Resources around our Guiding Principles

1) Survivor Voices are Centered

Intimate partner violence can cause harm to victim/survivors in many ways: physically, mentally, emotionally, and economically. Safety and healing should be defined by the victim/survivor and abusive partner intervention and engagement strategies should collaborate with community-based victim advocates and victim/survivors to understand and address identified needs.

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2) Accountability is Active and Relational

Intimate partner violence impacts not only the victim/survivor but also family, friend, and community relationships. Because of this, intervention and engagement of abusive partners should address the many relational harms of violence. Accountability is both personal and systemic. System and community-based agencies should create multiple pathways to accountability and identify and remedy the barriers they have created for abusive partners and survivors to safety and accountability. Accountability also requires an abusive partner to be an active participant in both identifying, taking responsibility for and, where possible, repairing the harm and violence of their thoughts and actions.

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3) Hope and Dignity are Restored

Abusive partner intervention and engagement strategies should create spaces for change, safety, and well-being for the abusive partner and the victim/survivor. Recognizing the science of hope and the need to create pathways and agency to develop and reach one’s goals, intervention and engagement strategies should treat each abusive partner with dignity and respect, valuing their commitment to change and their experiences while including support and skill-building for the abusive partner to address the harm and violence and create goals for healthy, violent-free relationships.

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4) Culture and Community are Reflected and Valued

Addressing the harms of intimate partner violence requires collaboration between system and community-based agencies to create abusive partner intervention and engagement strategies that will create safe and healthy intimate partner, family, peer, and community relationships. To do so, these intervention and engagement strategies should create pathways to change and safety that reflect the diversity of the community, the intersectionality of the individuals, and the community, cultural, and personal values that support healthy and safe relationships.

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5) Interventions and Engagement Strategies Respond to the Needs And Strengths of Abusive Partners

Abusive partners may have varying levels of past trauma and criminogenic risks and needs that influence their abuse and their pathways to change. While past trauma is not an excuse for using violence and inflicting violence on intimate partners, addressing past harms and traumas can allow for creating specific, person-centered, trauma and research-informed interventions and engagement strategies. These strategies should also focus on engaging participants’ inherent strengths to effect positive behavior change.

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Trauma
Women Who Use Force
Working with Young People Who Cause Harm
Fatherhood