Beyond Violence+: A Prevention Program for Justice-Involved Women and Gender-Diverse People, Facilitator Guide & Participant Workbook

The target treatment group for the Beyond Violence curriculum is women who have been convicted of violent offenses. This represents about one third of the incarcerated women nationwide. It's important to have gender-responsive treatment as women convicted of violent crimes have been found to differ from their male counterparts in their criminal and personal backgrounds, social positions, mental health, and pathways to crime.

Beyond Violence: A Prevention Program for Women is a forty-hour, evidence-based, gender-responsive, trauma-informed treatment program specifically developed for women who have committed a violent crime and are incarcerated. The curriculum uses a Social-Ecological Model to understand violence. This four-level model of violence prevention considers the complex interplay between individual, relationship, community, and societal factors. It addresses the factors that put people at risk for experiencing or perpetrating violence. This model is used by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and was used in the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) research on women in prison. The model:

• Identifies biological and personal history factors that increase the likelihood of becoming a victim or perpetrator of violence. Some of these factors are age, education, income, substance use, or history of abuse.
• Examines relationship factors that increase risk because of relationships with peers, intimate partners, and family members.
• Explores the settings, such as schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods, in which social relationships occur and seeks to identify the characteristics of these settings that are associated with becoming victims or perpetrators of violence.

Included in the package are a Facilitator's Guide and a Participant's Workbook. Presented in a twenty- session format, the Facilitator’s Guide contains the theory, structure, and content needed to run effective groups. The Participant's Workbook is designed so that women can process, record, and refer back to their therapeutic experience.

The Facilitator Guide is written for those who will be facilitating the therapeutic intervention Beyond Violence program. It contains an overall description of the program and step-by-step instructions for conducting the twenty sessions of the program including tips on conducting group sessions and materials needed for each session. The guide provides a background into the type of environment that is necessary for a therapeutic program to be effective, considerations for the facilitator in conducting the program, and descriptions of the theories and knowledge that are the underpinning of the program. The guide also provides a profile of women who use aggressive or violent behavior, discusses violence in women's prisons and whether women are becoming more violent, explains women's pathways to crime, and presents theoretical perspectives on women and violence.

The Participant Workbook is used by participants for reviewing the content of the sessions, writing their thoughts and reactions, and completing activities during and after sessions. It helps participants:

• Understand the relationships between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. 
• Learn new skills, including communication, conflict resolution, decision making, and calming soothing techniques.
• Understand the effects of our families, our relationships, communities, and the larger society on our lives.
• Understand more about the roles of anger and violence.
• Become part of a group of women working to create a less violent world.

Stephanie S. Covington, PhD, LCSW, is a clinician, author, and organizational consultant. She is a pioneer in the design and implementation of gender-responsive treatment services for women in public, private, and institutional settings.