This paper is a review of the projects undertaken by
the Corrections Directorate (formerly Corrections Branch) of the Policy
Branch at Solicitor General Canada under the renewed federal Family
Violence Initiative (1991-95). The goal of this paper is to provide an
account of these projects with respect to how they have increased our
knowledge in respect to the correctional issues related to violence
against women, and the resulting implications for public policy. It is
also intended to capture the divergence of perspectives on these
issues, and how the Corrections Directorate responded to the challenges
posed by this divergence.
The first section of the paper provides a brief
introduction that situates corrections issues within the broader
criminal justice and community response to violence against women. The
second section identifies four areas of research and development
undertaken by the Corrections Directorate: (1) Individual differences
in male batterers and treatment effects; (2) Pro-feminist
investigations of treatment content and modalities and their
qualitative impact from the perspectives of male batterers and their
partners; (3) Development of culturally appropriate treatment
strategies; and, (4) Development of coordinated responses and
community responsibility. The analytical frameworks and research
priorities of each area are outlined. The third section presents an
overview of the specific projects undertaken by the Directorate within
each of these areas, and an analysis of what was learned from these
projects. In particular, an emphasis is placed on the implications for
public policy.
This paper concludes with some general observations about
the effectiveness of male batterer treatment programs and the
challenges encountered in the development of intervention program and
community-based initiatives.
Over the course of the 1980's, woman abuse was transformed
from a "private" or a "domestic" matter to an important public policy
issue. As governments began to develop intervention strategies and
legislative reforms to respond to the problem of woman abuse, a number
of policy issues arose.[1]
In 1983, the Solicitor General and the Attorney General of
Canada issued companion policies on the investigation and prosecution
of wife assault cases. The federal Solicitor General wrote to Chiefs
of Police across Canada, asking them to instruct their officers to lay
charges in cases where they had reasonable and probable grounds to
believe an assault had occurred. Guidelines were put in place for both
police investigators and Crown Counsel. The purpose of this measure
was to remove responsibility for initiating criminal charges from the
victim and ensure an effective response to these cases. At the
provincial level, public education campaigns sent a strong message to
the public that wife assault is a crime that will not be tolerated.
As mandatory charging policies began to take effect across
Canada and arrest rates of male batterers increased sharply, the
criminal justice system was forced to address the question of how to
assess, manage and treat the perpetrators of male violence against
women. Although the criminalization of wife abuse was seen as an
important step in sending a message that violence against women will
not be tolerated, there was a realization in both the community and the
criminal justice system that it is not enough to charge and incarcerate
abusive men. Abused women often argued their partners needed help in
the form of counselling and treatment. While criminal justice
sanctions may send a strong message to abusers as to the
unacceptability of their behaviour, sanctions alone cannot teach men
how to live a non-abusive lifestyle. In addition, some Aboriginal,
immigrant and visible minority communities demanded a more culturally
appropriate and community based response to the problem of male
battering.[2]
In the late 1970's male batterer treatment programs emerged
as part of the response to male violence against women. A recent
survey of men's treatment programs reported that 112 new programs were
established between 1979 and 1993. (Health Canada, 1993). As
treatment programs increased in popularity, women's advocates and
service providers expressed a number of concerns. They feared that
funds would be diverted from services for victims to programs for men.
They were concerned that treatment programs would further endanger
victims by inadvertently colluding with the abusers ( see Herizons,
1992). They worried that a "treatment" model would place too much
emphasis on the individual and obscure the extent to which abuse is
rooted in women's social, political and economic inequality. At the
same time, women's advocates and service providers recognized the need
to develop strategies to deal with abusive men and to increase the
safety of women and children. Some advocates argued that providing
treatment for abusive men supports the principle that a woman's choice
to leave or return to her male partner should be respected (Dankwort
& Austin, 1995). Criminal justice personnel hoped treatment
programs would ease the strain put on an already over-burdened system.
Some immigrant and visible minority groups welcomed programs as part of
a move towards a more community-based response. Although treatment
programs had an appeal, survivors of violence, service providers and
advocates, communities, criminal justice personnel and policy-makers
were left wondering -- do treatment programs actually work? Should
treatment programs become an integral part of our response to violence
against women?
Despite the proliferation of treatment programs over the
last ten years, we know very little about their effectiveness. We do
know that a number of treatment models exist based on different
assumptions and explanations as to the causes and remedies of woman
abuse (Adams, 1988). At the present time, however, we have little
systematic understanding of what actually happens in treatment
programs. Little research has been done to examine the relative
effectiveness of different modalities or counselling approaches.
The question of how male batterer treatment programs fit
within the overall response to violence against women is a major policy
issue for all levels of government in Canada. Calls for research on
the effectiveness of male batterer treatment programs have come from
women's advocates and service providers, abused women, criminal justice
personnel, and several key reports including Changing the
Landscape: Ending the Violence-Achieving Equality (Final Report
of the Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women) and The War
Against Women (Report of the Standing Committee on Health and
Welfare, Social Affairs, Seniors and the Status of Women).
Within this context, the major focal point of the
Corrections Directorate's Family Violence Initiative over the past four
years has been research, innovation and policy development in the area
of male batterer treatment. The Directorate has undertaken a number of
research and development projects designed to increase our knowledge of
treatment programs and their effects in order to support policy
development on this question.
Over the course of the Family Violence Initiative, the
research and development program of the Corrections Directorate was
influenced both by theoretical developments in the literature on
violence against women and by the concerns of policy makers, criminal
justice personnel, women's advocates and service providers, as well as
immigrant, visible minority and Aboriginal communities. These
influences led the Directorate to consider the impact of treatment from
the perspective of women and children; to develop culturally
appropriate intervention strategies, and to support coordinated,
multi-disciplinary, multi-agency and community-based responses to
violence against women. Projects undertaken by the Corrections
Directorate fall into four broad areas of research: (1) Individual
differences in male batterers and treatment effects; (2) Pro-feminist
investigations of treatment content and modalities and their
qualitative impact from the perspectives of male batterers and their
partners; (3) Development of culturally appropriate treatment
strategies; and (4) Development of coordinated responses and community
responsibility. What follows is a brief discussion of how the research
program of the Corrections Directorate developed an analysis of the
major research questions and addressed critical issues in each of the
four research areas.
Initial research under the Family Violence Initiative
reflected the mandate of the Corrections Directorate to provide risk
classification of offenders and to develop effective treatment
programming. Research on male batterers focused on individual
differences, particularly the identification of changeable risk factors
associated with abuse, and the impact of treatment on these
characteristics. At the same time, the Corrections Directorate was
influenced by feminist concerns to consider the impact of treatment
programs from the perspective of women and children. Feminists raised
the issue that very little is known about what actually takes place in
treatment programs. They asked whether the messages taught to abusive
men were consistent with the goals of encouraging men to take
responsibility for their abusive behaviour and promoting the safety of
women and children. Feminists argued that treatment programs should
focus on accountability to battered women and their advocates (Hart,
1988; Pence, 1989). The Directorate decided to pursue the question of
the effectiveness of male batterer treatment programs, both from a
perspective of individual attitudinal and behavioural changes
and from a pro-feminist perspective which addresses the explicit
and implicit values promoted by treatment programs and how they affect
women and children.
The decision to pursue both perspectives is, in some ways,
unusual. In the violence against women literature, a focus on
individual differences is usually treated as ideologically incompatible
with a feminist approach (Kurtz, 1989). The fundamental differences
between these two perspectives are the extent to which they believe
gender and the unequal power relations should form the basis for
understanding male violence against women (Dankwort, 1991) and the
extent to which they believe individual differences can account for the
presence or absence of abusive behaviour. Although each approach has a
different understanding of the causes and remedies of violence against
women, the Directorate recognized that both approaches had merit and
that exclusive pursuit of either approach would produce an incomplete
picture. In addition, this dual approach was considered appropriate
because it reflected the differing perspectives taken by existing
treatment programs.[3] As a
consequence, the Corrections Directorate followed two parallel research
streams throughout the course of the Initiative. (The assumptions and
values of each approach will be discussed more fully in the following
section.)
A further consideration that influenced research and
development projects was the need to respond to cultural differences in
meaningful ways. Mainstream strategies to end violence against women
have generally failed to consider the unique needs and experiences of
immigrant, visible minority and Aboriginal communities. As a result,
mainstream public education campaigns and treatment programs have been,
for the most part, ineffective in these communities. The Corrections
Directorate attempted to address these concerns by funding projects
that developed and evaluated culturally appropriate intervention
strategies. A final consideration that influenced research and
development projects over the course of the initiative was the
recognition of the need for a more integrated, multi-disciplinary
approach to ending violence against women. The Corrections Directorate
funded projects that aimed to develop a coordinated response to
violence against women and increase community responsibility for the
problem. The following section outlines the major research questions
and critical issues that were addressed in each of the four research
areas.
