Evaluating Probation Based Offender Programmes for Domestic Violence Perpetrators: A Pro‐Feminist Approach

Abstract

Developments in our understanding of domestic violence and its criminalisation have led some probation areas in the UK to adopt pro–feminist offender groupwork programmes as a means of rehabilitating these offenders. The renaissance of the rehabilitative ideal within probation areas has been followed by the need to prove its effectiveness. This article discusses the justifications of providing rehabilitation for this category of offender, outlines the pro–feminist approach and provides a guide to conducting well designed evaluations within a probation context in light of earlier British evaluations. It concludes by calling for further well designed evaluations to be conducted.