A Cost-Benefit Study, Logic Model and Assessment Tools for a Restorative Justice Domestic Violence Treatment Program

Traditional court-mandated Batterer Intervention Programs (BIPs) bring groups of batterers together to hold them accountable for their actions. However, new research raises questions about the effectiveness of BIPs in addressing domestic violence. The Center on Violence and Recovery (CVR) at New York University developed a restorative justice-based treatment and healing modality called Circles of Peace. In 2005, The Center was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to conduct a randomized controlled trial of the Circles of Peace program in Arizona and a typical BIP. The Capstone team conducted a comparative cost-benefit analysis of the two programs based on the randomized controlled trial and analyzed the viability of the Circles of Peace approach (there are currently no comparable published cost-benefit studies of domestic violence intervention programs). Additionally, the team developed a logic model and assessment tools for Circles of Peace to allow for ongoing evaluation as it experiments with program delivery.