Genre
: Family Relationship
Authors
: Melanie F. Shepard
Features
: SAGE Publications, paperback
This book presents a guide to the development of a coordinated community response to domestic assault, based on the Duluth Model and on the perspectives of practitioners, scholars, and researchers. The introduction describes the Duluth Model from its origins in 1980, including its accomplishments in developing a mandatory arrest policy, and creating an educational curriculum for batterers that focuses on power and control as the purpose and function of battering. The individual chapters detail the eight crucial components of a successful community intervention project. These components include : (1) creating a philosophical approach that makes victim safety central; (2) developing policies and protocols for intervention agencies, based on best practices; (3) enhancing networking among service providers; (4) building monitoring and tracking into the system; (5) ensuring a supportive community infrastructure for battered women; (6) providing sanctions and rehabilitative opportunities for offenders; (7) undoing the harm that violence to women does to children; and (8) evaluating the coordinated community response from the standpoint of victim safety. Other chapters discuss the types of violence that have been most difficult to address in providing a community response, including the use of violence by women and marital rape. Two chapters discuss the replication and adaptation of coordinated community responses in England, Australia, and New Zealand.