OAR 137-087-0050
Intervention Curriculum
(1)
Basic Intervention Curriculum Requirements. Challenging and confronting participant beliefs and behaviors shall be balanced by creating a safe and respectful environment for change. To accord with these standards, a curriculum for batterers shall include, but is not limited to, the following basic requirements:(a)
Addressing belief systems that legitimize and sustain battering of women and abuse of children;(b)
Informing participants about the types of battering as defined in OAR 137-087-0005 (Definitions)(2);(c)
Challenging participants to identify the patterns of their battering behaviors and all tactics used to justify battering such as denial, victim blaming, and minimizing; increasing participant recognition of the criminal aspect of his thoughts and behavior; reinforcing participant identification and acceptance of personal responsibility and accountability for all such tactics; and reinforcing alternatives to non-battering behavior;(d)
Encouraging participants to identify the cultural factors that are used by a batterer to legitimize both individual acts of abuse and control and battering as a whole;(e)
Modeling respectful and egalitarian behaviors and attitudes;(f)
Increasing participants’ understanding and acceptance of the adverse legal, interpersonal and social consequences of battering;(g)
Increasing the participants’ overall understanding of the effects of battering upon their victims, themselves, and their community, and encouraging participants to go beyond the minimum requirements of the law in providing victims and their children with financial support and restitution for the losses caused by their battering;(h)
Identifying the effects on children of battering directed at their mothers, including but not limited to the incompatibility of the participant’s battering with the child’s well-being, the damage done to children witnessing battering, and educating participants about the child’s need for a close mother-child bond, nurturance, age-appropriate interactions, and safety;(i)
Encouraging participants to recognize the responsibility of being a father including the emotional, physical and financial support necessary to provide an environment to children that encourages growth and stability;(j)
Facilitating participants’ examination of values and beliefs that are used to justify and excuse battering;(k)
Requiring participants to speak with respect about their partners and other women, and challenging participants to respect their partner and other women and to recognize their partner and other women as equals who have the right to make their own choices;(l)
Encouraging empathy and awareness of the effect of participants’ behavior on others;(m)
Challenging participants to accept personal responsibility and accountability for their actions;(n)
Encouraging participants to challenge and change their own battering beliefs and behaviors; and(o)
Identifying how the participant uses alcohol and other drugs to support battering behaviors.(2)
Accountability Plan. A BIP shall require every participant to develop an Accountability Plan (Plan), and a BIP’s curriculum which shall provide information that a participant can use to develop his Plan. Accountability planning is an ongoing process intended to increase the batterer’s self-awareness, honesty and acceptance of responsibility for battering and its consequences. A participant’s Plan shall include specific and concrete steps to be identified and implemented by the participant. A BIP shall always prioritize the safety and best interests of the victim when teaching and reporting on accountability planning. Under no circumstances may the terms of a Plan require, or imply authorization of or permission for, conduct that violates the terms of a court order or other legally binding requirements.(3)
Elements of the Plan. The Plan shall include, but need not be limited to, the following elements:(a)
Description of the conduct to stop and to be accountable for, including:(A)
Description of the specific actions that caused harm, including the entire range of attempts used to control and dominate the victim(s) or partner(s), specific actions that led to the participant being in the BIP, and the participant’s intentions or purposes in choosing those actions.(B)
Identification of the beliefs, values, and thinking patterns the participant used:(i)
To prepare himself and plan to batter;(ii)
To justify his battering to himself and to others;(iii)
To blame other persons and circumstances outside his control for his battering; and(iv)
To minimize and deny his battering, its harmful effects, and his personal accountability and responsibility for the battering and its effects.(C)
Identification of the full range of effects and consequences of the battering on the victim(s), partner(s), children, the community and the participant.(b)
Participant’s plan for choosing to treat his former, current or future partner(s) and children in a continually respectful and egalitarian manner, including:(A)
Description of the excuses and underlying beliefs used to justify his battering;(B)
Description of the participant’s plan for intervening in his battering to prevent himself from continuing his pattern of battering;(C)
Description of battering the participant is currently addressing and how he is utilizing his Plan;(D)
Description of how the participant is intervening in his battering including the excuses, beliefs and behaviors he is addressing;(E)
Description of how the participant will choose to act in ways that no longer cause harm to the victim(s), partner(s), children and the community;(F)
Description of how the participant will take responsibility for choosing to act in ways that no longer cause harm to the victim(s), partner(s), children and the community;(G)
Description of the thoughts, beliefs and actions the participant shall need to change to become non-abusive and non-controlling, and a description of alternative thoughts, beliefs and actions he can use to make non-abusive and non-controlling choices; and(H)
Description of the thoughts, beliefs and actions that the participant uses in other areas of his life that demonstrate that he is already aware and capable of making responsible non-abusive and non-controlling choices.(c)
Acceptance of full responsibility for the participant’s choices and their consequences, including:(A)
Acknowledgement that the participant’s actions causing harm to the victim(s), partner(s), children and the community were his choice, that he had other options, and that he is fully accountable for his choices and the consequences of those choices for himself and others;(B)
Acceptance of full responsibility for having brought the criminal justice system into his life, if applicable, and for other consequences of his behaviors; and(C)
Participant’s plan for beginning and continuing to make reparation and restitution for the harms caused, either directly to the victim(s) if appropriate, approved by the victim(s), and not manipulative, or indirectly by anonymous donation or community service when the victim wants no contact with the participant.
Source:
Rule 137-087-0050 — Intervention Curriculum, https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/view.action?ruleNumber=137-087-0050.