An Experiential Intimate Partner Violence Recidivism Intervention: A Trauma-Informed Transformative Justice Approach with Racialized Allophone Immigrants

Background and Purpose: Intimate partner violence (IPV) continues to be a focal public health and social justice issue, particularly given the rise in reported incidents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rise in IPV incidents generates increased involvement of families in the child welfare system (due to child exposure to IPV) and in the criminal justice system (the primary tertiary response once IPV has occurred). Recent social work advocacy for the abolition of both of these systems highlights the continued exceptional overrepresentation of racialized people implicated in and the colonial retributive justice structure that reproduce systemic oppression throughout both systems. Yet, much of the IPV policy, research, and practice targets individuals decontextualized from their communities and histories of oppression within these carceral systems and the broader colonial context, and the long-term negative impact of these systems on family, community, and individual wellbeing. Traditional IPV interventions for cisgender men focused on changing patriarchal belief systems as the driving force behind IPV. However, findings from risk factor research consistently demonstrate stressors such as childhood family violence exposure, current family financial insecurity, and lack of social support are more salient factors. Historical trauma due to colonization and racial injustice are additional stressors that are rarely taken into account. Current and past stress impact the capacity to regulate affect and inhibit impulsive aggression, which can lead to IPV. Integrating an understanding of complex trauma (exposure to multiple, chronic, or very severe traumatic events) as a central causal mechanism in IPV intervention has shown success in changing behavior. We utilized a stress physiology framework to explore the phenomenology of affect regulation in IPV incidence and behavioral change following participation in a trauma-informed IPV intervention.

Methods: In partnership with a social worker-led trauma-informed predominantly experiential group intervention to prevent IPV recidivism for cisgender men in Montreal, we conducted a longitudinal mixed-methods evaluation study. We collected demographic and life history data from 92 participants, who were 76% racialized, 63% immigrants, and 80% Allophone. Ten men completed pre- and post-intervention phenomenological interviews exploring their physiological, emotional, and cognitive experiences of hyper-arousal states and their strategies to navigate those states.

Results: Participant narratives demonstrate complex affect regulation capacities, which often fail to inhibit behavioral reactivity to high stress, including IPV. Participants were acutely aware of the surveillance of their behavior and the consequences of loss of employment, relationships with their children, social support, and service access if they engaged in aggressive behaviors in the pre-treatment interviews. Post-intervention, participants vividly describe applying components of the experiential intervention to self-regulate and inhibit aggressive behavior.

Conclusions: The repercussions of involvement in the child welfare and criminal justice systems are exacerbated for racialized families, particularly allophone immigrants. Transformative justice approaches prioritize service user needs and capacities, including language diversity, in pursuit of effectiveness and equity in interventions to prevent IPV recidivism. Improving our understanding of the mechanisms of behavioral change via a trauma-informed IPV intervention is essential to reduce IPV incidence and the involvement of racialized families in carceral systems.