Group Intervention Programs for Batterers (From Domestic Violence Offenders: Current Interventions, Research, and Implications for Policies and Standards, P 57-71, 2001, Robert A. Geffner and Alan Rosenbaum, eds. -- See NCJ-197536)

• NCJ Number: 197541
• Author(s): Alan Rosenbaum; Penny A. Leisring
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Haworth Maltreatment and Trauma Press
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article provides an overview of relevant issues in group intervention programs for batterers, with attention to the intervention strategies most commonly included in these programs.

Abstract

A review of the literature on group programs for batterers indicates that they vary in terms of length, ranging from a low of 10 weeks to a high of 9 months, and in terms of group leadership; a male-female co-leader team is considered by many to be the gold standard. An increasingly common strategy is the use of a two-tiered group structure. The first component is the intake or informational group. This is usually a shorter term, highly structured, education group designed to raise consciousness, provide information, and teach strategies such as the time-out. The second component of the two-tiered format is the process group. This component is typically much longer than the educational component and focuses on more complex issues, such as exposure to violence in the family of origin, self-esteem, relationship issues, or their own sexual victimization. Although there is a great deal of variability among programs in both content and emphasis, there are also common features. Almost all programs address the following issues in some measure: power and control, anger cues, time-out, feelings underlying anger, costs of aggression, alcohol and substance abuse, communication training, cognitions, relaxation and stress reduction, parenting, future orientation, assertiveness, empathy with the victim, using media, and partner contacts. This article describes two feminist programs in more detail, the Emerge program in Cambridge, MA., and the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project in Duluth, MN. These two programs share many similarities with cognitive-behavioral approaches to batterer treatment. Both feminist and cognitive-behavioral programs typically use broad definitions of abuse, which incorporate emotional, verbal, and sexual abuse, in addition to physical abuse. Although both types of programs emphasize power and control issues and skill deficits, feminist programs have historically given more emphasis to power and control and less emphasis to skill deficits than cognitive-behavioral programs. 22 references