In 1991, the Corrections Directorate invited an
international panel of leading researchers and clinicians to provide
input into the development of its research program on the effectiveness
of treatment for male batterers. The panelists generally agreed that
abusers do not differ significantly from non-abusers with respect to
general psychological characteristics (e.g. self-esteem, anxiety,
depression, loneliness). Brown's (1993) presentation was typical in
that he reported that standard psychological tests designed to measure
general mental health problems had limited ability to identify
characteristics associated with abuse. Similarly, Browning (1993)
reported that many studies fail to find significant differences between
abusive and non-abusive men on variables such as traditional sex role
expectations and high need for power (see Hotaling and Sugerman, 1986;
Tolman & Bennett, 1990 for a review of the literature).
The failure of general psychological characteristics to
yield significant differences between abusers and non-abusers led some
researchers in the field to turn away from individual differences as a
means to understanding and changing male batterers. Other researchers,
however, were not satisfied with the conclusion that individual
differences did not play a role in abusive behaviour. They pointed to
the fact that some men are abusive while others are not -- a fact, they
argued, that could only be explained by individual differences. The
key, they said, was to identify individual characteristics that were
more closely related to abusive behaviour.
Persuaded by argument that individual differences did
matter, corrections research in this stream started from the premise
that men with certain identifiable characteristics are at high risk for
abusive behaviour and that changes in these characteristics will lead
to a reduction in the level of abuse. Although the Directorate
recognized that the long term solution to ending violence against women
must involve change at the level of social values, institutions and
structures, it took the position that immediate intervention strategies
were needed to deal with abusive behaviour at the individual level.
The research program in this stream was influenced by the
literature on rehabilitation of other types of offenders. Recent
research in this literature has been more promising in identifying risk
factors associated with abusive behaviour. In a review of the
correctional rehabilitation literature, Andrews et al. (1990)
found that the most effective treatment programs were those that
addressed factors specifically associated with crime, such as attitudes
supportive of crime and presence of criminal peer groups. In contrast,
treatment programs that focused on general psychological factors such
as self-esteem, loneliness and social skills deficits were largely
ineffective. The Corrections Directorate, thus, set out to investigate
the factors associated with abusive behaviour. This research stream
used primarily quasi-experimental research designs and quantitative
methods.
A feminist approach understands the problem of male
violence against women as one of male power and control over women,
which is perpetuated by women's political, social and economic
inequality. This approach argues that it is not individual differences
but culturally-based sexist attitudes and women's inequality which are
at the root of the problem. Thus, in order to stop abuse, sexist
attitudes and behaviours of abusive men need to be challenged and the
legal and social consequences they face as a result of this behaviour
need to be increased.
The starting point for the pro-feminist research stream was
the recognition that we have a limited understanding of what actually
happens in treatment programs. Most evaluations of batterer treatment
programs have focused on measuring behavioural and attitudinal changes
in program participants. As a result, the theoretical assumptions of
different treatment models have rarely been addressed. There is
increasing evidence to suggest that differences in treatment content
and modalities may have a significant impact on the safety of women and
children (Adams, 1988; Hart, 1998; Pence, 1989). Programs that
challenge men's sexist behaviours and attitudes may produce different
outcomes than programs that centre on men's feelings and sense of
victimization (Davies et al, 1995). In fact, there is some evidence to
suggest that increasing the abuser's self-esteem, without addressing
factors such as attitudes supportive of criminal behaviour and presence
of a criminal peer group, may actually strengthen undesirable attitudes
(Adams, 1988; Andrews et al, 1990) and increase criminal recidivism
(Wormith, 1984). Our ability to draw conclusions about the
effectiveness of treatment programs is circumscribed by this gap in
knowledge. The pro-feminist research stream set out to address this
gap by exploring the relative effectiveness of different modalities or
counselling approaches to the treatment of male batterers and their
impact on these men, their women partners and children.
Research questions that arose out of the pro-feminist
approach were concerned with the goals, values, modalities, underlying
assumptions and concepts such as safety and accountability. This
approach focused on what actually happens in treatment programs and the
impact on the participants themselves. What do men learn from their
participation in treatment programs? What messages do treatment
programs send to male batterers about the causes, remedies, and
dynamics of male violence? This stream aimed to investigate how
treatment programs made women and children's safety a priority;
why women did or did not feel safer as their partners attended
treatment; and how men were encouraged to take responsibility
for the abuse. "How" and "why" questions of this kind required methods
that could produce in-depth description and analysis and capture
meanings and contradictions. Accordingly, the feminist research stream
used qualitative research methods.
Research in both streams is critical to the development of
effective intervention strategies to end male violence against women.
The individual differences and feminist approaches each address
different aspects of the same problem. Table 1 summarizes and compares
the research questions asked by each approach. While the individual
differences approach asks why some men become abusive when others do
not, the feminist approach asks why women and children are
overwhelmingly the targets of male abuse (Kurtz, 1989). In order to
end violence against women, we need to know the answers to both
questions. In fact, the two answers are connected. Individual and
systemic variables and factors interact in a complex manner to
perpetuate violence against women. We need to develop a better
understanding of the characteristics that place individuals at a high
risk for becoming perpetrators of abuse. We also need to examine the
social values, attitudes, policies, practices and structures that
perpetuate male violence against women. By incorporating both the
individual difference and the feminist perspectives, the intent was to
undertake a comprehensive and integrated approach to research on male
batterer treatment programs.
TABLE 1
|
ARE TREATMENT PROGRAMS EFFECTIVE?
Research Questions
|
|
Feminist Approach
1. Treatment content and modalities: what are the messages sent
to abusive men; definition of violence; methods used to
encourage men to accept responsibility for their violence;
coherence between treatment goals and treatment content.
2. How do treatment programs promote the safety of women and
children?
3. To what extent are treatment programs accountable to women
who have been abused and women's advocates and service providers?
4. What is the impact of treatment on men, women and
communities?
|
Individual differences Approach
1. Are abusers different from non-abusers?
2. Are there certain characteristics associated with abuse?
3. Do changes in these characteristics lead to a reduction in
abuse?
4. How do batterers change during treatment?
5. Are treatment programs successful in changing risk factors?
|
A third dimension that shaped the course of research and
development projects undertaken by the Corrections Directorate was the
recognition of the need to take cultural differences into consideration
in meaningful ways. In general, mainstream strategies to end violence
against women have failed to understand or address the cultural values,
beliefs and needs of different ethno-cultural groups. Increasingly,
practitioners have realized that in order for an intervention service
to have even the potential for success, its assumptions must reflect
the values of the client population that it is attempting to address.
In immigrant and visible minority communities, the roots of
violence against women are understood as much broader than the
characteristics of abusive men or gender-based inequality. Immigrant
and visible minority groups[4] have argued that violence against women needs to be understood
in the context of systemic racism and classism. Within this framework,
violence against women cannot be addressed without dealing with the
other kinds of oppression that victims and abusers are experiencing.
Immigrant and visible minority women may have difficulty
accessing mainstream services for several reasons. First, mainstream
services are rarely culturally and linguistically appropriate. Women
who immigrate to Canada are less likely than their male counterparts to
speak either official language (Pendakur and Ledoux, 1991). In
addition, there is evidence to suggest that immigrant women have less
access to language education programs (Annual Report of the Canadian
Human Rights Commission, 1986).[5] Second, immigrant and visible minority women may hesitate to
call the police fearing that the criminal justice system will respond
in a racist manner. A recent Ontario study found that a significant
proportion of immigrant women who have been battered fear that their
partner would be mistreated or victimized by the police if they called
for help. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that many immigrants
have experienced the police as abusive and repressive in their country
of origin. The same study found that women also feared police
involvement would jeopardize everything that was important to them
(i.e. their children, house, reputation). Third, the strong emphasis
placed on extended family and community in many cultures means that
women may feel pressure to keep problems within the community. Women
may feel they will bring shame or disgrace to their families if they
turn to outside agencies. If a woman does seek outside help, extended
family disapproval may isolated her further, cutting her off from her
roots and cultural identity.
The Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women (1993)
concluded:
Lack of services, lack of language skills and access to language
training, poor employability, lack of recognition of foreign
credentials, and immigration laws which make their entry into the
country contingent upon their dependent status to their husbands all
combine to marginalize many immigrant women and intensify their social,
economic, cultural and political isolation and their vulnerability to
violence (1993:96).
These factors point to the need to develop innovative
intervention strategies which are culturally sensitive.
