U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Forum Theatre for Bystanders A New Model for Gender Violence Prevention

NCJ Number
237241
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 17 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2011 Pages: 990-1013
Author(s)
Karen S. Mitchell; Jennifer L. Freitag
Date Published
August 2011
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This article introduces the "Forum Theatre for Bystanders" (FTB) approach to gender violence prevention.
Abstract
This article introduces the "Forum Theatre for Bystanders" (FTB) approach to gender violence prevention as practiced by social change groups at several midwestern universities in the United States. Largely informed by Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed and contemporary research on bystander theory, the Forum Theatre for Bystanders model offers a community-based approach that increases bystander responsibility and reduces victim blaming. The authors describe this model in detail and offer examples from their work to demonstrate its usefulness and efficacy. (Published Abstract)