NCJ Number
129483
Date Published
1991
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Several model efforts have occurred to develop coordinated community interventions designed to end the abuse of women.
Abstract
These programs take a variety of forms, ranging from independent nonprofit organizations to victim services programs within prosecutors' offices. Most are staffed by trained legal advocates who help battered women interact with criminal justice and social service agencies and work at a systems level to change policies and procedures towards all battered women. The context in which intervention projects have developed has also been an important influence on their forms. The programs assume that neither men nor women have a right to use violence except in self-defense to remove themselves from a physical assault and that domestic violence rests on societal norms regarding sex roles and requires responses from social systems. Few programs have yet been evaluated, however. The Minnesota experience shows the importance of building local and statewide networks and the difficulties these programs face. Figure and 47 references