The work of individual Aboriginal women and
women's groups[6] has raised
awareness and increased understanding of the issues faced by Aboriginal
women who are victims of male violence. In Aboriginal communities,
violence against women is seen as part of a history of violence against
Aboriginal people. The Ontario Native Women's Association considers
violence in Aboriginal families and communities to be a "reaction
against systems of domination, disrespect and bureaucratic control"
(1989:8). Colonization, forced Christianity, residential schools,
cultural assimilation and substance abuse have had a devastating impact
on Aboriginal communities. Violence against women is only one aspect
of the socio-economic crisis that is occurring in Aboriginal
communities. It cannot be dealt with in isolation from problems such
as suicide, substance abuse, poverty, ill-health and unemployment.
For many reasons, Aboriginal women do not
have the same access to services as other women in Canada (Canadian
Panel: 164). First, many Aboriginal women who live in remote
and isolated communities do not have access to transportation or
telephone services. Air or rail may be the only forms of
transportation and women may not have the resources to leave their
community. A woman fleeing a violent situation may be forced
to relocate her entire family to an unfamiliar urban
environment. In addition, many women are unaware of their
basic legal rights and existence of support services. If
Aboriginal women are able to access mainstream services, the
intervention provided is rarely culturally or linguistically
appropriate. Third, Aboriginal women may fear that
intervention from mainstream agencies will actually make the
situation worse. Given the historical relationship between
Aboriginal communities and child welfare agencies, many Aboriginal
women fear that their children will be taken from them if they
disclose abuse. They may be reluctant to call the police
because they are afraid their partners will be brutalized or further
victimized by the police. Finally, Aboriginal family and
extended family ties, traditionally a strong source of support, may
unintentionally be a threat to safety. Aboriginal women's
groups have reported that women are encouraged to uphold the
tradition of family, sometimes at the expense of their own
safety.[7]
While it is important to understand the
political, economic and cultural context in which violence occurs,
it is critical that these circumstances are not used to condone or
excuse violence against women. Pauktuutit and other women's
organizations have reported that some service providers and criminal
justice personnel have been unwilling to intervene in cases of
violence against women because they are under the mistaken belief
that violence is accepted in particular cultures. The Canadian
Panel on Violence Against Women heard from Aboriginal women across
Canada that some Aboriginal community members including Elders and
leaders have used explanations of historical violence against
Aboriginal people as an excuse to avoid taking responsibility for
violence against women. Similarly, some members in immigrant
and visible minority communities have pointed to cultural
differences and traditional values to minimize the existence of
violence against women. Immigrant, visible minority, and
Aboriginal women have consistently argued that while violence
against women needs to be understood in the context of other
oppressions, no culture condones violence.
One approach to the development of culturally
appropriate intervention strategies is to modify mainstream
models to make them culturally and linguistically appropriate.
A second approach is to move away from traditional models and to
develop alternative, more holistic approaches. The Corrections
Directorate has undertaken projects which pursue both approaches.
Although some Aboriginal communities have attempted to adapt
mainstream models, a more common approach has been to develop
alternative, holistic approaches that address the victim, the abuser
and the community in an integrated way
One approach to violence against women has
been to address the issue within the broader context of building
healthy communities. Intervention strategies move beyond
individual treatment towards a comprehensive approach based on
Aboriginal traditions of holistic healing. The notion of
building healing or healthy communities shares many aspects with the
mainstream idea of community development. These aspects
include increased involvement, trust, sharing, communication,
connectedness, responsibility and collective action (Krawll,
1994). In 1994, the Corrections Directorate funded a research
project involving consultation with Aboriginal communities across
Canada in order to develop a common understanding of the concept of
healing. The report found that, although healing is a
culturally based process that differs across language, culture and
geography, three key aspects of healing were commonly agreed upon by
Aboriginal communities:
-
Healing comes from within and moves
outward, often starting with the individual and then moving to the
family and then to the community;
-
To be successful, it must address all
parts of life concurrently and keep them in balance;
- It may start from a series of discrete
programs such as substance abuse counselling, but must move into a
holistic process involving a community mandate which is more than
the sum of these individual parts (Krawll, 1994).
Some Aboriginal communities have argued that
an intervention model based on holistic healing would bring positive
benefits to abusers, victims and entire communities, while
transcending many of the limitations of the existing criminal
justice system response. A holistic model is based on the
premise that both the victim and the abuser are part of the same
community and that both must be included in the healing process.
The healing process goes further than just
seeking redress for damage done by the offense; it addresses the
underlying causes. Healing deals directly with the offender's
behaviour in ways that a prison sentence alone cannot.
Criminal justice intervention is generally viewed as a painful
process with negative outcomes such as: the offender is not
encouraged to take responsibility for his actions; he may return to
the community more alienated than before; the underlying causes of
the problem are not addressed; and the community does not have an
opportunity to heal. Healing is also a difficult and painful
process for offenders because it encourages them to take
responsibility for their problems in front of their entire
community. But the healing process is ultimately positive
because it restores balance in individuals, families and
communities.
The development of holistic approaches,
particularly the inclusion of both the victim and the abuser in the
healing process has raised a number of concerns. Several
Aboriginal women's groups have expressed concern that women's voices
will not be heard in the process. They feared that the
abuser's need to heal or community interests would take precedence
over the needs and rights of the victim, unless accountability to
women and assurances for the safety and protection of victims are
built into the process. All segments of the community must be
involved in the development and implementation of community
alternatives. Aboriginal women's organizations are unlikely to
support alternatives to the justice system that do not include their
equal participation, consultation and funding (Canadian Panel
:169). Pauktuutit (1994) has stated that alternatives that do
not ensure the safety and well-being of women and children may
impose greater harm than the existing system.
Across Canada, those working to end violence
against women are increasingly calling for a more integrated,
holistic approach. Increasingly, it has been recognized that a
coordinated response integrating criminal justice, social service,
mental health and community is the only way to ensure the safety of
women and children. The importance of developing a sense of
community responsibility for violence against women has also been
acknowledged. Although Aboriginal communities have cautioned
mainstream communities against wholesale adoption of Aboriginal
practices, there may be important lessons to be learned from the
Aboriginal approach.
". . . the Aboriginal approach to healing,
which is holistic in nature is transferable to other parts of Canada.
It is this holistic approach which may be the missing link for other
non-Aboriginal communities in their development towards building
healthier and safer communities" (Krawll, 1994: 85).
Community development is a process in which
people come together to address problems in the community.
Individuals in a community identify needs, create a vision, share
resources, develop skills and experience and organize for collective
action. Community development encourages all members of the
community to see themselves as part of the solution to ending
violence against women.
Increasing the number of people involved in
working towards ending violence against women is not without its
problems. Developing a coordinated response to violence
against women is a challenging process that raises many difficult
issues, particularly around the sharing of power and professional
and personal accountability. The inclusion of new players
presents a challenge, particularly when they do not share the same
understanding or analysis of the problem of violence against
women. Clashes in perspectives raise questions about whose
understanding should take precedence and to whom the coordinated
effort is accountable. Experience from coordinated efforts
that have already been developed suggests that these issues need to
be grappled with explicitly. If this process of working
through issues does not take place, communities are inevitably left
with new guidelines that are ineffective because they have not
challenged old attitudes and old approaches.
Several projects undertaken by the
Corrections Directorate deal with these and other concerns.
Projects in this research area have one or more of the following
goals:
- To develop a coordinated criminal justice
response to violence against women.
- To strengthen links between the criminal
justice system and the community.
- To develop a sense of community
responsibility for ending violence against women.
Part of the process of developing a
coordinated response to violence against women involves examining
its far-reaching and long-lasting impacts on the community.
There has been an increased awareness of the devastating
consequences of witnessing or experiencing violence against
women. While these consequences have only recently begun to
be investigated, preliminary research suggests that exposure
to violence against women is associated with difficulties with
immediate and long-term adjustment of children. Exposure to
violence against women has been linked to poor social competence,
peer rejection, academic difficulties, and contact with social
service, mental health and criminal justice systems (Hobbs and
Van Dieten, 1990). The 1994 Statistics Canada Violence Against Women Survey produced
evidence of what has been called the "generational cycle of
violence". Female children who have witnessed or experienced
violence against women are at a high risk for becoming victims of
male violence as adults. Male children who have witnessed or
experienced violence against women are at a high risk for becoming
perpetrators of violence against women.
Witnessing or experiencing physical and
sexual abuse has recently been identified as a significant factor in
the lives of many women in conflict with the law (The Report of the
Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women, Creating Choices ). Based on the
self-reports of federally sentenced women, the report estimates that
up to 75 per cent of female offenders have been physically or
sexually abused. Thus, any coordinated response to violence
against women must develop intervention strategies to address the
long term effects of experiencing violence against women on specific
target groups. The Corrections Directorate undertook two
projects that involved the development and evaluation of
intervention strategies for specific groups that have been affected
by violence against women. One program was developed for
youths who have witnessed violence against women, another was
developed for women who are in conflict with the law.
