NCJ Number
94254
Date Published
1982
Length
216 pages
Annotation
This handbook covers eight sessions from the Spouse Abuse Workshop. The goal of the workshop is to enable the justice system and community leaders to apply state-of-the-art information to programs designed to prevent and reduce the incidence of spouse abuse in their communities.
Abstract
The introduction presents participants, staff, the workshop design, materials, and activities. Session Two documents the scope of spouse abuse as a complex problem requiring social, law enforcement, and justice system intervention and support for effective resolution. This session also examines some attitudes and misconceptions about spouse abuse that may interfere with effective responses to incidents. The purpose of the third session is to examine the role and impact of domestic violence legislation on law enforcement and justice system policies and procedures as well as victim and offender services. The fourth session, on interventions, provides a framework for locating and discussing responses and interventions that can be made in handling spouse abuse. The fifth session examines the rationale for agency coordination and reviews some of the barriers to effective coordination. A procedure for analyzing community response to spouse abuse is the topic of the sixth session. The next session discusses prevention. This session also focuses on how to make best use of the media and of community communication channels in support of prevention activities, outreach, funding, and other program purposes. The last session provides participants with a procedure for making a preliminary action plan to improve or initiate an effective response to spouse abuse in at least one area of the social/justice system. A list of materials is included with each session program.