Police to offer treatment for domestic violence offenders

Using federal stimulus, the Police Department is launching a treatment program for domestic violence offenders.

Saying “We acknowledge that the issue of domestic violence is too broad to be solved through the efforts of one entity alone," Anacortes Police Chief Bonnie Bowers briefed the City Council earlier this week on a new 3-year program by the Police Department aimed at reducing domestic violence in Anacortes.

Bowers said that under the program the Police Department will offer funding for treatment for some first-time domestic violence offenders. Bowers said the program could help about ten offenders each year. She said the department would track the results over the life of the 3-year program.

The program is being funded with a grant of $15,625 for local justice programs. The Police Department had the option to use the money for any number of area, but Bowers said “We have never been able to offer offender treatment” and opted to add this program.

A report prepared by the Police Department says that between 2004 and 2007, the Police Department referred 455 domestic violence offenses to the municipal court. Of those, the report says, 130 resulted in guilty pleas, 284 were dismissed, 24 were amended to non-domestic violence offenses.

The report said “There are few public funds available for offender treatment. Often, lack of funds is cited as an impediment for batterers to receive treatment.”

According to a study by the Skagit County District Court batterers who receive treatment are less likely to re-offend. A 2007 study found that “batterers who underwent intervention and treatment were 50% lexx likely to re-offend than those who did not receive treatment.”

A separate study in 2008 by the Washington Coalition Against Domestic Violence found that “in reviewing 20 years of data on offender treatment, all programs were associated with short-term cessation of assault and improvements in the overall quality of life for the victim.”