CJAD Approved Hours: 1

To build knowledge of the development of the BIPP model

To identify programs that have shaped BIPP philosophies

To identify the connection of BIPPs and the Battered Women’s Movement

To outline foundational and developing philosophies about BIP Programming

The majority of Battering Intervention Programs in Texas were created under the umbrella of battered women’s shelters.

The organizing and political efforts of domestic violence advocates have played a crucial role in the creation and funding of BIP programs.

Battering Intervention and Prevention Programs were developed from the philosophy that male privilege and entitlement were root causes of family violence and traits that needed to be challenged.

BIPPs were encouraged by battered women and their advocates. In addition to requesting mandatory arrest and prosecution for batterers, advocates also wanted accountability building systems.

Mederos & Perilla wrote “the goals of these programs were 1) to help men stop violent and abusive behavior, and 2) to take into account the safety of adult victims and their children.*

* http://endabuse.org/bpi/discussion2/Discussion2-long.pdf.

Late in the 1970’s, four programs emerged and led the BIPP movement. These programs worked in partnership with the development of battered women’s shelters. While BIPP programs have not grown as recognizable as shelters for family violence victims’ the idea of batterer accountability, social change and safety for victims has always been in place.

The following programs were pioneers in the development of BIPP programming and philosophy:

EmergeAmendRavenDomestic Abuse Intervention Program

EMERGE was founded in 1977 in Boston and claims to be the first abuser education program in the United States.

EMERGE seeks to educate individual men who batter, prevent young people from accepting violence in their relationships, improve institutional responses to domestic violence and increase public awareness about the causes of and solutions to violence against women.

EMERGE teaches that domestic violence is a learned behavior, not a disease or sickness.

EMERGE supports grassroots, institutional and cultural efforts to stop partner violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

EMERGE recognizes that other oppressive life circumstances such as poverty, racism and homophobia create a climate that contributes to partner violence.

*Adapted from www.emergedv.com

RAVEN was founded in 1978 in St. Louis, Missouri.

The program grew from a handful of men from St. Louis who met at the National Conference on Men and Masculinity in Iowa in the mid 70’s.

Upon returning home, they continued to meet and organized the

Fourth Conference on Men and Masculinity. RAVEN grew out of this conference.

The male founders of RAVEN had a common concern and anger about the violence targeted at women close to them.

They resolved that if men were to stop being violent then it would be because men were stopping it.

RAVEN was operated solely by men until 1994.

*Adapted from www.ravenstl.org

AMEND was created in 1977 in Denver, CO.

AMEND began as a nonprofit pilot program to provide intervention with men whose partners had sought shelter.

In 1987, AMEND added a victim services component to provide advocacy and promote victim safety.

The philosophy of AMEND’s treatment is centered around responsibility: we are responsible for what we feel, how we act, and the consequences of our actions.

Adapted from www.amendinc.org

DAIP is an interagency program commonly referred to as the “Duluth Model.”

The Duluth Model was conceived and implemented in Minnesota in 1980.

The city of Duluth was identified as the best city to try to bring criminal and civil justice agencies together to work in a collaborative way to respond to domestic abuse cases.

Eleven agencies were initially identified to collaborate: 911, police, sheriff's and prosecutor’s offices, probation, the criminal and civil courts, the local battered women’s shelter, three mental health agencies, and a newly created coordinating organization called the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP).

*Adapted from www.theduluthmodel.org

The Duluth Model is built on the idea that public intervention in domestic violence cases should include several key elements:

o protect victims of ongoing abuse (battering); o hold perpetrators and intervening practitioners accountable for victim safety;o offer offenders an opportunity to change (including punishment if it enhances

victim safety)o ensure due process for offenders through the intervention process ando focus of intervention is on stopping the violence, not on fixing or ending

interpersonal relationships.

DAIP’s philosophy is that battering is a form of domestic violence that entails a patterned use of coercion and intimidation, including violence and other related forms of abuse, whether legal or illegal (tactics identified in the Power and Control Wheel).

Adapted from www.theduluthmodel.org

DAIP believes:

To be successful, initiatives must distinguish between, and respond differently to, domestic violence that constitute battering and cases that do not and adjust those interventions to the severity of the violence.

Interventions must account for the economic, cultural, and personal histories of the individuals who become abuse cases in the system.

Both victims and offenders are members of the community; while they must each act to change the conditions of their lives, the community must treat both with respect and dignity and recognize the social causes of their personal circumstances.

Adapted from www.theduluthmodel.org

If we know the history behind the development of BIPPs, we are more likely to address the current struggles around issues of race, sexual orientation, class and social change and continue to put victim safety first.

BIPP was founded on the idea that male privilege and entitlement were key elements in abusive, intimate relationships and that those elements need to be challenged.

As facilitators, it is your duty to challenge male privilege and entitlement and hold batterers accountable for their violence.

The goals, as written by Mederos & Perilla, of BIPP are to: 1) help men stop violent and abusive behavior2) to take into account the safety of adult victims and their children.

There were four pioneer programs that led the movement for BIPPs: EMERGE, AMEND, RAVEN and Domestic Abuse Intervention Program (DAIP).

EMERGE believes that family violence is a learned behavior, not a disease or illness.

RAVEN was originally founded by men and believed that if men were going to stop being violent to women, it would be because men were stopping it.

AMEND originally was created to provide intervention with men whose partners were seeking shelter to escape family violence.

DAIP was the first program designed to specifically bring criminal and civil justice agencies together to collectively respond to family violence in the community.