Batterer Intervention Programs. Where Do We Go From Here.

摘要

With the establishment of proarrest policies in the 1980s, increasing numbers of batterers were seen in criminal courts across the country. Initially, they were sentenced to jail. Some victims, however, began to say that although they wanted the battering to stop, they did not want their partners incarcerated. To respond to these requests while still holding batterers accountable, offenders were referred to batterer intervention programs (BIPs, also known as spouse abuse abatement programs or SAAPs). This has led researchers and advocates to ask, Do these programs work. Although early evaluations suggested that BIPs reduce battering, recent evaluations based on more rigorous designs find little or no reduction. The methodological limitations of virtually all these evaluations, however, make it impossible to say how effective BIPs are.