Batterer Intervention Programme
| Bureau / Department | Social Welfare Department (SWD) |
|---|---|
| Objective | Provides diverse counselling services to help batterers change their abusive attitude and behavior. |
| Content | Under the Batterer Intervention Programme (BIP) launched in 2008, SWD provides suitable batterers involved in spouse/cohabitant battering with counselling service to enhance their capability in coping stress, managing emotions (especially anger), resolving conflicts, and teach them ways to repair and improve the relationship. According to SWD’s statistics, batterers in domestic violence cases are mostly men. Nonetheless, during the review on the effectiveness of BIP, SWD had looked into possible counselling needs between male and female batterers. Despite that the number of female batterers was not high, SWD considered that counselling groups tailored for female batterers should be set up to encourage women’s participation and enhance the counselling effectiveness. Besides setting gender-responsive counselling contents, SWD takes account of the parental duties of female participants and arranges the counselling sessions to fit the schedule of mothers who need to take their children to and fro school. Housekeeping and childcare services are also available so that participants with the need can attend the counselling without worrying about household matters. In the promotion of the service and training of group leaders, the language used is chosen with gender sensitivity to take care of the feelings of male or female participants. |
| Groups / Persons Affected | Batterers in domestic violence cases and his / her family members. |
| Impact | According to initial evaluation of the trial programme, participants in the counselling groups tailored for women are more willing to take responsibility in their violence and marital problems. The service has also enhanced their ability to handle family disputes and to reach out for support. |