While the Idaho Council on Domestic Violence and Victim Assistance (ICDVVA) has certain language regarding "intervention" and "treatment" for the purpose of this article, the word "treatment" will be used simply to describe the court-mandated interactions in the clinical setting for domestic abusers. All treatment and therapy needs to be client-centered, and the clinician needs to use their individual skills and assessments to determine how to be most effective with clients. What follows is simply one tool / method I've found to help me as a clinician fulfill the mandates of accountability and to sort through the often non-linear, error-laden thinking of clients surrounding their criminal offenses and abusive behaviors within the particular program I work with.
As of the writing of this article, the ICDVVA guidelines on Domestic Batterer Treatment state that treatment, or intervention, courses are to consist of a minimum of 52 ninety-minute sessions. Generally this takes place over 52 weeks with the expectation that these will be completed within 15 months of sentencing. Abusers typically have some deeply ingrained thinking errors and negative-core beliefs about themselves, responsibility for behaviors, relationships and others, that it easily takes three to six months just to begin to see some acceptance of beliefs other than their own or insight into their own thought processes.
Group therapy is recognized as one of the most effective modes of treatment for criminal behavior as it allows offenders who have progressed farther in treatment to model healthy behavior for newer members, as well as providing additional insight, experience and accountability factors with the combined group experience that simply can't be provided in an individual setting regardless of the therapist's credentials and experience. Additionally, many offenders would prefer individual therapy so as to avoid having to feel exposed to others, believing that their offenses were unique and therefore require special treatment - all in an effort to continue to escape responsibility for their actions and in an attempt to avoid seeing themselves "like other criminals" and be confronted with the reality of their offenses - common to narcissist thinking and traits.
As part of the intake procedures for treatment it is strongly recommended that the therapist obtain a copy of the police incident report for the instant offense, and a domestic batterers evaluation where possible.
In my training and experience I've found that the police reports are an indispensible part of treatment and my professional reccomendation is that treatment providers do not allow individuals to start treatment without receiving all that are available for their violent offenses. The reasons for this are several fold.
First, central features of abusive behavior are dishonesty, denial, minimization, rationalization and blame. With a police report, a therapist can actually confront an abuser on the actual offense rather than relying on the abuser's account, and the desire to avoid accountability for their behaviors, and thereby confront thinking errors and a host of other criminogenic thinking - all a part of developing accountability.
But a central part of the treatment that I've learned to use is the "processing" (cognitively) of the abuser's police incident reports.
With a 52 session sentence, the processing is typically done about the halfway point when possible, about 26 weeks, but typically not before.
Up until that time, they will have seen other's process their police reports, have had significant time to participate and learn the different types of abuse and thinking errors associated with their abuse. The actual processing consists of a time when the therapist reads the relevant parts of their police report and the victim's statements and the investigation out loud in the group. The therapist will ask them to elaborate on their thinking at the time, how it impacted their victim, controlling behaviors through the report.
This is important for several reasons - one of the main being that this is often the first time in their lives where they haven't gotten to control what others hear about the offense and abusive behavior or how it's presented in its entirety - for those who have power and control issues and narcissistic tendencies and traits, this can be very critical to their growth and development.
But in addition to having it presented, it gives them a chance to demonstrate what they've learned in treatment about abusive behaviors, the impact on victims, and victim thinking, and apply it specifically to their own case and all aspects relevant to the expected outcomes of treatment. It gives them a chance to be accountable, as well as for others who may be thinking that they are "different" to see the common patterns of abuse in a real-life setting beyond simply having material from a textbook or homework presented. This experience is where senior-group members being accountable is an excellent modeling tool for those newer to treatment.
Additionally, as abusers often have a tendency to discredit others' views because they "aren't correct" or exactly the way they remember it they are therefore invalid and once again the abuser becomes the "victim" (another symptom of power and control issues). Having the police reports with the different interpretations gives the abusers a chance to experience having to sit through listening to someone else's views and experiences without being able to change and control the narrative - as well as demonstrate accountability or even experience remorse as they will often add and share details that aren't in the reports.
Unfortunately, there are times when individuals may go to process their police report and may still be engaging in thinking errors and impression management. Often with heavy and chronic substance use and abuse issues, or even simply lower functioning individuals, non-linear thinking or even attempts to avoid accountability with irrelevant details in an attempt to confuse others so as to avoid dealing with their behaviors is a common issue.
At this point I've found an invaluable tool in the clinic is a large (as large as I could find) white-board with dry erase markers (as many colors as I can find). When I begin to hear signs and symptoms of unaccountability or attempts to avoid responsibility or even difficulties following linear thinking, I've found it helpful to begin writing their statements on the board for everyone to see (and even use different colors for different aspects/thoughts/issues). This allows them the opportunity to see what they are saying and focus on accountable use of language, severely cuts down on the ability to deny or blame (or other thinking errors), but also have the relevant lessons applied to their thinking, or any contradictions spelled out right in front of them as well as for the rest of the group.
But in addition to this, I've found that making a time-line of their accounts allows me to further pin down any inconsistencies or attempts to dissemble in group as well as get a better idea of where they are cognitively - and compare the timeline to the police incident reports - and it gives them a visual so that they can understand what they may need to focus on in order to make treatment successful for them. Or, it can provide the therapist a visual as to why this particular treatment may not be effective for them (especially if they are still blaming the victim or resistant to treatment still) and they may need to be referred out try another approach (e.g. Moral Recognition Therapy) or why it may be recommended that their treatment be extended so they can learn the required principles from treatment to successfully graduate.
The processing of the police report can take multiple 90-minute sessions depending on what else needs to be addressed in the session or depending on the needs of the group.
After the processing of the police report, a review of their self-reported abusive behaviors on the RAVEN/Violence and Abuse Inventory in their intake packet is performed with the group being asked to be able to identify how each of the acknowledged behaviors is a form of abuse and what type of abuse it is (i.e. emotional, blocking, physical, threats, intimidation, economic etc.).
As always, there is no silver bullet to develop accountability or even stop abuse. However, most clients I have seen, who have reported feeling that their time in treatment is a success, state that the processing of their police reports, as well as the time to focus on them individually within the group and focus on their specific case and history were invaluable to them. While the processing of the police report is a required part of treatment in the program I work in, the use of the white-board may be done on an as-needed basis, with the additional bonus that I can use what's on the board for my progress reports.
In the end, there are often sensitive parts in the police report that are not appropriate to share in group or may be irrelevant to their abusive behaviors (e.g. gender identity issues). The processing of police incident reports, like most other practices in therapy, is something that's best learned from someone who has experience in making it a successful part of the treatment process and I wouldn't recommend it be done without it. However, when it comes to client-based therapy and identifying issues central to their thinking and history, as well as identifying whether or not treatment is working or cutting through the issues for more resistant or difficult clients, the processing of the police incident reports combined with the use of the visual of the white board can be one of the more effective tools in developing accountability in treatment for domestic violence.
