STOPPING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE A COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH

1. STOPPING DOMESTIC VIOLENCEA COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH Presented to: Caribbean Probation Officers Conference Jamaica June 9 -12. 2009 by CLEVISTON HUNTE BA (HONS) MSW

2. INTRODUCTION • Building a just, peaceful and safe society means helping people to maximize their potential in various domains. • What do we know about the challenges that ordinary OFFENDERS face? • What is the PO’s role in promoting an agenda for peace and change, especially in troubled communities?

3. OVERVIEW • What do we know about how best to foster the community rehabilitation process? • What principles and guidelines that should guide in the rehabilitation and reintegration pf offenders?

4. OVERVIEW • Rates of imprisonment are compared per 100,000 population • England and Wales =144 • Scotland =141 • Canada =107 • Ireland =72 • USA =754 • Cayman =391

5. OVERVIEW • Scottish Centre for crime and Justice Research data: • Prisoners were 13 times more likely to have been in care as a child • 13 times more likely to be unemployed • 10 times more likely to have been a truant at school • 70% using drugs before coming to prison

6. COST OF IMPRISONMENT • High cost – financial and social • Less capital to invest in welfare • Low levels of trust and high levels of insecurity • Questions around who is going to prison, for how long and whether sentencing is having a deterrent effect

7. WHY INTERVENTION • Public discussion on how society should treat the perpetrators of domestic violence based on the Retributive versus rehabilitative approach. • Would a form of community sanction be desirable and appropriate? • Should perpetrators of Domestic Violence be viewed as innately vicious criminals who should be punished to the full extent of the law for their crimes? • Or, should DV be considered as a complex psycho-social and legal issue?

8. OVERVIEW

9. PAU Statistics: Marital Status

10. RELATIONSHIP TO VICTIM

11. WHY REHABILITATION

12. STOPPING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE– A COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH. An evaluation of the Men’s Non-Violence Intervention Programme in the Cayman Islands PRESENTERS CLEVISTON HUNTE BA (HONS) MSW & KARLENE BRAMWELL, BSc(Hons)

13. INTRODUCTION • The paper explores: • the use of a cognitive behavioural methodology in group-work treatment of male perpetrators of domestic violence in the Cayman Islands • Suggests that this approach is an innovative strategy that can result in a reduction of the incidences of domestic abuse • DVIP assist in the creation of more healthy and stable family units

14. INTRODUCTION • The Paper argues: • For a shift in the traditional paradigm where domestic violence has largely been conceptualised and treated as an individualized crime • That rather than specific legal redress, there is a need to adopt a community intervention to realistically address the problem.

15. SITUATIONAL CONTEXT • Current research findings suggest: • The incidence of DV is removed from notions of patriarchy • Firmly rooted in the socio-cultural practices • The ways that men and women have been socialized into gender roles • Beliefs about power and control • Issues around unequal social, economic, and political arrangements in the society.

16. SITUATIONAL CONTEXT • Central Thesis of the programme: • DV is a systemic form of domination and social control of men over women • Treatment might lie in a systematic and concentrated exploration of the complex socialization process and resultant belief system that determines the actions and existence of many perpetrators in their intimate relationships.

17. SITUATIONAL CONTEXT • The major thesis: • is whether the DVIP as a community based intervention using a cognitive behavioural programme methodology can have an impact in assisting male perpetrators to unlearn dysfunctional and faulty thinking and to equip them with the knowledge and skills that will increase awareness of the rationale for their abusive behaviour and to release their potential to eliminate violence in their domestic situation.

18. REFERRAL PROCESS

19. Objectives for Men’s Non-Violence Programme • Identify goals to reach a non-violent lifestyle • Identify abusive behaviour and each member’s pattern of abuse • Explore the intents of abusive behaviour and the belief system that supports those behaviours • Understand the connection of painful and negative feelings to beliefs about women’s and men’s roles.

20. Objectives for Men’s Non-Violence Programme • Identify the function and extent of member’s minimizing, denying or blaming • Fully explore the impact of violent and abusive behaviors on partners, children and class members • Identify and practice non abusive behaviors

21. COGNITIVE BEHAVIOUR Mahoney and Arnkoff (1978) points out that there are three major classes of cognitive behaviour therapy each with slightly different classes of change goals – • cognitive restructuring, • coping skills therapies • problem solving therapies.

22. STAGES OF CHANGE Miller et al (1995): • Pre-contemplation - refers to those people who do not intend to make any changes in their life. • Contemplation – a person starts to recognise the costs and benefits and begins to consider the idea of change. • Preparation – a person makes the decision to change and thinks about how to make a change. • Action – a person begins to change their behaviour and actively use and generate strategies to help initiate that change. • Maintenance - once a person has been successful in making and maintaining a change for a period of at least three months.

23. TRACER ASSESSMENT • Measures the efficacy of the programme in the short and the long term. • Through focus on the task and process of the group as a means of ensuring that the programme objectives were being met • Focus on cognitive and attitudinal change that leads to an absence of violent behaviour in the participants’ intimate relationships.

24. TRACER ASSESSMENT • The findings are important in that: • Provide useful preliminary baseline data for the programme providers • Provides some insight as to the effectiveness and short term impact of the programme on participants.

25. FINDINGS

26. FINDINGS • Quality of Relationship prior to DVIP

27. FINDINGS • Quality of Relationship after DVIP

28. FINDINGS • Behaviour change since involved in DVIP

29. CONCLUSION • The participants self reports suggest several positive changes: • Learnt new skills • They have been using these skills more frequently in their relationships. • Consequently, there seemed to have been an improvement in the quality of their relationships. • Decrease in the number of incidents involving domestic violence although more than 56% were still involved in a relationship with victim • Decrease in the number of police visits to the household for incidents involving domestic abuse.

30. CONCLUSION • For future • Further research to exploring some bi-variate analysis • Tracing all participants of the DVIP to measure level of implementation/internalization of concepts taught • Expand research to include the views of complainants/partners

31. THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION Zero tolerance for domestic abuse