PUBLICATIONS

Scott, K. L. & Crooks, C. V.  (2006). Intervention for abusive fathers: Promising practices in court and community responses. Juvenile and Family Court Journal, 57, 29-44.

Crooks, C.V., Scott, K.L., Francis, K.J., Kelly, T., & Reid, M. (2006). Eliciting change in maltreating fathers: Goals, processes, and desired outcomes. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 13, 71-81.

There has been a growing recognition of the need to provide appropriate intervention services to fathers who have been abusive in their families. This paper highlights four specific treatment goals for fathers who maltreat their children, along with therapeutic strategies necessary to accomplish desired outcomes. These goals were developed as part of the Caring Dads: Helping fathers value their children program and include:1) Developing sufficient trust and motivation to engage men in the process of examining their fathering; 2) Increasing men’s awareness and application of childcentered fathering; 3) Increasing men’s awareness of, and responsibility for, abusive and neglectful fathering, including domestic violence, and 4) Rebuilding trust with their children and planning for the future. The strategies include a range of approaches, such as motivational interviewing, psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioral techniques, confrontation, and shame work. We describe each goal in terms of desired outcomes and primary therapeutic techniques used by the facilitators, and illustrate each with examples of exercises from the Caring Dads program. Implications for the training of therapists working with maltreating fathers are also highlighted.

Crooks, C.V., Goodall, G.R., Baker, L.B., & Hughes, R. (2006). Preventing violence against women: Engaging the fathers of today and tomorrow. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 13, 82-93.

Although fathers play a key role in helping their children develop ideas about gender relations and close relationships, they have been largely overlooked as a resource to help prevent violence against women. This paper explores some of the reasons why fathers have not been successfully engaged in violence prevention. Engaging fathers to promote wider definitions of masculinity for themselves and their children is presented as a major mechanism by which fathers could help prevent violence against women. The information-motivation-behavior model of change, developed for preventing high-risk sexual behavior, is applied to the area to provide structure for understanding previous and current attempts to engage fathers. Examples of innovative programs are used to highlight the application of this model.

Scott, K. L., Francis, K. J., Crooks, C. V., Paddon, M., & Wolfe, D. A. (2006). Accountability guidelines for intervention with abusive fathers. In O. Williams, & J. Edleson, (Eds.) Parenting by Men who Batter. (pp. 102-117). London: Oxford University Press.

In this chapter, we draw upon our experiences with the Caring Dads program to describe issues that arise in designing and providing intervention with fathers who have abused their children and/or intimate partners, and to outline a series of guidelines for program accountability.

Scott, K.L. & Crooks, C.V. (2004). Effecting change in maltreating fathers: Critical principles for intervention planning. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11, 95-111.

D. A. Wolfe and P. G. Jaffe (1999) Emerging strategies in the prevention of domestic violence. Future Child 9, 3p.133-44

Responses to domestic violence have focused, to date, primarily on intervention after the problem has already been identified and harm has occurred. There are, however, new domestic violence prevention strategies emerging, and prevention approaches from the public health field can serve as models for further development of these strategies. This article describes two such models. The first involves public health campaigns that identify and address the underlying causes of a problem. Although identifying the underlying causes of domestic violence is difficult--experts do not agree on causation, and several different theories exist--these theories share some common beliefs that can serve as a foundation for prevention strategies. The second public health model can be used to identify opportunities for domestic violence prevention along a continuum of possible harm: (1) primary prevention to reduce the incidence of the problem before it occurs; (2) secondary prevention to decrease the prevalence after early signs of the problem; and (3) tertiary prevention to intervene once the problem is already clearly evident and causing harm. Examples of primary prevention include school-based programs that teach students about domestic violence and alternative conflict-resolution skills, and public education campaigns to increase awareness of the harms of domestic violence and of services available to victims. Secondary prevention programs could include home visiting for high-risk families and community-based programs on dating violence for adolescents referred through child protective services (CPS). Tertiary prevention includes the many targeted intervention programs already in place (and described in other articles in this journal issue). Early evaluations of existing prevention programs show promise, but results are still preliminary and programs remain small, locally based, and scattered throughout the United States and Canada. What is needed is a broadly based, comprehensive prevention strategy that is supported by sound research and evaluation, receives adequate public backing, and is based on a policy of zero tolerance for domestic violence.

P. Jaffe, D. A. Wolfe, S. Wilson and L. Zak (1986) Emotional and physical health problems of battered women. Can J Psychiatry 31, 7p.625-9

The present study focused on the emotional and physical health problems of battered women by comparing a sample of residents in shelters with a group of women in the community matched for family income, length of marriage, and number of children on the General Health Questionnaire. The results indicated that battered women report a significantly higher level of somatic complaints, anxiety, and depression. These effects tended to be associated with other life stressors and children with serious behavior problems. The implications of the study are discussed in terms of assessing the needs of battered women and their children as well as being vigilant for family violence as an etiological factor for other presenting problems.