The objective of the study, entitled
"Propensity Towards Abuse", was to develop a means of predicting and
assessing male violence against women. The researcher set out
to discover whether the presence of certain psychopathological
characteristics could predict whether men were abusive or
non-abusive. Researchers, counsellors, battered women's
advocates, and criminal justice personnel alike have remarked on the
difficulty of obtaining accurate assessments of male abusiveness
that rely on self-reports because abusive men have a strong tendency
to minimize or deny their abusive behaviour. The researcher
addressed this problem by developing a scale called the Propensity
for Abusiveness (PAS) that contained no overt reference to
abuse. The results of this study indicated that scores on the
PAS scale were strongly correlated with reports of male abusiveness
made by their female partners. In other words, men who scored
high on the PAS scale were more likely to be abusive to their female
partners. This finding suggests that the characteristics
measured by the PAS scale may be associated with or contribute to
abusive behaviour, and that this scale may be useful in identifying
individuals with a high risk for abusiveness.
A second study entitled "Correlates of
battering among 997 men", compared abusive men with non-abusive men
on a number of personal, attitudinal and historical
dimensions. According to the results, severely abusive men
were the most likely to report violence during childhood (both as
victims and perpetrators). They also showed higher levels of
juvenile delinquency, anti-social personality disorder, substance
abuse, depression, marital maladjustment, jealousy and attitudes
tolerant of violence towards female partners, as well as lower
levels of self-esteem and self-control.
Both of these studies provide strong evidence
to suggest that there are significant differences between abusive
and non-abusive men, as well as lower levels of self-esteem and
self-control and that certain characteristics are strongly
associated with abuse. This information could be useful in
designing both treatment and prevention programs. It could
also help practitioners identify characteristics that may lead to
abusiveness, assess high risk individuals and pinpoint behaviours
and attitudes that should be addressed in treatment.
Although the failure to complete treatment is
a significant problem in all treatment programs, programs for male
batterers are faced with the specific reality that the majority of
batterers tend to deny and minimize their abuse. In
addition, most batterers are unwilling to take responsibility for
their abuse. Many abusers drop out of treatment programs
or fail to even show up. To address this problem, the
Corrections Directorate funded a research project which explored
factors associated with whether male batterers complete or fail to
complete treatment. The study found that men characterized as
having relatively unstable lifestyles (frequent changes of address,
low education, low income, unemployment) and men who believe that
the treatment program does not address their particular problems are
most likely to fail to complete treatment. While little can be
done to change lifestyle instability in the short term, counsellors
can work with men to ensure that they understand the ways in which
treatment will contribute to positive changes in their
behaviour. The need for congruence between the man's
perception of his problem and the goals and methods of treatment is
demonstrated by the finding that of the 34 men who denied any
physical abuse of their partners, only three completed the
treatment. In fact, the single strongest predictor of
treatment completion was the self-identification of the need for
treatment.
These research findings point to the
importance of ensuring that batterers understand the links between
their behaviour and the goals of the treatment program.
Presently, there is a growing trend to make treatment part of the
conditions of probation for all abusive men, without regard to
whether the man is likely to complete or benefit from a particular
treatment program. The findings of this research question the
wisdom of such an approach. The same treatment program may not
be appropriate for all men and some men are unlikely to complete any
form of treatment. Alternate intervention strategies may be
necessary for high risk individuals.
New Leaf is a progressive treatment program
which uses a community action approach to address many of the
factors associated with client treatment incongruence and treatment
attrition. The Corrections Directorate produced a report which
describes this innovative approach to the treatment of male
batterers. The community action approach transforms
traditional professional/client or teacher/student relations by
integrating community intervention with treatment for abusive
men. Group leaders participate in a wide range of activities
usually outside the professional roles of therapist or teacher, such
as community development, crisis intervention, home visits, and
assistance to the men and their partners.
The integration of community intervention and
treatment appears to be a promising model for service
delivery. The strength of the program is its capacity to
intervene with high risk individuals. The active recruitment
and community intervention efforts of program leaders allow this
program to reach a significant number of men who would not attend or
be rejected from other programs. It is difficult to determine
the extent to which this model is dependent on a stable rural
community. Although the program has received positive reviews
from the local women's shelter, police and correctional services,
there is as of yet, no systematic evidence concerning its
effectiveness in reducing abuse. The program, however, is one
of the five programs being evaluated in a multi-site study of male
batterer treatment programs that is currently being conducted by the
Corrections Directorate (see below).
A large majority of the batterer treatment
programs that exist in Canada have never been systematically
evaluated. The evaluations that do exist tend to suffer from a
number of methodological weaknesses. The Corrections
Directorate recognized that in order to provide meaningful policy
support and advice concerning male batterer treatment programs it
would be necessary to conduct a systematic evaluation that compares
a number of different treatment programs. In 1992, the
Directorate embarked on a major multi-year, multi-site evaluation of
male batterer treatment programs. The aim of the study is to
identify how male batterers change over the course of treatment and
what changes are associated with reduced abuse. Data are being
gathered through repeated detailed assessments of male batterers
during the course of treatment and repeated reports from their
partners concerning levels of abuse. Subjects for this study
have been selected from treatment programs across Canada including
Calgary (Pastoral Institute), Windsor (Hiatus House), Richmond Hill
(Resolve), Montréal (Après-Coup) and New Glasgow (New Leaf).
Detailed descriptions of each program are being prepared based on
data collected through interviews and questionnaires completed by
the program staff.
Preliminary analyses of data from the
multi-site study have suggested cautious optimism concerning the
effectiveness of treatment programs. Prior to treatment, the
abusive men differed from the non-abusive men in a number of
ways. The abusive men were more likely to have problems with
alcohol abuse, employment and finances than the non-abusive
community controls. The single factor that most strongly
identified abusive men, however, was their association with other
abusive men. During treatment the factors associated with
abuse declined. Both the men and their partners reported a
decrease in all types of abuse (physical, sexual and
psychological). Although the women reported a greater sense of
safety, at the end of the first follow-up period, they continued to
feel significantly more afraid and victimized than the comparison
group of community women. It remains to be determined whether
the women's sense of safety will increase during subsequent
follow-up periods.
The Corrections Directorate funded
qualitative evaluations of two men's treatment programs: Après
Coup, in Montréal, and the Men's Crisis Service, in Calgary.
The Men's Crisis Service, as its name suggests, differs from typical
treatment programs in that it provides immediate short-term
counselling for men in crisis. The evaluations addressed four
broad areas: (1) the extent to which treatment content and
modalities are consistent with the dual goals of encouraging men to
take responsibility for their abuse and promoting the safety of
women and children; (2) the safety of women and children and
accountability to women's advocates and service providers; (3) the
impact of treatment on men and their women partners; and (4) program
links to the community. A detailed summary of the questions
addressed are presented in the table that follows.
|
Treatment
model
Assumptions, values, goals
Definitions of violence
Understanding of the problem of
violence
Solutions to stopping violence
Coherence between treatment objectives
and actual treatment content
Modalities and techniques used
Methods used to encourage men to accept
responsibility for their violence |
Impact on Men
and Women Partners
Do men believe that their attitudes and
behaviours have changed? To what do they attribute the
changes?
How do men understand the reasons for
their abuse and what are their strategies for ending it?
Do women believe that the attitudes and
behaviours of their partner have changed? Do women feel
safer as a result of treatment? To what do they attribute the
changes?
What impact has the program had on the
lives of women partners. |
|
Safety and
Accountability
How do treatment programs address the
safety of women and children?
To what extent are women partners
supported throughout the treatment program?
To what extent are the messages
delivered to abused women and their partners consistent with
messages from women's shelters. |
Impact on and
Links to Community, Criminal Justice and Social Services
What are the links between the
treatment program and the criminal justice system, mental
health, child welfare and women's shelters and support
services?
|
The Men's Crisis Service (MCS) is operated by
the Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter Association (CWES). The
MCS was established with the understanding that it must be
accountable to the shelter. As such, it has an explicit
commitment to placing the safety of women and children over and
above the "therapeutic relationship" with men, and to ensuring that
men take responsibility for their abuse. The Corrections
Directorate funded an evaluation of the MCS which produced a number
of important findings.
The MCS is different from long-term treatment
programs in that it provides immediate (same or next day), short
term (usually two months) counselling to men whose spouses and
children have used the shelter services. The MCS
provides: consultation to women using the shelter who request
information about services for their partners; intake and
counselling to abusive men; contact with women partners (if
they are willing), at weekly or monthly intervals, to monitor their
situation both during and after their partners have completed the
program; and preventive and public education work . Local and
national advisory committees were formed to provide support and
direction on both service delivery and policy issues. The
committees also provided a network for the dissemination of
information about the MCS and its evaluation.
