Research

Survivor Perspectives of Their Abusive Partner’s Battering Intervention Program Contact

In this collaborative research project, Rich Tolman, PhD, and I explore the most frequent criminal legal system (CLS) sanction holding men accountable for their violence against women — court-ordering those convicted of domestic violence to attend a battering intervention program (BIP). However, BIPs’ long-term effectiveness remains in question, with concerns that BIPs are too closely aligned with policing and the courts, contribute to racial disparities in CLS involvement, and may not maximize survivor safety. Therefore, I am currently interviewing women whose abusive partners or former partners were court-ordered to a community-based BIP after harming them. From these interviews, we aim to understand the broad impact of women’s abusive partner’s BIP contact on the lives of the women and their children. By centering the perspectives of those who have been harmed our work will contribute to reimagining formal systems’ responses to intimate partner violence.