Gender and Domestic Violence Contemporary Legal Practice and Intervention Reforms

Over the past 40 years, considerable progress has been made in lowering rates of domestic violence in our communities. This progress has been uneven, however, due to continuing misconceptions about the causes and dynamics of domestic violence, which include an exaggerated focus on males as
perpetrators and females as victims, as well as a heavy-handed law enforcement response that compromises the rights of criminal defendants without necessarily reducing violence.

Gender and Domestic Violence presents empirical research findings and reform recommendations for prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, policy makers and intervention providers with the aim of rectifying shortcomings in legal and law enforcement responses to domestic violence. The volume's editors
and chapter authors confront the notion that certain beliefs shared among victim advocates, legal actors, and other stakeholders -- principally that domestic violence is bound by gender, and is primarily a crime against women -- have led to the use of ineffective and potentially harmful
one-size-fits-all intervention policies that can jeopardize defendant due process and victim safety. Domestic violence experts, legal scholars, and practicing attorneys present how gendered aspects of domestic violence affect legal decision-making and practice and provide strategies for becoming
more inclusive in the adjudicative process, intervention/prevention, and practice. Gender and Domestic Violence: Contemporary Legal Practice and Intervention Reforms provides the foundation from which we can begin to move beyond the gender paradigm by recognizing disparities and applying tools that
improve research, policing, and practice, allowing us to progress toward eradicating domestic violence, and to move closer to equality.

Dr. Brenda Russell is a Professor of Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University, Berks. Her scholarly and teaching interests include psychology and law, perceptions of victims and perpetrators of domestic violence, homicide defendants, and the social psychological and cognitive aspects of jury
decision making. She is particularly interested in how gender and sexual orientation play a role in evaluating defendants in cases of domestic violence, rape, sexual coercion, and sexual harassment. She has published dozens of scholarly research articles and authored 4 books to date. Dr. Russell
also serves as an expert in criminal homicide cases involving domestic violence and works as a consultant and program evaluator for various federal and state educational, law enforcement, justice, and treatment programs.

John Hamel, Ph.D., LCSW, has a Masters in Social Welfare from U.C.L.A., and a Ph.D. from the University of Central Lancashire, U.K., where he is currently a Research Fellow. He has interviewed and provided individual, couples and group counseling to hundreds of family violence perpetrators and
victims since 1992, and is a court-approved provider of batterer intervention and parent programs in four San Francisco Bay Area counties. Dr. Hamel is the author of Gender-Inclusive Treatment of Intimate Partner Abuse, 2nd Edition: Evidence-Based Approaches, (Springer, 2014); co-editor with Tonia
Nicholls, PhD, of Family Interventions in Domestic Violence: A Handbook of Gender-Inclusive Theory and Treatment (Springer, 2007); and editor of Intimate Partner and Family Abuse: A Casebook of Gender Inclusive Therapy (Springer, 2008.) He is Editor-in-Chief of Partner Abuse, a journal published
quarterly by Springer Publishing, and has had dozens of his research articles published in various peer-reviewed scholarly journals. Dr. Hamel regularly speaks at conferences on domestic violence, has provided education and clinical training on best practices to mental health professionals, victim
advocates social service organizations, law enforcement, attorneys and family court mediators, and has provided case consultation and expert witness testimony. He is a founding member of the Association of Domestic Violence Intervention Programs (ADVIP), an organization of mental health
professionals and researchers dedicated to evidence-based practice. (domesticviolenceintervention.net)

Part I Topic Overview of Research on Domestic Violence

1 Introduction-The Problem with the Gender Paradigm
John Hamel, Ph.D. & Brenda Russell, Ph.D

2 What We Currently Know about the Prevalence, Causes and Dynamics of Intimate Partner Violence
Elizabeth Bates, Ph.D. & Alexandra Papamichail, Ph.D

3 The Law Enforcement Response to IPV: Toward a Gender-Neutral Approach
Brenda Russell, Ph.D & Emily Seisler, BA. BA

Part II Litigation

4 Gender, Sex, and the Prosecution of Intimate Partner Violence
Jennifer Cox, Ph.D., Elizabeth MacNeil, B.A. & Hannah Lind, B.A.

5 Challenges and Strategies in Mounting a Legal Defense in IPV Criminal Cases
Charles Dresow, Esq

6 Intimate Partner Homicides and the Battered Person Syndrome
John Hamel, Ph.D, Don Dutton, Ph.D., & Alexandra Lysova, Ph.D

7 Jury Decision Making: Understanding and Overcoming Bias in the Courtroom
Brenda Russell, Ph.D. & Blake McKimmie, Ph.D

Part III Family Law

8 Guidelines for Domestic Violence and Child Custody Litigation
David Pisarra, Esq

9 Custody and Intervention Recommendations in Family Law Cases: A Gender-Inclusive Framework
John Hamel, Ph.D. & Kelly Baker, Ph.D

10 The Same Coin: Intimate Partner Violence, Child Abuse, and Parental Alienation
Jennifer Harman, Ph.D & Edward Kruk, Ph.D

Part IV Evidence-Based Interventions

11 Holding Perpetrators Accountable: Evidence-based Interview and Assessment Procedures
John Hamel, Ph.D. & Liam Ennis, Ph.D

12 Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) Informed Approaches to Batterer Intervention Treatment
Amie Roberts, LMH Counselor, CPM

13 Couples and Family Interventions for Intimate Partner Violence
Victoria Bennet, M.A., Janella Chu, B.S., Deanna Pollard, M.A., & Julia Babcock, Ph.D.

14 Restorative Justice Alternatives
Briana Barocas, Ph.D. & Rei Shimizu, LMSW, Ph.D