The rationale underlying the MCS and its
relationship with the CWES is the belief that a male crisis
intervention service which operates under the direction of a women's
shelter is more likely to make the interests of battered women a
priority and provide an opportunity for rehabilitation without
jeopardizing the safety and well-being of women and children.
At the initial stage, MCS counsellors consult directly with women in
the shelter regarding the limitations of batterer treatment programs
and the implications for their particular situation and
safety. Throughout the program, the counsellors provide women
with feedback about their partners' participation. Given that
we know that women place considerable hope in treatment programs and
that they are more likely to remain in the relationship if their
partners agree to attend treatment, it is critical that they receive
realistic information about a man's potential to change (Davies et
al, 1995; Meredith and Burns, 1990).
The report identifies four key factors that
influenced the history and development of the MCS.
-
The principal players in Calgary's
network of health, legal and social services held a shared vision
that the best response to violence against women would involve a
coordinated multi-level, multi-agency plan that included all
members of the family.
[8] - The existence of trusting relationships
among key players.
- Although there was some question as to
whether a women's service should administer services to men, there
was a recognition that some women do return to their partners and
a belief that intervention should not end when a woman leaves the
shelter. In addition, there was a belief that intervention
with male batterers may have a critical impact on women's safety
and well-being.
- The socio-political environment of the
time, particularly the conservative, sometimes hostile political
climate which created cohesiveness among health and other service
providers.
A comprehensive description and analysis of
the MCS including its various activities, its definition of violence
and its goals, produced information about what actually happens in
the program and the impact on the safety of women and children and
the men's ownership of the violence. The evaluation
demonstrated that safety concerns are addressed through regular
contact with women partners. It also showed that strong
messages are delivered in counselling sessions about the need for
abusive men to take responsibility for their abuse.
-
In the initial stages, the MCS counsellor
interviews the woman about her own situation. She is given
information about the goals of the program as well as its
limits. Counsellors may also meet with women weekly in small
groups. Women are contacted if their partner discontinues
treatment and contact is maintained after treatment ends.
-
Policies and counselling styles are
consistent with the objective of having men take responsibility
for their behaviour. While MCS's practices reflect a clear
strategy not to collude with the men, an effort is made to allow
men to express themselves in a respectful environment.
- Counselling appears to meet the dual
objective of addressing social structural reinforcers of male
violence, while holding individual men responsible for their
behaviour.
The program has a significant impact on the
lives of both men and women.
-
Many women reported a decrease in abuse
and controlling behaviours, some saying that abuse had
completely stopped; others reported less physical abuse although
other abuse was still present.
- Over the course of treatment men increased
the extent to which they were willing to take responsibility for
their abuse.
- Women frequently felt safer and linked
this feeling to changes brought about by the MCS. Many women
felt safer but at times were still fearful of their male partner.
The degree to which men felt their partners were safer varied
although some men felt their partners were absolutely safe.
The majority of men felt that their partners were safer, but not
completely.
- Some women reported feeling safer because
of changes they had made in themselves through personal
counselling, etc. or because they believed that MCS counsellors
would advise them if they suspected they were in any danger.
However, it needs to be made clear that although counsellors can
provide women with meaningful information about their partner, it
is the women who are in the best position to assess their own
safety level.
- Women also cited other factors that
contributed to a feeling of safety, such as the decision to leave
the relationship, legal sanction, and other community resources.
Other findings included support for the
integration of longer-term counselling as a second phase of
intervention within the MCS. Many men find problems associated
with the transition from one program to another too difficult to
overcome and often drop out as a result. One unexpected
finding involved the relationship between taking full responsibility
for violence and stopping abusive behaviour. For the most
part, men who indicated a decrease or cessation of abuse, also
appeared to be assuming responsibility for their abuse.
However, according to reports from some women partners, some men
either decreased or stopped their abuse without taking
responsibility for their violence. Further research is
necessary to clarify the concept "holding men accountable for their
abusive behaviour" and the role this plays in ending violence
against women.
The Men's Crisis Service evaluation
demonstrates that male batterer treatment programs can be delivered
in a way that increases the safety of women and children and is
accountable to women's advocates and service providers. The
relationship of the Men's Crisis Service to the Calgary Women's
Emergency Shelter appeared to be critical to its success. By
requiring the MCS to report directly to its board of directors, the
CWES established direct lines of communication and
accountability. Accountability was further enhanced through
close working relationships with shelter workers, and ongoing
contact with women partners.
The evaluation of the MCS provides
considerable information concerning "best practices" and policies in
the delivery of services to male batterers. The MCS model
warrants serious consideration in the further development of male
batterer programs.
Après Coup is a male batterer treatment
program in ville Lemoyne, south of Montréal, Quebec. The
Corrections Directorate funded an evaluation which examined
treatment content of the program and its impact on participants and
women partners. This project arose out of the realization that
it is difficult to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of male
batterer treatment programs without understanding actual treatment
content and the assumptions upon which it is based. Further,
it is important to look beyond formal program principles and
objectives to assess the extent to which they are consistent with
actual treatment content.
The evaluation is based on an analysis of
transcripts of 20 treatment sessions and 20 in-depth interviews with
program participants and women partners. An Advisory Committee
was formed for the purpose of informing the research process and
proposing strategies for enhancing the program. Committee
members included representatives from Après Coup, women's advocates
and service providers, and men's counsellors working within a
pro-feminist perspective.
The evaluation addresses five specific
questions: (1) How is the concept of violence defined
throughout the treatments sessions? (2) To what extent do
intervention practices incorporate pro-feminist analysis of power
and gender relations? (3) How do intervention practices
encourage men to take responsibility for their violence? (4)
To what extent do men actually take ownership of the violence?
(5) What are the forms of accountability implemented by the program?
The evaluation found that overall, program
participants have an increased sense of self-awareness and
recognition of the need to take responsibility for their own
actions. Interviews with program participants and women
partners indicated that most participants have reduced the level of
their explicit or physical violence. However, the evaluation
also found that program participation has a number of unintended
consequences due to the fact that men are receiving mixed messages
about the nature of violent behaviour and their need to take
responsibility for it. Significant findings of the evaluation
include the following:
-
The program did not provide men with a
concrete sense of what constitutes an act of violence in
practice. Men are taught that violence is a method of
control. At the same time, men are consistently encouraged
to learn to "control" themselves. This appears to confuse
many of the men because they associate "taking control" with using
violence.
- Throughout the course of the program,
violence is conceptualized as a "family" problem shared by all its
members. As a result, some men believed this meant that their
partners were equally responsible for the violence.
Furthermore, referring to violence as a family problem has the
effect of masking unequal relations between men and women and
obscuring the fact that it is women who are overwhelmingly the
victims of violence.
- Program content is preoccupied with
encouraging men to take charge of their behaviour and to change
their self-concept. However, work on self-awareness appears
to be done in isolation from concerns of the safety of women
partners and their children. While this work may have some
positive benefits for the men, it appears to be at the expense of
encouraging them to take responsibility for their abusive
behaviour and assisting them to develop concrete strategies to
stop it.
- Finally, the women partners reported that
they had limited contact with the men's counsellors and that they
did not receive enough information about the goals or modalities
of the program. Not surprisingly, they were unclear as to
whether the program had taken steps to promote their safety.
The evaluation has already had a significant
impact on the program. As part of the research process, the
program advisory committee met for two days to consider the findings
and develop strategies for enhancing the program. It was
recommended that Après Coup revise its mandate in order to better
articulate its basic philosophy and practices, and to ensure they
are consistent with the belief that it is individual men (and not
the family) who have to take responsibility for their abusive
behaviour. It was also recommended that the program improve
its contact with women partners and make the safety of women and
children a priority in the intervention process.
The evaluation underscores the importance of
examining the consistency between program principles and program
content. The findings revealed that the intervention process
had unintended consequences that did not reflect program principles,
and the evaluation led to changes in the program to address this
issue.
The Corrections Directorate provided
financial support for a conference to examine cross cultural issues
surrounding the treatment of abusers sponsored by the BC Institute
on Family Violence, a Vancouver-based community service
organization. The conference examined the impact of current
violence against women policies on ethnocultural communities, and
explored culturally sensitive factors that policy-makers may
consider when formulating future policies. The conference was
attended by policy-makers, service providers, researchers and
community members.
Several collaborative cross-cultural research
projects were presented. Major research findings included:
The major issues addressed at the conference
include:
The Corrections Direction funded the
development of a treatment program for men of Indian and Pakistani
origins who have been convicted of assaulting their wives or
partners. The Assaultive Husbands Program (AHP) is operated by
the Multilingual Orientation Service Association for Immigrant
Communities (MOSAIC) in Vancouver. A support program for women
was established to provide information and counselling to the
partners of abusive men. The rationale for this project came
from the finding that a substantial number of Indo-Canadian men in
Vancouver are being charged and convicted of wife assault and the
belief that existing mainstream programs are not effective in
treating Indo-Canadian men because of their unique cultural and
linguistic needs.
