This chapter describes some of the recent restorative justice innovations and research that substantiates their usefulness. It explores developments in the conceptualization of restorative justice based on emergence of new practices and reasons for the effectiveness of restorative justice as a movement and restorative dialogue as application. Chaos theory offers a better way to view the coincidental timeliness of the emergence of restorative justice as a deeper way of dealing with human conflict. The chapter reviews restorative justice practices that have opened up areas for future growth. Those practices include the use of restorative practices for student misconduct in institutions of higher education, the establishment of surrogate dialogue programs in prison settings between unrelated crime victims and offenders. They also include the creation of restorative justice initiatives for domestic violence and the development of methods for engagement between crime victims and members of defense teams who represent the accused offender.

This chapter presents ways in which forensic social workers respond flexibly, collaboratively, and effectively to situations of domestic violence. It describes ways to engage men who abuse in becoming better fathers and partners. The chapter examines how social workers can foster culturally respectful partnerships with and around families that safeguard all family members. Few services are available for men who abuse to learn how to become responsible parents, and evaluations of these programs are even more limited. Two exceptions are a Canadian program called Caring Dads and a North Carolina program called Strong Fathers. These responsible fatherhood programs seek to raise the men’s awareness of the deleterious impact of children’s exposure to domestic violence and to enhance the men’s skills in communicating and parenting.

This chapter includes brief historical, political, and cultural perspectives on violence against women as well as the current state of this issue. It discusses various forms of violence against women that impact their emotional, physical, and psychological well-being. Clinical implications include an overview of the clinical foundation in working with survivors of violence and the three layers of the counseling process: prevention, intervention, and restoration. The chapter discusses the impact of this work on the counselor, along with how to promote posttraumatic growth in clients. The movement toward ending violence against women has gained significant momentum since the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries. The emotional effects of domestic violence (DV) can have devastating impacts on survivors. Although sexual violence is often present within DV, it also occurs outside of intimate relationships. Legally, sexual violence is often referred to as sexual assault or rape.

This chapter discusses issues of power, the cycle of violence, learned helplessness (LH), the battered woman syndrome (BWS), and reasons victims stay in abusive relationships. Violence within intimate relationships can be understood as one partner gaining power over the other partner with the use of coercive and controlling tactics. Such tactics may be reinforced with physical and/or sexual violence. Battered women who acquire LH tend to be at high risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD); their development of LH is associated not only with their abusive situation but also with past difficult life circumstances. The dynamics of domestic violence are so complex that it is difficult for most people to understand why a woman living in an abusive relationship does not simply leave. Many of the common explanations for why victims stay are myths.

This chapter focuses on the effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) on victims of diverse cultural backgrounds and/or at-risk populations who suffer social and economic injustices. It presents the barriers experienced by victims who are members of diverse populations, including those who are impoverished, older, living in rural areas, same-gender couples, living with disabilities, immigrants, Asian American, African American, Hispanic, Native American, and veterans returning from war. States that adopt the Family Violence Option (FVO) can establish programs, exemptions, and waivers to assist battered women. Persons who recruit women into the sex industry are known to social workers and law enforcement as controllers, traffickers, and pimps. Without performing proper screening to identify victims of sex trafficking, law enforcement may arrest victims under other prostitution statutes and subject them to further trauma. When members of at-risk and diverse populations are also victims of domestic violence, they live in multiple jeopardy.

This chapter reviews the characteristics and typologies of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators as well as methods to determine their level of lethality and motivation to change. Many perpetrators are treated in batterer intervention programs (BIP) which attempt to change their cognitive and behavioral patterns, thus discontinuing their abusive acts. Many perpetrators have a history of child abuse. They may have been physically, sexually, or emotionally abused, have witnessed IPV, or have been maltreated in some other manner. Substance abuse may also co-occur with IPV. Some researchers suggest that substance abuse is involved in anywhere from 20 to 80 of domestic violence cases. Although most traditional research and the literature addressing IPV between heterosexual couples focuses on female victims and male perpetrators, increasingly men are being recognized as the victims of female perpetrators.

This chapter focuses primarily on domestic violence and social work practice with low-income immigrant women, particularly those who are undocumented. Impressive social and legal remedies were achieved for victims of domestic violence in the beginning of the women’s movement. However, legislative and regulatory changes were critically needed for domestic violence victims with immigrant and refugee status to ensure their ability to access needed social welfare services and public benefits such as income support, healthcare, employment, education, housing, and personal social services. In addition, social workers were challenged to develop new models of intervention and practice that addressed the needs of immigrant domestic violence victims. An understanding of how different immigrant communities view domestic violence can help social workers begin to reformulate their practice, advocate for policy changes, and formulate effective responses to assist battered immigrant women.

The philosophy around domestic violence has undoubtedly evolved in the past several years. While most scholars studying the epidemiology of domestic violence agree that violence occurs in homes across all demographic groups, more people who are poor appear in domestic violence courts than those who have money. Early in the development of batterers’ intervention programs, both a feminist and cognitive behavioral model was developed to integrate sociocultural political and individual factors. There are three major models of treatment programs that are usually court ordered around the country. The first is the Duluth model and the second model is the combination of treatment for domestic violence and mental health problems that is represented by AMEND from Denver and EMERGE from Boston. The third model comprises mental health treatment programs that are not integrated with a sociocultural feminist perspective.