In early 2017, California Assembly Member Mark Stone introduced AB 372 to help advance domestic violence batterer intervention programs. The California State Association of Counties (CSAC) co-sponsored this legislation which ultimately allowed six counties (Napa, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and Yolo) to pilot alternative interventions, focusing on creating the opportunity for change to stop future incidents of domestic violence. CSAC, with the support of the Blue Shield of California Foundation, embarked on supporting these critical efforts as part of the CSAC Initiative on Improving Domestic Violence Programs and Systems.

Following the second official year of pilot implementation (ending June 30, 2021), CSAC has finalized the Year 2 Legislative Report.  In addition to the report, a data dashboard has been developed to allow users to explore the demography and characteristics of individuals enrolled in the pilot counties batterer intervention programs.

Counties continue to work tirelessly – through a national pandemic – to continue pushing this critical work forward to do better for the safety of Californians and the nation. The report focuses on program design, implementation, participant demographic updates, and contains the first look at aggregate recidivism for the pilot counties batterer intervention programming, along with future CSAC work on the initiative. Some key findings of the report, for participants entering pilot county Domestic Violence programming from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, include:

• 89 percent of pilot program participants identified as male
• 44 percent were not employed
• 56 percent had a prior domestic violence assault report to the police
• 49 percent had previously served 30 days or more in county jail

Consistent with CSAC’s first legislative report, this report details the types of programming within the pilot counties, the structure of the programming, and includes a variety of discussions around the style and evidence-based nature of the approaches to assessments, program timeframes, and interventions – along with critical year two updates. It also discusses the challenges and ongoing work needed to fully recognize the intent of the legislation. As the pilot program continues, future work, reports, and briefs will focus on recidivism outcomes for pilot counties, in-depth analyses on participant criminogenic needs, and program curriculum development, further informing counties and stakeholders on opportunities to improve domestic violence intervention programs.

For more information on the full report or additional activities within the CSAC Initiative on Improving Domestic Violence Programs and Systems, please visit the CSAC Support Hub for Criminal Justice Programming website or contact Ryan Souza, Program Director, at RSouza@counties.org.