The AHP describes its approach as a hybrid
model which draws from psycho-educational and pro-feminist
approaches and incorporates specific cultural values relevant to
Indo-Canadian families. Project staff found that, due to
cultural differences, the treatment needs of Indo-Canadian men
differ significantly from those of men in the mainstream
population. Differences that were believed to have a
significant impact on the types of treatment required include:
The AHP has had some success in achieving its
goals. Seventy five per cent of the men who were accepted into
the program completed it. According to the program staff,
clients appeared to have stopped physical abuse at the beginning of
the program. However, no follow up was undertaken to
determine for how long the violence stopped, or whether
psychological or other forms of abuse were present. The women
partners of abusive men were often fearful and unsure of the value
of attending the support group. Individual counselling,
telephone follow-up, child care and transportation were provided to
facilitate attendance. In general, women preferred individual
over group counselling. Perhaps the most interesting finding
was that, according to program staff, the abusive men often
attributed their positive experiences in the group directly to their
relationship with the group leader. Many participants reported
that they were able to develop a trusting relationship with the
leader because of the shared cultural background.
Unfortunately, the program has not been formally evaluated, so these
observations have not been systematically examined. Future
research needs to be done to assess the impact of the
treatment model on clients and its effectiveness in eliminating wife
assault.
The Waywayseecappo First Nation domestic
abuse intervention program uses traditional holistic healing methods
to restore harmony and balance in interpersonal relationships.
The Waywayseecappo First Nation believed that a program which did
not incorporate elements of Aboriginal culture would only contribute
to a further sense of displacement or alienation of abusive
men. Intervention program leaders wanted to explore the extent
to which Aboriginal practices, rituals, and ceremonies are crucial
components of successful intervention. The research team
recognized that in order to produce a meaningful evaluation of a
culturally specific treatment program, it would be necessary to use
a culturally sensitive instrument of measurement. The
Corrections Directorate provided funding to the research team to
develop this instrument. Existing domestic violence
instruments were modified to include Aboriginal values and then
translated into Saulteaux (Ojibway). This instrument could be
used in other communities to provide more information about the role
Aboriginal values and traditions play in effective intervention
strategies.
Community Holistic Circle Healing (CHCH) is a
community healing process developed to address the problem of sexual
abuse in the four communities of Hollow Water First Nation,
Seymourville, Manigotogan and Aghaming. The Corrections
Directorate has provided funding for the development, implementation
and evaluation of this project. The CHCH aims to restore
balance by empowering individuals and the community to deal
with sexual abuse in a productive and healing way. Community
members and service providers first came together in 1984 to develop
new ways of dealing with community problems including alcohol and
drug abuse. By 1987, this group realized that the extent of
sexual abuse in the community was much greater than anyone had
previously thought. The group responded to this problem by
creating a multi-disciplinary Assessment Team consisting of family
violence workers, child and family services workers, volunteers,
welfare administrator, RCMP officer, nurses and community health
resource workers. The Assessment Team developed a two year,
culturally appropriate, training program. The program covered
topics such as: cultural awareness; alcohol and drug
awareness; team building; networking; needs assessment; suicide
intervention; family counselling; communication skills; and
nutrition and human sexuality. Twelve individuals graduated
from this program. Seven of these graduates became family
violence workers.
Frustrated by the limitations of the criminal
justice system, particularly its inability to heal, the community
developed "Thirteen Steps", a holistic approach to healing based on
Aboriginal traditions. The Thirteen Steps begin with a victim
disclosing abuse. The first response is to protect the victim,
and the next is to confront the victimizer. The victimizer is
informed that there is a possibility that his case may be handled by
the community in conjunction with the criminal justice system but
that it is necessary for him to meet the following conditions:
he must take full responsibility for his abusive behaviour, avoid
contact with the victim, and undergo a healing process as
directed by the Assessment Team. If any of these conditions
are broken, the case is turned over to the criminal justice
system. Next, assistance is provided to the victimizer's
spouse, other members of the family and the community. The
CHCH assessment team meets with the RCMP and the Crown
Attorney. The next steps involve the preparation of the
victim, victimizer and families for an event called the Special Gathering. This event
brings members of the community together to hear the details
of the abuse, to develop strategies to deal with the abuse and to
heal the community. It provides an opportunity for community
leaders to demonstrate that abusive behaviour is unacceptable and
educate the participants about abuse. Following the Gathering,
the Healing Contract, which outlines
treatment conditions for the victimizer, is implemented. The
performance of the Cleansing Ceremony
signals the completion of the Healing
Contract and the restoration of balance to the victimizer.
Although the timing of the Ceremony varies, it is unlikely to happen
until at least two years after the Healing
Contract is implemented.
CHCH's unique approach to intervention has
raised a number of questions. Has the CHCH been accepted by
the communities it serves? Has it been accepted by the victims
of abuse? CHCH starts from the premise that a truly holistic
approach must provide support and services to both the victims and
the offenders. How does the CHCH proceed when the needs of
victims, victimizers and the community are in conflict? To
what extent has the CHCH altered social relations in the
communities, notions of justice, and understandings of the problem
of abuse? What are the implications for the creation of
similar initiatives in other communities? An independent
evaluation of the CHCH is currently under way. The evaluation
will grapple with these and related questions. The specific
evaluation objectives are as follows:
-
A detailed description of the program,
its development, and how it interrelates with the criminal justice
system and child care system.
- An assessment of the program, as indicated
by objective measures and as seen by offenders, victims,
Assessment Team workers, community members, criminal justice and
child care workers.
- A comparison between Hollow Water and a
similar Aboriginal community in terms of criminal justice and
child care involvement and decisions.
- A qualitative evaluation of the program's
impact over a period of time by participant observation with five
families.
The Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter
Association (CWES), in collaboration with Alberta Justice, has
produced a training manual designed to provide probation officers
with skills to run male batterer educational programs and to develop
a partner outreach model that is accountable for women's
safety. The Corrections Directorate has provided funding
for both the development and evaluation of this project. The
rationale for this project arose, in part, from the realization that
most batterers receive no treatment while under supervision.
This is because treatment programs often have long waiting lists,
and are generally not available in rural areas. Some men
complete probation before they are able to finish treatment.
Offenders who live outside the major centres are often unable to
meet their treatment conditions.
This project addresses this gap by training
probation officers to provide education programs as part of their
regular supervision. Where treatment programs do exist, the
groups provide information and practical skills while batterers are
on the waiting list. Intervention resources are maximized by
requiring the men to make their regular contact with probation
officers in a group with other probationers who have also been
abusive to their partners. Partners of the male batterers are
contacted by trained volunteers in order to obtain feedback about
their experiences, and to increase accountability to battered women
and their advocates.
This project provides a practical and
cost-efficient solution to the provision of treatment services in
isolated and rural areas. It also contributes to the goal of
creating a coordinated response to violence against women by
facilitating the development of collaborative relationships between
Provincial Corrections and various shelters throughout
Alberta. The evaluation and training manual provide
information about how this project could be replicated in other
locations. A program of this type could become a standard part
of probation conditions for male batterers.
In January 1995, the Women's Action Centre
(Ottawa-Carleton) held a two day workshop entitled "Putting the
Pieces Together." The Corrections Directorate provided funding
for the workshop as well as the broad-based community consultations
leading up to the workshop. The idea for this workshop was, in
part, inspired by the success of the Quincy, Massachusetts family
violence intervention project. In Quincy, police, women's
advocates, service providers, prosecutors, judges and probation
officers have worked together over the last ten years to provide a
coordinated, comprehensive and multi-disciplinary response to
violence against women. Five years after the project began,
the spousal homicide rate in Quincy decreased to zero. Ten years
have now passed, and not one woman has been killed by her partner or
ex-partner. A number of individuals both in the
Ottawa-Carleton community and criminal justice system expressed
interest in learning more about the Quincy model.
The overall goal of the workshop was to
improve the response of the criminal justice system to women who
have experienced violence in Ottawa-Carleton. Community
consultations were held to identify obstacles to developing a
coordinated response, and to identify key issues to be addressed at
the workshop. The specific goals of the workshop were:
- To provide a forum for exchange of
information and resources, including a description and analysis of
the Quincy Massachusetts domestic violence intervention project.
- To strengthen links between the different
parts of the criminal justice system (including women, front-line
agencies, law enforcement and legal professionals, men's treatment
programs, probation, etc.).
- To identify obstacles to a more
coordinated criminal justice system locally.
