A Comparison Study of Batterer Intervention and Restorative Justice Programs for Domestic Violence Offenders

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Every state now criminalizes domestic violence, and most jurisdictions rely on Batterer's Intervention Programs (BIPs) -- which bring groups of male offenders together for educational programs related to that violence -- as the primary means of combating recidivism. Recent NIJ research raises serious questions about BIPs' effectiveness, noting little evidence of attitudinal and behavioral change, high attrition rates, and inconsistent contact with victims. The current study uses a randomized design to compare the effectiveness of an existing BIP and an experimental restorative justice intervention for domestic violence offenders. The latter, dubbed CCP, uses a restorative justice approach to reduce violent behavior by bringing the offender together with a facilitator and a professional to develop a specific treatment plan that initiates the offender's behavioral change. The research will be conducted over two years in a criminal court in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, a predominantly low-income Latino community near the Mexican border. This study randomly assigns 60 offenders to one of two interventions: BIP (control group) or CCP (experimental group). The objective of this research is to determine whether CCPs are more effective in reducing violence than BIPs, given that CCPs are tailored to the offender and related parties and acknowledge that a variety of influences must be addressed in order to achieve a sustainable reduction in violence.