Holding-Abusers-Accountable-Notes - Pauktuutit

Presenters: Gregory While, Kate Wiggins, Myles Ball and Lisa Heslop
Country: United States of America/Canada
Holding Abusers Accountable - An advocate once said “There are two prospective in violence
prevention; we can’t stop the abuse of women until we stop the men who are abusing them.”
Batterers Programs started in the 1970s in the United States. The programs focused on men’s individual
behaviors. Most were focused on men and their anger, and so emphasis was put on anger
management. A question that was most asked is the on why is his target always on his partner? This is
a tactic often used to control partners. Situations such as stress, poverty, lack of education, alcohol and
drugs, trauma and learned behavior are just a few examples of what leads to violent behaviors. Why do
men abuse? The simple answer is because he chooses to. Batterer’s program standards were being
set up in the 1990s. The programs listened to battered women, advocates and started to develop
programs based on the battered women’s movement. The first program in New York State was in
1978. There were ongoing conversations of the oversights of local, states, and national battered
women’s movement.
What was learned from the battered women’s advocates led to the New York Model as it exists today.
The New York Model provides services to civil and criminal courts. It is critical that:
not be used as a diversion from a more serious consequence,
court order to attend only when the court is willing and able to issue additional sanctions for
non compliance, and
voluntary attendees are not accepted.
The role of the Batterers Program is to provide the court with an opportunity to assess a man’s
willingness to take his court order seriously and accountability. The staff development of the program
includes staff supervision, staff meetings, staff development, and also stands as a member of the local
domestic violence coalition.
Men’s Accountability in Two Voices is based in London, Ontario, Canada. The premise is that victims are
safer when their partner is provided with support. Community based support includes:
engaging natural support systems as well as professional help,
working with a collaborative framework,
shared understanding of what contributes to static risk versus dynamic risk, and
development of a module that has heard from experiences of both abusers and victims.
The project is a development of a community based model to screen dynamic risk. It provides support
to high risk victims of domestic violence, and supports men facing charges of violence offence during
their involvement in the criminal justice system. The Pilot project of the eligibility criteria includes:
a person charged with domestic offences,
they were not incarcerated, and
they were not eligible for early intervention.

Providing services to the accused is centered on keeping the victim safe. The principle involves 3 key
beliefs: they dynamic risk factors are amenable to intervention, isolation is a compounding factor for risk
and that community supports are central to minimizing risk for families in domestic violence. The
presenters then went and talked about statistics of participant men involving various factors such as
employment, annual income, education, marital status/children, the different charges, substance
abuse, mental health, supports to the accused and the key findings of the project.