- To facilitate the development of an action
plan for further improvement in the co-ordination of the criminal
justice system locally.
A district attorney, a probation officer, a
police officer and a victim's advocate from Quincy shared their
experiences of developing a coordinated response to violence against
women and their strategies for overcoming the obstacles they
encountered. Learning about a successful intervention model in
another community provided the impetus for the development of new
ways of thinking and working together.
Although this was primarily an information
exchange project, the workshop and the consultations that proceeded
it are part of a larger process of community development.
Community members and criminal justice personnel came together to
identify needs, create a vision and develop a strategy for sharing
resources and skills, and organizing for collective action.
There was remarkable consensus among criminal justice professionals,
women's advocates and service providers and other groups within the
Ottawa-Carleton community about the approach that should be taken
towards ending violence against women. Relationships
established in the community consultation process provided solid
ground from which participants could develop a response model for
Ottawa-Carleton. A strong willingness to work in partnership
pervaded the workshop. Perhaps the most significant outcome of
the workshop was the formation of a roundtable committee by key
institutional and community-based decision makers in order to
monitor the implementation of workshop recommendations. The
round table committee will develop policies and allocate resources
for their implementation. According to the project organizers,
the inclusion of both institutional and community decision makers,
was critical to the success of both the workshop and the round
table. This approach may be useful as a model in other
community development projects across Canada.
The Women's Community Action Team, a
committee of the Status of Women Council of the Northwest
Territories (NWT), produced a series of workshop resource books that
were designed to meet the needs of northern communities.
Community representatives from across the NWT were given training on
how to use the books. The impetus for this project came as the
Council realized that there are many people who are interested in
conducting community development workshops, but are unable to do so
because they do not have the necessary tools and skills.
Although considerable material has been produced on community
development, it has been designed for a southern Canadian audience
and does not reflect the needs of northern communities. This
project is based on the belief that effective intervention
strategies are ones that empower communities to take action to
address their own concerns.
A needs assessment and extensive consultation
were undertaken to determine the topics that were most important to
communities. Twenty-two people from five regions of the NWT
came together to participate in an intensive seven day
workshop. The participants were trained to facilitate
workshops in their own communities. They provided important
feedback which was incorporated into the final draft of the resource
books. There are seven books in total -- a guide book for the
facilitator and six activity books. The resource book topics
are: spousal abuse, child sexual abuse, sexual assault, support
groups for abusive men, parenting skills and healthy
relationships. The books are written in plain language with
versions in Inuktitut, French, and English. Plans have been
made to distribute the books to active women's groups across the
Northwest Territories. Additional copies will be available
from the Status of Women Council of the NWT. Written
questionnaires have been included with the books to give individuals
who use the publication with an opportunity to provide feedback.
The Corrections Directorate has provided
Family Transition Place, a women's safety organization in
Orangeville, Ontario, with funds to develop and evaluate a community
responsibility approach to stopping violence against women.
This unique two-year project involves engaging men's service clubs
to support educational activities and a treatment program for male
abusers. This project is based on the belief that individual
non-violent men have a responsibility to move beyond their own
behaviour and influence the behaviour of other men. The
well-established leadership role of men's service clubs in the
community makes them ideal players to initiate the process of
changing attitudes and to promote equality between men and women.
The goals of the project are:
-
To build receptiveness to an attitude of
zero tolerance to woman abuse among a significant number of the
male community leaders in Dufferin County and the Town of Caledon.
- To build a sense of responsibility to
intervene appropriately in the community to prevent or stop woman
abuse by contributing to individual and systemic solutions.
- To develop a Peer Support Program for male
abusers that will reduce the clinical intervention necessary to
significantly decrease the level of abuse in intimate
relationships.
A number of activities are currently in
progress. Men's service clubs have been asked to make a small
financial contribution to the local women's shelter as a sign of
commitment to stopping woman abuse. Representatives of the
clubs have formed the Men's Advisory Group which works with the
Family Transition House. Community leaders are conducting
awareness and education initiatives such as conferences for sports
coaches and teachers, and seminars for business people on the cost
of violence against women. A Volunteer Peer Support program
has also been developed. A final report will include a
description and evaluation of: the strategies used to involve
men's service clubs in the prevention of woman abuse; community
education initiatives with male target groups; and the peer support
program.
The community responsibility approach is
innovative in that it seeks to address the problem at the
fundamental level of attitudes in the community. The belief
that the community is responsible for the well-being of its members
is part of a larger movement towards crime prevention through social
development.
In 1992, the Corrections Directorate provided
the John Howard Society of Ottawa with funds to develop a program
for youth between 12 and 24 years of age who have witnessed family
violence. Separate programs were developed for male and female
youth. The program philosophy is based on the belief that all
individuals regardless of gender, race, class, or sexual orientation
have the right to make life choices without being inhibited by
physical or emotional abuse. Participants are given a
framework from which to understand the emotional, psychological and
physical effects of abuse, the roots of abuse, and the ways in which
it is perpetuated. Intervention is guided by the principle
that all types of abuse -- emotional, physical, sexual -- are
deliberate attempts by abusers to achieve power and control.
Victims are taught to protect themselves from future abuse, and
abusers are required to take responsibility for their behaviour and
are taught non-abusive alternatives. Since many of the young
women live with an abusive parent or male partner, safety and
protection planning are essential aspects of the program. The
program model is based on an integration of ecological, historical,
feminist and social learning perspectives (Edelson and Tolman,
1992).
The program was evaluated using comparisons
between program completers and dropouts, pre- and post-intervention
measures, and participant and independent evaluation.
Significant findings include:
- With a few exceptions, completers did not
differ greatly from non-completers. Completers,
however, felt the impact of abuse was more serious than did
dropouts. (This may have contributed to their motivation to
stay in the program.) On average, dropouts scored higher on
an inventory designed to measure risk level for criminal activity
in the future.
-
After treatment completion, participants
were more likely to identify appropriate strategies for dealing
with unsafe situations. Completers were less depressed and
anxious, showed less internalization of problems and had better
self-perceptions.
-
Participants evaluated the program
positively. In particular, female clients felt they had
developed a better understanding of the dynamics and types of
abuse. Male clients felt they had developed a better
understanding of the impact of witnessing and experiencing abuse.
-
An observer external to the program found
a consistently high quality of service delivery.
Program staff discovered that program
location made a significant contribution to the success of the
program. When the program was brought directly to youths in
schools or residential settings, attendance increased and attrition
decreased. According to program staff, another factor that
contributed to the success of the program was the strong links it
developed with local agencies and professionals who provide service
to youths. These links provided participants ongoing
counselling and support. Future research could investigate the
extent to which intervention projects such as this one contribute to
breaking the generational cycle of violence for both male and female
youth.
In 1991, the Corrections Directorate provided
the Coverdale Courtwork Services with funds to develop and implement
the Coverdale Chaplaincy project in the Halifax-Dartmouth area of
Nova Scotia. In 1993/94, the Corrections Directorate funded an
independent evaluation of the project. The project provides
individual counselling, support and therapy to women in conflict
with the law who have histories of physical and sexual abuse.
Its intervention philosophy is based on pastoral counselling and
feminist principles which emphasize acceptance and listening,
confidentiality, the sharing of experiences, and the development of
personal power.
Few organizations advocate for or provide
services specifically for women in conflict with the law. In
general, correctional programs and policies have failed to recognize
the specific needs of women offenders (Creating Choices Report of the Task
Force on Federally Sentenced Women). The needs of female
offenders arise from particular circumstances such as generally
lower economic resources, their role as mothers, and the high
incidence of physical and sexual abuse in their lives. This
project is based on the assumption that intervention which addresses
issues of abuse will empower women to take greater control over
their lives and contribute to the prevention of further offending.
Most clients gave the program a positive
evaluation in terms of its content and structure, the relationship
they established with the Chaplain, and the impact it had on their
lives. The trusting, woman-positive environment offered by the
Chaplain was in marked contrast to the previous life experiences of
many clients. Clients identified positive changes in the way
they felt about themselves and the way they related to others.
In particular, clients appreciated that both the program content and
duration were not pre-determined. These features allowed
clients to address the issues that were most important to them and
to start and stop counselling as they felt the need. In
addition, the Community Chaplain acted as an important link to the
outside community for women in the Halifax Correctional Centre.
The open structure, although positive in
terms of the impact on clients, meant the resources of the Chaplain
and the support staff were quickly over-extended. The waiting
times for new clients not in crisis quickly grew to around 5-6
weeks. According to the evaluation, the project needed
to strike a balance between a client-centred approach and
accessibility to a large number of women. The recruitment and
training of volunteers or social work students on placement was
identified as a possible solution to this situation.
