In agreement with the moderators on this list, I don't want to prolong this theme of recent exchanges, yet as a counselor who has worked with offenders, I really take exception to folks trashing rehabilitation and opposing the desire of some to discuss this vital piece of making victim's lives more secure. I am grateful we have had the opportunity to look at this critical issue and would welcome additional discussion in the future. (Maybe we should take a break from it right about now, though).
Battered women repeatedly ask what can be done about their male partners, and ignoring this would be a serious strategic error (besides contradicting a basic premise of feminism: namely, to listen to women's voices rather than imposing our own agendas as helpers). I continue to be deeply appreciative of the contributions of others on this list (from whom I have learned a lot) such as Qiyamah Rahman's information about how culturally sensitive practice shapes intervention with domestic violence offenders. In response to Marya Hart, I would argue that the victim is in grave danger whether or not there is a psycho-social (in addition to a judicial) intervention undertaken with the perpetrator. Moreover, most seasoned victims' advocates by now have come to realize that intervention with victims without regard for perpetrators is much more likely to result in failure (re-victimization) than when he is monitored as well in a program working in tandem with victims' resources. This is why so many shelters for battered women run programs for domestic violence offenders; this is why even women's aid in the UK has moved away from its previous position of criticizing or disregarding altogether these perpetrator programs. It is also why practically every state and province in North America have drafted standards for batterer intervention and prevention programs, initiated in most cases by committees with a strong participation of battered women's advocates. Rather than dismiss the important topic of why men batter and what to do about that, I highly recommend raising our awareness on this problem beyond overly simplified responses. One book I have read and recommend on this topic was edited by Michele Harway and Jams O'Neil titled "What Causes Men's Violence Against Women?" (Sage Publications, 1999) with a forward by U. S. senator Joseph Biden, Jr., who introduced the crucial Violence Against Women's Act in the U.S. --the single most important act supporting an array of domestic violence resources in that country, BTW. Far from a waste of time, all of us can learn a great deal from this exploration. If other countries have fewer offender rehab programs, it is not because that is seen as antithetical to victim safety, but rather because of a lack of resources and a lack of knowledge about how to design, implement and run such services. I know this from the "Enough is Enough" conference I attended recently in London, England, where victims' advocates presented from many places, including Africa and India. In conclusion, I will just take a few sentences from an article that is in press and will appear in the July issue of the Journal of Interpersonal violence: Michelle Bograd (1994, p. 595) has written of the importance for facilitators to know how to "balance the batterer as simultaneously wounding and wounded." Oliver Williams (1998) notes that healing is intrinsic to the legacy of slavery and an essential construct in the process for African American men who have assaulted their intimate partners. Facilitators working with African-American men have reported that they must address racism before they can focus on partner abuse, and that a "Black curriculum" enables African-American men "to construct their own existence and reality" (Healey, Smith & O'Sullivan, 1998, pp 68-69). A prescription for holistic healing and restorative justice as essential with a population's experiences of colonization is prominent in domestic violence work with Latinos (Carillo & Goubaud-Reyna, 1998), African-Americans (Williams, 1998), First Nations peoples in Canada (Canadian Council on Social Development, 1993; Wood, 1992), and American Indians throughout the United States (National Institute of Justice, 1998). Battered gay men and members of a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) task force in a recent Texas community audit of domestic violence resources reported that interventions with offending men should never result in their ostracism from their community. From this diverse span of culturally sensitive counseling, it would seem instructive to consider how the curricula of programs for minority offender populations might hold out potential lessons for those in the non-minority population. It seems pertinent to ask why their directives are less relevant for other programs. Juergen Dankwort Vancouver, B.C., Canada ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
