HAMILTON ABUSE INTERVENTION PILOT PROJECT, MEN'S EDUCATION PROGRAMME

Family Violence: Prevention in the 1990's, 1-6 September 1991, Christchurch, New Zealand,Conference Proceedings Vol.1, (Family Violence Prevention Co-ordinating Committee, Wellington), contains a background paper by Chief Inspector Dave Smith. His description of a programme in place in Duluth, Minnesota, includes the following paragraph:

´finally, the conviction rate for domestic violence increased markedly, partly because the victim had support through the court process, but also because the existence of help in the form of the education programme as a sentence for conviction, which led an increasing proportion of men to plead guilty. (A guilty plea means sentence to the programme as a chance to change.) In the first year of operation, 98 percent of the cases that went to court resulted in a finding of domestic abuse, generally after only a short hearing. This is because of a guilty plea and/or because of the extra evidence available through the monitoring group's efforts in improving Police and other agency awareness and training." (pages 52-3)

For criticism and suggested revision of the Duluth approach, see Tom Graves on the Duluth Wheel.

An approach similar to that used in Duluth appears to have been applied in HAIPP. It is gender specific. We can see this from appendices B and C of Robertson N, Busch R, Ave K and Balzer R (October 1991) The Hamilton Abuse Intervention Pilot Project: The First Three Months, Family Violence Prevention Co-ordinating Committee. Appendix B contains the documentation for the "Assailant/Men's Programme", and appendix C the documents for the "Victim/Women's Programme". Appendix B includes a form letter including the following:

" ... the Judge directed you to attend a men's education programme to address issues around your violence. ... there is provision to summons you to attend the Men's Education Programme. ... You have one week from receipt of this letter to contact the Men's Programme Co-ordinator, HAIPP, ... Please co-operate with him."

Appendix C contains letters informing women about women's groups offering support, about options for women who have been abused (criminal charges, orders for protection, safe space [refuges, etc.]), and so on.

While all these approaches may be valuable, they are so gender-specific that it is hardly surprising that, of the assailants in the HAIPP database, "98% are male and 99% are female" [page 2 of Robertson N R and Busch R (August 1993) Two Year Review, the HAIPP Monitoring Team, University of Waikato]

It is also perhaps understandable why there has been such an increase in reported cases of family violence by men (look here).

Stuart Birks

Last modified, 27 December 1995