Interesting issue at work
The non-profit I work for, which provides training and research support, etc., to professionals working on issues involving violence against women, periodically reports on important issues we are seeing and our ideas for ways to improve law enforcement and other agencies' responses to these cases. We have been updating our latest report.
Had a very interesting discussion with couple of colleagues as we added a recommendation to be sure that criminal defendants who are referred to specialized "treatment courts"--courts that handle cases where the defendant has substance abuse, mental health, veteran (e.g., PTSD) issues--are also evaluated for issues involving violence against women. The point being that we don't want to be shipping alcoholic or mentally ill DV offenders off for treatment of those issues, while ignoring the abuse issues (which may be related but are separate problems requiring separate treatment protocols). I think it's a GREAT idea.
One of my colleagues expressed the belief that such defendants should ALWAYS be referred to DV courts, rather than some other treatment court. I disagreed, because even if someone is an abuser, he may not respond to any treatment as readily if his alcohol, substance abuse, or mental health issue is not addressed at the same time. Both need to be addressed. Of course, some of them need long prison sentences, first and foremost. But where they are people who would be getting probation anyway, getting them channeled into programs that MIGHT help (as always, they have to be willing) is important.
This is another reason I love my job--getting to work for changes in the system that can do some real good.