Citation

Pattabhiraman T, Kyalwazi M, Shore K. University of California at Berkeley. Berkeley, CA, USA: California Initiative for Health Equity and Action, 2021.

Copyright

(Copyright 2021, University of California at Berkeley)

The full document is available online.

Abstract

More than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) and 1 in 4 men (28.5%) in the United States report experiencing a form of intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetimes, and women of color, especially Indigenous and Black women, report this at higher rates.1 Despite the widespread impact of IPV, public health-oriented programs and initiatives to intervene before violence occurs are not widely available and used, or they are largely understudied and underfunded. Currently, batterer intervention programs (BIPs) serve as the primary intervention for those who cause harm and are designed to hold individuals who cause harm accountable and engage them in changing their behaviors. In California, these programs are mandated and overseen by law enforcement agencies, which results in these programs having a criminal-legal orientation. Over the past several years, other states have innovated in the delivery of BIPs by implementing public health-oriented practices and policies that may have a greater impact on preventing the recurrence of IPV. In this report, we examine these innovative, public health-oriented practices and policies that California could learn from to re-imagine how to prevent IPV across the state.

Policy Recommendations:
1. Invest in mitigating structural risk factors for partner violence.
2. Increase pathways for early intervention.
3. Establish an agency within the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) that is responsible for collaborating with stakeholders and overseeing IPV prevention and intervention efforts.
4. Initiate dedicated state funding for community-based organizations (CBOs) to implement intervention programs and provide wraparound support.
5. Reimagine intervention programs to be restorative and culturally-specific.
6. Collect and evaluate program outcome measures