A Research Evaluation of British Programmes for Violent Men

Abstract

In the last two decades there have been a number of social, medical and legal initiatives in the UK and elsewhere to provide assistance to women who suffer violence from their partner. The most recent innovations focus on responding to the men who perpetrate this violence. In this article we present the initial results of the first British study of programmes for violent men. The three-year study used a longitudinal method to compare the effects of two court mandated programmes with other, more orthodox, forms of criminal justice intervention (fines, admonishment, traditional probation, prison). Here we describe the men's programmes, locate the current study in the context of existing evaluations of similar programmes operating in North America, outline the methods employed, present the results of the post-hoc matching used to assess the probable effects of selection bias and using subsequent prosecutions and the accounts of women, compare the impact of different criminal justice interventions. The results indicate that twelve months after the criminal justice intervention a significant proportion of the Programme men had not subsequently been violent to their partner. This was in contrast to men sanctioned in other ways (the Other CJ group) who were much less likely to have changed their violent behaviour.

Working systemically with family violence: risk, responsibility and collaboration

“…Much of the therapeutic writing in this field has originated in the USA (Bograd and Mederos, 1999;Goldner, 1998) and in Australia (James, 1996;Jenkins, 1990). We try to work therapeutically in line with the recommendations of the outcome research on interventions with men who physically abuse their female partners (Dobash et al, 1999;Dunford, 2000). Working in a small independent agency where our decisions and actions are exposed and without the support of a larger agency, we have responded to the challenge of needing our own policy on domestic violence, of taking responsibility within our work for reviewing and maintaining safe outcomes, and of critically reviewing our own practice with our referrers and the family members with whom we work to achieve safety in relationships.…”

“…exploiting a victim's vulnerability to inflict further psychological harm. Dobash et al (1999) and Dunford (2000) comment on the inability of violent men to reflect on their violence and its consequences. In the Dobash et al evaluation study of British programmes for violent men, they noted that men who completed a programme successfully developed the ability to think about their violence and its costs to themselves, their partners, their children, and others.…”

A Review of Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programs in the United Kingdom

“…The first known evaluation of a UK perpetrator programs came from Dobash, Dobash, Cavanagh and Lewis (1999) who describe the introduction of perpetrator services and interventions originating as late as 1989. Their evaluation centered around two programs within Scotland (CHANGE and Lothian Domestic Violence Probation Project) which focused on the offender, his violent behavior the need for him to change.…”

Evaluation of European Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programmes: Toward a Model for Designing and Reporting Evaluations Related to Perpetrator Treatment Interventions

“…Aldarando and Sugarman, 1996). Of the 60 European evaluations we reviewed, adherence and longer-tern change in motivation (Dobash et al 1999;Kavemann and Hagemann-White, 2004) or that found no difference in outcomes between those with 'internal' and 'external' motivation (e.g. Barz et al 2006).…”