FVIP Resources

Webinar: Founded in 1977, Emerge has pioneered effective and culturally relevant abuser education strategies as well as those for abusers in same-sex relationships. David Adams, Co-Director of Emerge, will describe innovative practices in assessing and responding to risk in batterer intervention programs. This webinar will describe a new protocol, developed and piloted in Massachusetts, for assessing risk of men who attend batterer intervention programs. David Adams will also discuss risk management strategies for different types of high risk clients, drawing from his clinical practice as well as his research about men who killed their intimate partners. David has led groups for abusers for over 40 years and currently coordinates two federally funded training projects; the National Risk Assessment and Management Training Project, and Recognizing Responsibility and Risk of Abusers in Court. His book, Why Do They Kill? Men Who Murder Their Intimate Partners was published by Vanderbilt University Press in 2007.

Publication: Batterer intervention programs (BIPs) emerged in the United States in the late 1970s as one component of the social response to intimate partner violence (IPV). The goal of this paper is to review existing research, focusing on various research designs and their strengths and limitations.

Webinar: Batterers Intervention Programs (BIPs) are most effective when they are organized and developed as part of a Coordinated Community Response (CCR). In this webinar, presenter Melissa Scaia, will describe the framework, principles, and practices that are necessary to organize and develop a BIP as part of a community’s response to address domestic violence. This webinar will also include information on current trends and promising practicing in working with domestic violence offenders in BIPs.

Webinar: Often when the police are called to respond to domestic violence, men who batter are arrested, convicted, and then likely sent to a batterers intervention program. What community support, programming, facilitation, and skills are needed to address men’s violence against women in a batterers intervention program? When men who batter are court ordered to group process, it must include an analysis of key elements of abusive behavior and then a process to identify alternative beliefs and behaviors. The group process needs to be reflective and encourage critical thinking. This webinar will address the following: Who should facilitate BIPs and who maybe should not, Co-facilitation, Dialogue without judgment, Exposing contradictions, Facilitate men ‘reading their world’, Looking at beliefs, “skill” building, and use of role plays, How to facilitate accountability with men who batter, Collusion

Webinar: Batterer programs are at a critical juncture: A handful of experimental program evaluations show little or no effect from the prevailing program approach and have prompted calls to overhaul or replace such programs. Dr. Gondolf offers a critical assessment of the research related to batterer programs with recommendations for heightened engagement of men, on-going risk management, and better coordination of courts and services. Scott Miller challenges BIPs to examine the philosophical underpinnings of their endeavors and to reflect on their relationships to battered women and the movement, suggesting that without fundamental attention to the historical and political bases for domination and violent control of women by men, the work selected by BIPs will achieve little, at best BIPs that focus on groups with court-mandated batterers will have marginal impact on the culture of misogyny and the woman abuse it engenders.

Webinar: Colorado domestic violence treatment standards have been revised to provide for differentiated treatment intensities, based on risks and needs. This workshop explains the development and use of the Domestic Violence Risk and Needs Assessment (DVRNA), a tool employed by practitioners in Colorado to determine to what level of treatment an offender should be assigned.

Webinar: In many communities, Victim Advocacy and Batterer Intervention Programs (BIP)have little interaction or even knowledge about each other’s work. This despite both being deeply involved in the lives of people in chaos because of battering and dangerous behavior. Even when there is networking, victim advocates may not be familiar with BIPs, their strengths and limitations, how they work, and how knowledge about them can assist their day-to-day work with survivors. This webinar shows advocates what to look for in an effective BIP, how to work constructively alongside BIPs to get what’s needed to do your work more effectively, and why a well-run BIP will potentially provide much more than statistics about long-term re-offending.

Article: While treatment programs for batterers have proliferated in the United States over the past 20 years, little is known about these programs by other human service providers, and much less by the general public. This article reviews the historical development of such programs, overviews their goals and methodology, and concludes with a discussion of emerging issues.

Webinar: Jeffrie K. Cape is the director of Charron Services LLC and started HEAL (Helping Explore Accountable Lifestyles), a 52 session Batterer intervention program and WEAVE (Women Exploring Accountably Violent Encounters) in Oakland County, Michigan. She is also employed part time at ADA (Alternatives to Domestic Aggression) in Washtenaw County, where she facilitates groups, trains, supervises staff, develops and refines curriculum for community and prison based programs. Ms. Cape has more than 25 years of clinical experience and also has a private practice with varied clientele. She was appointed to the Michigan Domestic Violence and Prevention and Treatment Board by Governor Snyder in 2011, has helped develop local standards for batterer intervention programs and was a member of the governor’s task force to develop state standards. She was active in the development and formation of BISCMI in 1995, was a past chair and still serves on the board. She was also chair of the Batterer Intervention Provider Standards Compliance Council (BIPSCC) and one of the originators of AQUILA. She participates in a variety of state and local task forces as well as provides local and national training and supervision for agencies and individuals who work with individuals involved in domestic violence.