An Evaluation of a Community-Based Intervention to Change Men’s Use of Violence

Researcher: Lynette Renner (School of Social Work)

Intimate partner violence (IPV) includes physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse by an intimate partner. It affects more than one-third of all women can have harmful consequences on the health, well-being, and safety of individuals, families, and communities. Most courts in the U.S. mandate participation in batterers’ intervention programs (BIPs) as part of domestic violence/IPV convictions, yet most BIPs are never evaluated. The purpose of this community-engaged project is to evaluate the BIPs run through Domestic Abuse Project (DAP), a Minneapolis-based non-profit agency whose mission is to build communities free from violence. An estimated 60 participants will complete surveys at multiple time points to assess changes in behaviors towards their partner, attitudes toward violence, resilience, accountability, and mental health during participation in a 24-week BIP. The findings from this community-engaged project have the potential to create real-world impact by enhancing the safety and well-being of families and communities across Minnesota and beyond.


Edward Goetz

Edward G. Goetz is director of CURA and a faculty member at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs

Ed specializes in housing and local community development planning and policy. His research focuses on issues of race and poverty and how they affect housing policy planning and development. Before coming to the University of Minnesota in 1988, he worked at the mayor's Office of Housing and Economic Development in San Francisco and for several nonprofit community developers in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He has served on the board of directors of nonprofit housing agencies in the Twin Cities, and on several regional commissions related to affordable housing and development.

He is the author of The One-Way Street of Integration: Fair Housing and the Pursuit of Racial Justice in American Cities (Cornell University Press, 2018), New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice, and Public Housing Policy (Cornell University Press, 2013), Clearing the Way: Deconcentrating the Poor in Urban America (2003, Urban Institute Press), Shelter Burden: Local Politics and Progressive Housing Policy (1993, Temple University Press), and co-editor of The New Localism: Comparative Urban Politics in a Global Era (1993, Sage Publications).

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Ed Goetz
Director, CURA