Abstract
Both domestic violence and substance use disorder are pressing issues in the United States and across the world. Research has consistently shown that substance use is intimately related to domestic violence and is a significant risk factor for domestic violence to occur (Crane 2014; Easton, 2006; Leonard, 2017; O’Farrell, 2003; Radcliffe, 2021; Stone, 2019; Timko, 2012).
When domestic violence perpetrators are formally charged in the criminal justice system, many offenders are required to complete batterer intervention programs as a way to reduce risk of future offending (Healey, 2014). While batter intervention programming has shown to reduce risk of re-offending (Cotti, 2020), the majority of batterer intervention programs do not account for substance use as a risk factor. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation was to create a batterer intervention program that integrates opioid use treatment specifically with batterer intervention programming in order to offer another tool for clinicians and clients.
This batterer intervention curriculum is titled Opioid Use Domestic Violence Treatment (OUDV), and it was based on the curriculum called Substance Abuse Domestic Violence (Easton, 2007) that combines alcohol use treatment and domestic violence treatment. Upon completion, four evaluators, who are licensed clinical providers, reviewed and shared feedback on the curriculum using the Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model (Stufflebeam, 1983). The group treatment curriculum along with the evaluative feedback, discussion of the limitations, diversity considerations, and recommendations for future group treatment models are provided.