A second concern was the amount of time and
attention given to record keeping. Project staff wanted to
minimize the time spent on data collection and maximize the time
spent providing services. However, accurate record keeping may
provide insights into program effectiveness. For example,
records may provide information about the characteristics of clients
who drop out of sessions early or do not respond to
counselling. This information could be used to develop or
modify intervention strategies.
A third concern is the difficulty of doing
feminist counselling based on choice and empowerment in a
traditional correctional setting. The principles of choice and
empowerment are a significant challenge to traditional correctional
philosophy based on control. According to project staff, the
community-based location of the project was critical to its
success. It was believed that an institutional location would
have made it difficult to establish safe, trusting and empowering
relationships with the clients.
The Coverdale Community Chaplaincy project
evaluation showed that an intervention philosophy based on
acceptance, choice and the development of personal power was an
effective model for women in conflict with the law. The
evaluation concluded that this model could be used in communities
where the new regional facilities for federally sentenced women are
being built.
Research and development projects undertaken
by the Corrections Directorate have increased our knowledge about
effectiveness of intervention strategies to address male violence
against women. These projects taken as a whole suggest
cautious optimism concerning the effectiveness of treatment
programs. Evaluation findings suggest that male batterer
treatment programs have the potential to be delivered in a way that
increases the safety of women and children, but that treatment
approaches vary significantly. The treatment programs
evaluated by the Directorate varied with respect to their
objectives, content, modalities, and links to shelters and other
agencies. There is some evidence to suggest that these
variations are linked to the ability of programs to increase the
safety of women and children. In particular, the evaluation of
the Men's Crisis Service suggests that crisis intervention that
operates under the direction of a women's shelter is likely to
promote the safety and well-being of women and children.
Project evaluations may provide some
direction on the policy question of how treatment programs fit
within the overall response to violence against women. Project
findings suggest that the effectiveness of treatment programs is
increased by the extent to which they are linked with an integrated,
comprehensive network of services responding to violence
against women. Projects such as the Community Holistic Healing
Circle and Assaultive Husbands Program demonstrate the importance of
culturally appropriate community-based initiatives. Three
strategies in particular were consistently identified as critical
aspects of the response to violence against women:
While these strategies are not new, they have
not been consistently incorporated in our efforts to end violence
against women. The uneven adoption of these strategies has
occurred in spite of general agreement about their merits partially
because there are gaps in our understanding of how to implement
these strategies in practice. The British Columbia Task Force
on Family Violence referred to the concept of "coordination" as a
"much talked about, little understood process." What follows
is a discussion of some of the issues and challenges that agencies
faced as they attempted to implement these strategies.
Project findings suggest there is little hope
for long term change if men are unwilling to accept responsibility
for their violence. As the "Attrition from a Male Batterer
Treatment Program" study demonstrated, even among men who are
receiving treatment, there are many who do not admit to their
abusive behaviour. Men who are unwilling to take even the
beginning steps towards taking responsibility for their violence
have little chance of changing. Of the 34 men in this study
who denied they physically abused their partners, only 3 completed
treatment. The Après Coup evaluation showed, even when men do
admit to their abuse, there is a tendency for them to see their
violence as a "family problem" for which all members share
responsibility. Encouraging men to take responsibility for
their abuse is an extremely difficult task, but there is increasing
evidence to suggest working with men can be a worthwhile
process. The Men's Crisis Service evaluation found that men
who took responsibility for their violence were more likely to
decrease or stop their violence.
The issue of men's responsibility is also
being pursued outside intervention programs in the wider
community. The Family Transition Place project encourages
individual non-violent men to take responsibility for influencing
the behaviour of other men. This project recognizes that men
in their capacity as coaches, teachers and business leaders have
considerable potential to do this. Preliminary analysis of
data from the Multi-Site Evaluation suggests that peer support
may play an important role in encouraging or discouraging abusive
behaviour. This study has found that the single factor that
most strongly identified abusive men was their association with
other abusive men. Although the Family Transition Place
project evaluation is still in progress, it may demonstrate that men
influencing the behaviour of other men is a promising strategy for
changing attitudes and values in the community.
Addressing responsibility for male violence
is increasingly seen as an issue for entire communities.
Several projects undertaken by the directorate stem from the belief
that the community is responsible for the well-being of its
members. The Community Holistic Circle Healing project
demonstrated that communities can take responsibility for solving
their own problems. The Hollow Water First Nation developed a
multi-agency response involving mental heath, social services and
criminal justice personnel in a manner that is appropriate for their
community. Two of the projects -- From Dark to Light:
Regaining a Caring Community and the Putting the Pieces Together --
were created specifically because the communities wanted to develop
skills and knowledge necessary to create community-based solutions
to community problems.
As communities are mobilized and the number
of people working to end violence against women increases, a number
of challenges arise. Community-based initiatives are not
inherently progressive. Although demands for change often
originate from communities, communities are also associated with the
status quo and resistance to change and diversity. Efforts
must be made to ensure that the voices of all women, including
immigrant and visible minority, Aboriginal, disabled, and rural
women will be heard. Communities must be vigilant that their
approaches reflect the interests of all their members and not just
the interests of powerful groups and individuals.
The majority of the projects undertaken by
the Corrections Directorate confirm the importance of coordinated
multi-agency, multi-disciplinary approaches to ending violence
against women. The final reports of Coverdale Community
Chaplaincy Project, the Program for Youth Who Have Witnessed Family
Violence, Community Holistic Circle Healing, Putting the Pieces
Together, From Darkness to Light and the Men's Crisis Service, all
state specifically that well-developed links to other agencies were
critical to the success of their programs. These
projects also report a number of challenges they encountered as they
attempted to implement this approach.
Multi-agency, multi-disciplinary approaches
bring together organizations and individuals that may hold competing
views about abuse, its causes and preferred interventions.
There is considerable disagreement among agencies responding to
violence against women as to the role of such factors as
intergenerational cycle of violence, substance abuse, stress and
unemployment and to the role of unequal relations between men and
women. Differences in understanding of the problem create
significant barriers to working in partnerships, and these
differences cannot be ignored.
Differences in intervention approaches may
have a significant impact on the degree to which men take
responsibility for their abuse and for changing. Considerable
work needs to be done to ensure that all players are working towards
the same goals, and that their approaches promote men taking
responsibility and the safety of women and children.
Ultimately, efforts need to be accountable to battered women and
their advocates. Accountability must occur at personal,
professional and systemic levels, and accountability mechanisms need
to be in place within each agency, between agencies and within the
community.
In the past, women's advocates and service
providers have been reluctant to become involved in the provision of
services for abusive men. Several of the projects undertaken
by the Directorate involved the formation of innovative partnerships
such as probation services and a women's shelter (Probation Officer
Training Manual) and a women's organization and men's service clubs
(Family Transition Place). The evaluations of the Men's Crisis
Service and Après Coup, in particular, suggest that women's
organizations can play an important role in developing,
implementing and monitoring intervention programs for abusive
men. Services for abusive men can either support or undermine
the work of women's advocates and service providers. The Men's
Crisis Service evaluation demonstrates that partnerships between
shelters and men's services can be effective. Close working
relationships with shelter workers, ongoing contact with the woman
partners and direct lines of communication with the board of
directors of the women's shelter ensured that the program was
accountable to battered women and their advocates.
Project officers and the agencies who
implemented the projects grappled with several questions concerning
process and effective practices. Many of the projects involved
community consultations and/or local or national advisory
committees. In projects that involved multi-agency
collaborations, considerable time was spent developing guiding
principles, new partnerships and accountability mechanisms.
Given the considerable time and effort they take, are these
approaches worthwhile? An analysis of the project findings
suggests that these approaches are effective practices that should
be continued and further developed.
-
Community consultations, advisory
committees and other processes that promote dialogue between
agencies and individuals are critical to the success of any
project. Although these processes are often lengthy and at
times difficult, they are extremely worthwhile. It is
essential that all players are working in the same direction,
towards the same goals.
- Given the competing views on the causes
and remedies of violence against women and the implications for
safety, it is essential that the principles, policies and
practices of agencies and programs are clearly spelled out.
This process provides a starting point for dialogue and the basis
from which to build partnerships and relations of trust.
- Although women's advocates and service
providers have many reasons to be hesitant, partnership with men's
services have the potential to increase the safety and well-being
of women and children. Explicitly stated guiding principles
may help ensure that the expertise of women's advocates and
service providers is respected, and safety is a priority.
- For over twenty years women have gained
considerable skills and knowledge in the area of providing
services and advocating for women. Through contact with
women whose partners are in treatment, front-line workers have
gained an understanding of which approaches will promote the
safety of women and children and which ones have unintended,
potentially dangerous consequences for women. Coordinated
multi-agency, multi-disciplinary efforts should recognize this
experience and ensure that they are accountable to abused women
and their advocates.
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