“The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of the Parts”: Prison Staff Perceptions of Domestic Violence Rehabilitation Programs

• Author: Noam Haviv,David Weisburd,Badi Hasisi,Anat Zelig,Efrat Shoham
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X17741803
• Date: 01 August 2018
• Published date: 01 August 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X17741803

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2018, Vol. 62(11) 3298 –3321

© The Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X17741803

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Article

“The Whole Is Greater Than

the Sum of the Parts”: Prison

Staff Perceptions of Domestic

Violence Rehabilitation

Programs

Efrat Shoham1, Anat Zelig1, Badi Hasisi2,

David Weisburd2,3, and Noam Haviv2

Abstract

This qualitative study is part of a mixed methods research project that examined the

effectiveness of the primary rehabilitation program for domestic violence offenders

in the Israeli Prison Services—the “House of Hope.” The quantitative part of the

study showed that the “House of Hope” program was effective in reducing recidivism

among participating inmates. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe

the rehabilitation program according to the perspectives of the program staff. For

this purpose, semistructured interviews were conducted with the department staff

during the study as well as with past directors. The qualitative findings suggested

that the success of the program probably stemmed from a synergistic combination

of several components, for example, identifying the characteristics of domestic

violence offenders and adjusting treatment programs to their needs, along with

exposure to psychological treatment in varied therapies (cognitive behavioral

therapy, psychoeducational, and psychodynamic) and formats (group therapy and

individual therapy) during a 1-year stay in a hierarchical therapeutic community.

Other components mentioned are staff professionalism, stability, and the program’s

location in a therapeutic-oriented prison that is architecturally designed and built to

create a less stressful environment for the inmates and the staff.

1Ashkelon Academic College, Israel

2The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

3George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Efrat Shoham, Associate Professor, Criminology Department, Ashkelon Academic College,

Yitshak Ben Zvi Street 12, Ashkelon, 78109, Israel.

Email: shoham@netzer.org.il

741803IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X17741803International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyShoham et al.

research-article2017

Shoham et al. 3299

Keywords

intimate partner violence (IPV), prison, rehabilitation program

Introduction

Domestic violence (DV) is defined as behavior that includes physical violence or psy-

chological, financial, or sexual abuse carried out by adults and teenagers against their

partners and their families (Millana, 2011; Raeder, 2011). Since the 1980s, the law

enforcement systems have begun to view DV as severe criminal offences. This percep-

tion was manifested in two main directions: on one hand, DV offenders were more

severely punished, while on the other, therapy programs were developed to treat

aggressors in both the community and the prisons (Akoensi, Koehler, Losel, &

Humphreys, 2013; Babcock, Green, & Robie, 2004; Coulter & Vandeweerd, 2009;

Day, Chung, O’Leary, & Carson, 2009; Hamm & Kite, 1991; Shepard, 1992).

The literature reveals a relatively large number of quantitative studies or meta-

analyses that examined the efficacy of DV prevention programs (Babcock et al.,

2004; Bennett & Williams, 2001; Coulter & Vandeweerd, 2009; Feder, Austin, &

Wilson, 2008; Feder & Wilson, 2005; Gordon & Moriarty, 2003; Rosenbaum,

Gearan, & Ondovic, 2001; Shepard, 1992). However, there are few studies that

researched the effectiveness of DV rehabilitation programs in prisons or qualita-

tively described these programs in detail (Akoensi et al., 2013; Enosh, Buchbinder,

Smith, & Shafir, 2013; Gondolf, 2007; Ley, 2005; Pascual-Leone, Bierman, Arnold,

& Stasiak, 2011).

The current study is part of a comprehensive mixed methods research project that

examined the effectiveness of the main rehabilitation program for DV prisoners in the

Israeli prison system (IPS). The 1-year program operates only in the “House of Hope”

department located in Hermon Prison, Israel. Using the propensity score matching

method, the quantitative analysis of this study (cf. Hasisi, Shoham, Weisburd, Haviv,

& Zelig, 2016) compared treated offenders who were released from prison between

2004 and 2012 with a matched sample drawn from all convicted prisoners released in

the same period. The findings indicated that the percentages of reincarceration and

rearrests of inmates (recidivism indices) who participated in the “House of Hope”

program were significantly lower than the comparison group during a period of up to

4 years after release. Specifically, the study also found that the chances of these prison-

ers being arrested and incarcerated again for violent offences were also significantly

lower than that of prisoners in the control group.

The few detailed studies that evaluate the effectiveness of prison DV rehabilitation

programs or described those programs from the staff perspective, alongside the posi-

tive quantitative findings of the Israeli study, have led us to investigate what makes the

Israeli rehabilitation program at the “House of Hope” such an effective program for

reducing recidivism. Quantitative studies usually examine the final outcomes of pro-

grams (effectiveness), but the qualitative research allows us a glimpse of the processes

that underlie the program implementation and the attitudes of the staff towards the