the study group, who were in turn allocated to a partner-focused course and a child-focused course. Interviews were conducted with the participants in the study group at the time of their first and last class. The outcomes of the men in the study group were compared against each other and against the TAU group. The researchers also interviewed the program instructors. Results:The study found that the use of the child-focused curriculum had no effect on completion rate, men’s understanding of the impact of violence on their families or rearrest rates. The only factors which affected recidivism were program termination, younger age and criminal history. The instructors preferred teaching the child-focused curriculum and felt that the men were more responsive to it but cautioned that the focus on children allowed some perpetrators to avoid recognising their responsibilities to their partners. Conclusion:The study raises concerns about the premature adoption of child-focused batterer programs. The authors recommend greater evaluation of batterer programs and fatherhood programs, using experimental designs with control groups and quantitative outcome measures. They conclude that the effectives of perpetrator programs is not simply a question of content modification and that other factors contributing to recidivism need to be explored, including issues of social and economic marginalisation.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/19711
Physical description:	113 p.
Appears in Collections:	Reports

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