Abusive Partner Accountability and Engagement

We use research and the experience of practitioners to help communities create new pathways for abusive partners to develop responsibility, healing, and hope for themselves, their families, and their communities.

For decades, the idea that “nothing works” dominated the conversation around rehabilitating domestic violence offenders and little credence was given to the idea of changing behavior through education and judicial oversight. Today, while the link between courts and offender intervention programs is well-established, debate continues about what actually works. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that programs can improve outcomes by incorporating comprehensive assessments that gauge level of risk, trauma, hope and other needs; cognitive-behavioral learning strategies; and accountability mechanisms that reflect and value culture and community and incorporate self-reflection.

The Center for Justice Innovation’s Abusive Partner Accountability and Engagement Training and Technical Assistance Project is designed to help jurisdictions interested in enhancing their current approaches to domestic violence offender accountability and engagement. With the support of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), and in collaboration with Futures Without Violence and a team of national experts, we provide free multi-disciplinary training and technical assistance to abusive partner intervention providers, both criminal and civil judges, court staff, prosecutors, tribal courts, defense bar, service providers, and victim advocates to identify strategies that are grounded in a coordinated, holistic community and justice system response to enhance accountability for and engagement with domestic violence offenders. Our training and technical assistance includes strategic planning, needs assessments, developing implementation strategies, peer-to-peer support, and more.

If you are interested in learning more about our work on holistic abusive partner intervention, please contact us.

Creating Holistic Abusive Partner Intervention Programming: A View of the Field

In this podcast episode of In Practice, Rob Wolf discusses the history, trends, and current innovations in the abusive partner intervention field with Juan Carlos Areán, program director of Children and Youth Programs at Futures Without Violence. They highlight the Abusive Partner Accountability and Engagement Training and Technical Assistance Project, a collaboration between the Center for Justice Innovation and Futures Without Violence to help communities enhance their responses to people who cause harm through intimate partner violence.