Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 3, March 1, 2024
(1)
Basic Intervention Curriculum Requirements. Challenging and confronting
participant beliefs and behaviors shall be balanced by creating a safe and
respectful environment for change. To accord with these standards, a curriculum
for batterers shall include, but is not limited to, the following basic
requirements:
(a) Addressing belief systems
that legitimize and sustain battering of women and abuse of children;
(b) Informing participants about the types of
battering as defined in OAR 137-087-0005(2);
(c) Challenging participants to identify the
patterns of their battering behaviors and all tactics used to justify battering
such as denial, victim blaming, and minimizing; increasing participant
recognition of the criminal aspect of his thoughts and behavior; reinforcing
participant identification and acceptance of personal responsibility and
accountability for all such tactics; and reinforcing alternatives to
non-battering behavior;
(d)
Encouraging participants to identify the cultural factors that are used by a
batterer to legitimize both individual acts of abuse and control and battering
as a whole;
(e) Modeling respectful
and egalitarian behaviors and attitudes;
(f) Increasing participants' understanding
and acceptance of the adverse legal, interpersonal and social consequences of
battering;
(g) Increasing the
participants' overall understanding of the effects of battering upon their
victims, themselves, and their community, and encouraging participants to go
beyond the minimum requirements of the law in providing victims and their
children with financial support and restitution for the losses caused by their
battering;
(h) Identifying the
effects on children of battering directed at their mothers, including but not
limited to the incompatibility of the participant's battering with the child's
well-being, the damage done to children witnessing battering, and educating
participants about the child's need for a close mother-child bond, nurturance,
age-appropriate interactions, and safety;
(i) Encouraging participants to recognize the
responsibility of being a father including the emotional, physical and
financial support necessary to provide an environment to children that
encourages growth and stability;
(j) Facilitating participants' examination of
values and beliefs that are used to justify and excuse battering;
(k) Requiring participants to speak with
respect about their partners and other women, and challenging participants to
respect their partner and other women and to recognize their partner and other
women as equals who have the right to make their own choices;
(l) Encouraging empathy and awareness of the
effect of participants' behavior on others;
(m) Challenging participants to accept
personal responsibility and accountability for their actions;
(n) Encouraging participants to challenge and
change their own battering beliefs and behaviors; and
(o) Identifying how the participant uses
alcohol and other drugs to support battering behaviors.
(2) Accountability Plan. A BIP shall require
every participant to develop an Accountability Plan (Plan), and a BIP's
curriculum which shall provide information that a participant can use to
develop his Plan. Accountability planning is an ongoing process intended to
increase the batterer's self-awareness, honesty and acceptance of
responsibility for battering and its consequences. A participant's Plan shall
include specific and concrete steps to be identified and implemented by the
participant. A BIP shall always prioritize the safety and best interests of the
victim when teaching and reporting on accountability planning. Under no
circumstances may the terms of a Plan require, or imply authorization of or
permission for, conduct that violates the terms of a court order or other
legally binding requirements.
(3)
Elements of the Plan. The Plan shall include, but need not be limited to, the
following elements:
(a) Description of the
conduct to stop and to be accountable for, including:
(A) Description of the specific actions that
caused harm, including the entire range of attempts used to control and
dominate the victim(s) or partner(s), specific actions that led to the
participant being in the BIP, and the participant's intentions or purposes in
choosing those actions.
(B)
Identification of the beliefs, values, and thinking patterns the participant
used:
(i) To prepare himself and plan to
batter;
(ii) To justify his
battering to himself and to others;
(iii) To blame other persons and
circumstances outside his control for his battering; and
(iv) To minimize and deny his battering, its
harmful effects, and his personal accountability and responsibility for the
battering and its effects.
(C) Identification of the full range of
effects and consequences of the battering on the victim(s), partner(s),
children, the community and the participant.
(b) Participant's plan for choosing to treat
his former, current or future partner(s) and children in a continually
respectful and egalitarian manner, including:
(A) Description of the excuses and underlying
beliefs used to justify his battering;
(B) Description of the participant's plan for
intervening in his battering to prevent himself from continuing his pattern of
battering;
(C) Description of
battering the participant is currently addressing and how he is utilizing his
Plan;
(D) Description of how the
participant is intervening in his battering including the excuses, beliefs and
behaviors he is addressing;
(E)
Description of how the participant will choose to act in ways that no longer
cause harm to the victim(s), partner(s), children and the community;
(F) Description of how the participant will
take responsibility for choosing to act in ways that no longer cause harm to
the victim(s), partner(s), children and the community;
(G) Description of the thoughts, beliefs and
actions the participant shall need to change to become non-abusive and
non-controlling, and a description of alternative thoughts, beliefs and actions
he can use to make non-abusive and non-controlling choices; and
(H) Description of the thoughts, beliefs and
actions that the participant uses in other areas of his life that demonstrate
that he is already aware and capable of making responsible non-abusive and
non-controlling choices.
(c) Acceptance of full responsibility for the
participant's choices and their consequences, including:
(A) Acknowledgement that the participant's
actions causing harm to the victim(s), partner(s), children and the community
were his choice, that he had other options, and that he is fully accountable
for his choices and the consequences of those choices for himself and
others;
(B) Acceptance of full
responsibility for having brought the criminal justice system into his life, if
applicable, and for other consequences of his behaviors; and
(C) Participant's plan for beginning and
continuing to make reparation and restitution for the harms caused, either
directly to the victim(s) if appropriate, approved by the victim(s), and not
manipulative, or indirectly by anonymous donation or community service when the
victim wants no contact with the participant.
Stat. Auth.: ORS
180.070 -
180.710
Stats. Implemented: ORS
180.070 -
180.710