Community Domestic Violence Programme
The programme includes work with known victims and inter-agency risk management.
Programme aims:
- To reduce the risk of violent crime and abusive behaviour towards women in relationships by helping perpetrators change their attitudes and behaviour
- To reduce the risk of all violent and abusive behaviour in the family
- To increase the offender’s ability to respond non-abusively, to change abusive beliefs and empathise with victim(s)
- To give offenders a greater sense of personal responsibility for their violence
- To help offenders accept that they exercise choice in the way they behave
- To increase the offender’s ability to identify high-risk situations and to manage these effectively in the future
Who is suitable?
Male offenders who:
- are heterosexual
- have been assessed as a medium to high risk for relationship violence as indicated by severity and/or pattern of abuse using the Spousal Abuse Risk Assessment (SARA)
- have committed at least one act of violence against an intimate partner
- have basic literacy, language compentency and comprehension skills
- are willing to sign a consent form which will inlcude the sharing of relevant information with the offender’s spouse/partner
- are assessed as suitable in a PSR
Who is not suitable?
- Female offenders
- Offenders in same sex relationships
- Offenders with severe mental health issues
- Offenders who are judged unable to meet the learning outcomes because of e.g. severe drug dependency
This programme involves:
- Contact with the victim or current partner by a women’s safety worker
- Risk management through continual assessment and information sharing with other agencies including the police
- Groupwork sessions and at least nine individual sessions with the offender:
- Three individual pre-programme sessions to enhance motivation
- 26 groupwork sessions of two hours. This is sequential and is usually delivered twice a week but can be delivered up to three times per week
- At least four relapse prevention sessions
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