Offender Core Competencies

(Taken from DVOMB Standards):

A. Offender commits to the elimination of abusive behavior:

1. Eliminates the use of physical intimidation, psychological cruelty, or coercion toward one’s partner or children

D. Offender development of empathy:

1. Recognizes and verbalizes the effect of one’s actions on one’s partner or victim

E. Offender accepts full responsibility for the offense and abusive history:

1. Discloses the history of physical and psychological abuse towards the offender’s victim(s) and children
2. Overcomes the denial and minimization that accompany abusive behavior.
3. Makes increasing disclosures over time
4. Accepts responsibility for the impact of one’s abusive behavior on secondary, tertiary victims, and the community
5. Recognizes that abusive behavior is unacceptable.

F. Offender identifies and progressively reduces pattern of power and control behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes of entitlement:
A. Offender commits to the elimination of abusive behavior
1. Eliminates the use of physical intimidation, psychological cruelty, or coercion
toward one’s partner or children.
2. Begins developing a comprehensive Personal Change Plan that is approved
by the MTT and signed by the offender (Refer to Glossary for definition of
Personal Change Plan).

B. Offender demonstrates change by working on the comprehensive Personal
Change Plan
1. Begins implementing portions of the Personal Change Plan.
2. Accepts that working on abuse related issues and monitoring them is an
ongoing process.
3. Begins designing an Aftercare Plan (Refer to Glossary).
4. Completes an Aftercare Plan and is prepared to implement this plan after
discharge from treatment.

C. Offender completes a comprehensive Personal Change Plan
1. Reflects the level of treatment and has been reviewed and approved by the
MTT.
2. Driven by the offender’s risk and level of treatment (required for all levels but
must be more specific and detailed for Level B and C treatment).

D. Offender development of empathy
1. Recognizes and verbalizes the effects of one’s actions on one’s partner/victim.
2. Recognizes and verbalizes the effects on children and other secondary and
tertiary victims such as neighbors, family, friends, and professionals.
3. Offers helpful, compassionate response to others without turning attention
back on self.

E. Offender accepts full responsibility for the offense and abusive history (Bancroft
& Silverman, 2002)
1. Discloses the history of physical and psychological abuse towards the
offender’s victim(s) and children.
2. Overcomes the denial and minimization that accompany abusive behavior.
In the event the offender exhibits severe denial, refer to Standard 5.06 IV A
and the Glossary.

3. Makes increasing disclosures over time.
4. Accepts responsibility for the impact of one’s abusive behavior on secondary,
tertiary victims, and the community.

Discussion Point: Collateral information such as the police report may
be utilized to expand the offender’s perspective of other’s perceptions
of the offense.

5. Recognizes that abusive behavior is unacceptable. The offender has agreed
that the abusive behavior is wrong and will not be repeated. This involves
relinquishing excuses and any other justifications that blame the victim;
including the claim that the victim provoked the offender.

F. Offender identifies and progressively reduces pattern of power and control
behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes of entitlement.
1. Recognizes that the violence was made possible by a larger context of the
offender’s behaviors and attitudes (Pence & Paymar, 1993)
2. Identifies the specific forms of day-to-day abuse and control, such as isolation
that have been utilized, as well as the underlying outlook and excuses that
drove those behaviors (Bancroft & Silverman, 2002).
3. Demonstrate behaviors, attitudes and beliefs congruent with equality and
respect in personal relationships.

G. Offender Accountability (Refer to 4.0 Appendix)
Offender accountability is defined as accepting responsibility for one’s abusive
behaviors, including accepting the consequences of those behaviors, actively
working to repair the harm, and preventing future abusive behavior.

Accountability goes beyond taking ownership; it is taking corrective actions to
foster safety and health for the victim. The offender demonstrates behavioral
changes to alleviate the impact of offender’s abusive words and/or actions
regardless of the influence of anyone else’s words or actions (Refer to 4.0
Appendix).

1. Recognizes and eliminates all minimizations of abusive behavior. Without
prompts, the offender identifies one’s own abusive behaviors.

2. Demonstrates full ownership for his/her actions and accepts the
consequences of these actions (Bancroft & Silverman, 2002). The offender
demonstrates an understanding of patterns for past abusive actions and
acknowledges the need to plan for future self-management and further
agrees to create the structure that makes accountability possible (Pence &
Paymar, 1993).

3. “They accept that their partner or former partner and their children may
continue to challenge them regarding past or current behaviors. Should they
behave abusively in the future, they consider it their responsibility to report
those behaviors honestly to their friends and relatives, to their probation
officer, and to others who will hold them accountable.” (Bancroft and
Silverman, 2002)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *