NCJ Number
228679
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 24 Issue: 8 Dated: November 2009 Pages: 539-545
Date Published
November 2009
Length
7 pages
Annotation
After reviewing the historical development of community coordination as a response to intimate partner violence (IPV), this article describes and critiques the current model of community coordination in addressing IPV, followed by suggestions for expanding the model to include employers.
Abstract
Historically, only a few groups have been recognized for their attempts to create coordinated responses to IPV. These include feminists, who have worked to create an organized response to IPV that includes the criminalization and punishment of perpetrators and the establishment of shelters and hotlines for IPV survivors. Social workers have also addressed IPV in their casework, providing battered women with money, safety, housing, and attempting to reform perpetrators' abusive behaviors. Many activists, however, became frustrated with communities' inability or unwillingness to provide a coordinated community response to IPV. The Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP), which was developed in the 1980s, was the first formalized model of a community coordinated response to IPV. It includes a detailed system of policies and procedures that address the involvement of the criminal justice system (police, courts, and corrections), counseling centers, and shelters for IPV survivors. Most States that have a community coordinated response to IPV use the DAIP model. Although such responses to IPV have succeeded in increasing the arrest and prosecution of batters and survivors' safety, they have failed in one major way, i.e., the failure to identify and include the formal and informal resources and strengths available to survivors. These include the extended family, neighbors, friends, and social groups, including churches and employers. Employers are in an especially important position to address IPV. Employers hold the economic security of IPV survivors in their hands, and should be included in a community response designed to ensure the safety and independence of IPV survivors. 51 references