Emotion-focused therapy for incarcerated offenders of intimate partner violence: A 3-year outcome using a new whole-sample matching method

Abstract

A 3-year follow-up was conducted for Relating Without Violence, an emotion-focused group psychotherapy program for incarcerated men who have a history of intimate partner violence. This is the only known manualized experiential treatment for incarcerated batterers. A sample of 66 men who completed the treatment was compared to 184 men from the same prison. Although the initial research design was quasi-experimental, new procedures were used to match the groups’ averages on all known pre-treatment variables. At 7 and 8 months post-release, the treatment group recidivated by assault and/or sexual assault significantly less than controls. Treatment effects are comparable to those of best practices. The study also demonstrates methodological developments for statistically creating matched groups not previously used in psychotherapy research.