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Guidelines for Schools on Addressing Teen Dating Violence

Intervention with Adolescent Male Perpetrators of Dating and/or Domestic Violence

Background and Purpose:

All school based programs for the adolescent perpetrator of dating or family violence or programs for the youth at risk should follow the suggestions outlined in the previous section of these Guidelines. Specifically, programs should adopt the definition of teen dating violence cited in these Guidelines and institute components A-E (outlined on pages 3-5) of a comprehensive program for addressing teen dating violence.

The purpose of these pilot program specifications is to establish guidelines for creating and operating intervention programs for adolescent males who perpetrate abuse or are at risk for perpetrating abuse against dating partners, female relatives, female school staff or students and/or female household members.

The goals of the education and intervention program for the adolescent perpetrator of dating or domestic violence or programs for the youth at risk of perpetrating teen dating violence are the cessation and prevention of coercive, dominating and violent behavior and the safety of the victim(s).

The most effective intervention methodology when working with adolescents is group sessions, whose purpose is to educate the adolescent, help them become responsible for their behavior and to monitor their behavior. These specifications are recommended for groups for adolescent male perpetrators of violence against female dating partners, relatives, or household members or the male youth at risk.

At a minimum, the adolescent should attend a 12-week program. There should also be one or more individual intake sessions of 1 to 2 hours. The maximum size of an intervention group should be 10 adolescent participants.

Definition of Adolescent Victims

The term victim may refer to dating partners and/or other females subjected to emotional, physical, psychological or sexual abuse or harassment by an adolescent male.See Appendix B

Definition of Adolescent Perpetrators

An adolescent perpetrator of teen dating and/or domestic violence will be considered appropriate for intervention services if he is between 11 and 18 years old and he:

• has a 209A restraining order against him; or
• has used a pattern of controlling behaviors, or perpetrated an act of violence or abuse, on a female victim
• admits he has a problem with his behaviors and/or attitudes towards females

See Appendix B

Definition of Adolescent Youth at Risk for Dating or Domestic Violence

The following adolescent will be considered at risk for dating or family violence and appropriate for at-risk intervention services. An adolescent or pre-adolescent who:

• has negative attitudes towards females;
• has exhibited threatening or intimidating behavior toward a dating partner, female school staff, relatives, or household members;
• has exhibited harassing behavior toward females

See Appendix B

Program Administration

Each school based program for the adolescent perpetrator of dating or domestic violence or programs for the youth at risk shall:

1. Have established linkages with battered women's service providers, rape crisis centers, certified batterer intervention programs, courts and juvenile probation departments.
2. Ensure that all group facilitators receive weekly clinical supervision from certified batterer intervention program staff; if a group leader is not affiliated with a certified batterer intervention program, the school shall contract the services of staff from a certified batterer intervention program to provide this supervision.
3. Use bilingual or multilingual staff or provide language translation services to allow individuals and their parents who are not proficient in English to participate in the program.
4. Establish safeguards for ensuring the security of information and for protecting the personal identities of program participants.

Program Staff

Staff employed by schools or school based mental health services to provide intervention services to the adolescent perpetrator of dating or domestic violence or the youth at risk must:

1. Be violence free in their own lives.
2. Have a background which is free of conduct which resulted in a criminal conviction included in a relevant CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) report.
3. Not be a registered sex offender or currently subject to a 209A restraining order.

Staff Qualifications

Staff employed by schools or school based mental health services to provide group intervention services for the adolescent perpetrator of dating or domestic violence or the youth at risk must:

1. Successfully complete a minimum of 24 hours of training in domestic violence and batterers' intervention from DPH-approved batterers' intervention training site.
2. Observe at least six batterers' intervention group sessions led by staff from a certified DPH program.
3. Attend sixteen hours of training on working with adolescent perpetrators of dating violence, which is co-facilitated by DPH-certified batterers' intervention training site and teen dating violence experts.
4. Spend a period of 12 hours, or the life cycle of one group program, being mentored by an experienced facilitator.

In addition, it is strongly recommended that staff providing adolescent perpetrator intervention services have previous experience with case management, the criminal justice system, adolescent males and their families, and group work with adolescents.

All staff employed by schools or school based mental health services to provide supervision to the intervention group leaders shall:

1. Have completed A through D of above.
2. Have training and at least three years of direct clinical experience working with adolescents.

Case Management

Each program shall maintain a file for each group participant that contains the following:

1. signed parental contract and permission form for the adolescent to participate in group
2. signed parental releases for the program to contact other agencies and service providers
3. all necessary releases
4. a copy of the adolescent's signed contract with the program
5. monthly reports regarding the adolescent's attendance and cooperation
6. for court-involved juveniles, monthly letters submitted by the program to Juvenile Probation
7. a notice that the adolescent has been discharged from the program

The referral source, parents and when applicable, the juvenile probation department shall be notified of any renewed acts of violence and or controlling behaviors in a timely manner as they occur. Group facilitators have a duty to warn criminal justice and mental health professionals if facilitators have reason to believe that a participant poses an imminent threat of causing serious bodily harm to themselves or others.

Parent Outreach

Forming partnerships with parents is crucial to work effectively with the adolescent perpetrator of dating or domestic violence. Therefore, parent outreach is a necessary part of any program. Parents should be required to complete an intake interview and an intake form and sign all the necessary releases.

One orientation/education session should be required for parents/guardians. Private or separate orientation sessions should be offered to parents/guardians who may be experiencing abuse by an intimate partner so that they may be able to participate without repercussion from the abuser.

The orientation sessions should cover the following topics:

1. Definitions of domestic violence and child abuse
2. How to identify victims and perpetrators
3. Local resources
4. Explanation of teen dating violence and the warning signs
5. Explanation of a restraining order
6. Discussion of sexual assault
7. A discussion of the long term consequences for perpetrators of domestic violence
8. A discussion of same-sex domestic violence
9. Address specific concerns of battered immigrants and refugees
10. A statement regarding the effectiveness of perpetrators' intervention
11. The effects of domestic violence on children and youth

Program Technical Assistance and Monitoring

Authorized personnel from DPH and/or ESE may conduct technical assistance site visits and/or program monitoring visits of adolescent perpetrators' and youth at risk intervention programs at any reasonable time. All parts of the program, all staff and activities, and all records are subject to such monitoring visits. A program's refusal to allow monitoring visits and shall be grounds for contract suspension or termination and/or in the case of the DPH programs termination of certification as a batterer intervention program.

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