NCJ Number
153352
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 9 Issue: 2 Dated: special issue (Summer 1994) Pages: 125-137
Date Published
1994
Length
13 pages
Annotation
With the growing emphasis in recent years on mandatory arrest for partner violence, the number of females arrested for assaulting their partners has increased; in response, one Wisconsin community has developed a program to understand and appropriately intervene with women who are arrested for domestic violence and referred to court-mandated treatment.
Abstract
As a community task force, the Kenosha Domestic Abuse Intervention Project struggled with the issue of whether arrested, domestically violent women who have been battered themselves should be provided counseling under a court mandate. The decision was made to order women into treatment, and the violence intervention program was structured to avoid any implication that domestically violent women were no different than male batterers. The primary philosophical orientation of the program is that women commit violent acts in response to having been victimized. The primary goal of intervention is to stop violence and protect women and children. Actual treatment consists of 12 small group sessions that last 2 hours each. Sessions focus on defining violence and abuse, safety planning, anger management, children's issues, alcohol and drug abuse, and other cognitive-behavioral strategies. The authors suggest that intervention programs for domestically violent women should occur in the broader community context and involve training and interaction with law enforcement and criminal justice agencies to determine criteria for the arrest and prosecution of battered women when they fight back to protect themselves. 32 references