Dr Anne Lazenbatt
 Dr John Devaney

Assessing Men’s Readiness to Engage in Domestic Violence Treatment Programmes (DVTPs) in Northern Ireland.

This research study is concerned with the assessment of ‘treatment readiness’ amongst domestically violent men and its association with their ability to engage in and complete Domestic Violence Treatment Programmes (DVTPs).  The study explores whether treatment readiness is an important facet to consider as part of an assessment process to match domestically violent men with appropriately designed treatment programmes such as DVTPs or alternative types of intervention to maximise the benefits to all participants, thereby reducing the demands on limited budgets and ultimately producing larger reductions in recidivism.

1.2 Aim and Objectives

Research aim: To assess domestically violent men’s readiness to engage in domestic violence treatment programmes (DVTPs) at the point of referral to a DVTP.

Research Objectives are:

• to identify whether the concept of ‘treatment readiness’ has any practical application in predicting domestically violent men’s likelihood of competing DVTPs;
• to compare the reliability of two different standardised measures for assessing an individual’s ‘treatment readiness’; and
• to explore men’s own subjective accounts of the reasons influencing their readiness to engage with a DVTP.