Out with the old and in with the new.

This is exactly what the Iowa Department of Corrections is doing with the help of Amie Zarling, assistant professor in human development and family studies, to provide a new program specifically for men who have been arrested for domestic violence.

Zarling’s work began with studying relationships and marriage. The focus soon shifted to studying physical aggression in the context of committed relationships.

This program, called Achieving Change through Value Based-Behavior, has been five years in the making. The program focuses on teaching men skills to adapt their violent behaviors, rather than shaming the men for their past. Comparing the old program to the new, the rate of a second offense dropped from 35 percent to around 15 percent.

Zarling worked closely alongside Anne Brown, project coordinator at the Iowa Department of Corrections, to replace the old program, called “Duluth.”

“Amie took the lead on creating the program,” Brown said. “She’s actually written a lot of the curriculum.”

Brown said she is extremely pleased with the outcome of ACTV and is excited to see new research proving it to be more effective than Duluth. She said she is enthusiastic about the partnership with Zarling and Iowa State.

“We’ve found all kinds of studies that have shown that Duluth is ineffective,” Brown said.

Despite the program’s annual cost of $1 million, recidivism rates were not dropping.

“The new program is more focused on being compassionate, not excusing the violent behavior, but recognizing that being compassionate and being on the same page as them helps them change,” Zarling said. “It’s not about talking down to them, but collaborating with them to get behaviors that are more healthy.”

The program focuses on four skills — behavioral patterns, emotional skills, cognitive skills and values.

The program lasts 24 weeks and consists of two facilitators working with groups ranging from five to 20 men. Each session last for approximately 90 minutes.

“One of the skills we teach them is called ‘values’,” Zarling said. “This basically helps them identify what’s important to them. What’s kind of sad about this population of men is they’ve never really been asked what’s important to them. Some of them haven’t even ever thought about it.”

Zarling found that most men valued things like family and holding a stable job.

“That was really surprising for me at the beginning, really realizing that they have the same values as me,” Zarling said. “It was a pleasant surprise.”

The other skills that are taught dig into why the men deal with conflict in a particular way or think in the way they do, and practicing more acceptable ways of dealing with their feelings.

“Males are very much expected to hide their emotions, except for anger,” Zarling said. “Anger is okay for men to show, but then this societal expectation is that they should not show any weakness or vulnerability.” 

The new program required many hours of extra work for facilitators, including extra training, prepping before group, time and energy.

“[The old program] was very much focused on the reason men are violent against women is because they want to control and dominate them,” Zarling said. “What that meant was the program was very confrontational and not very compassionate.”

To Zarling’s surprise, the men took to the program rather quickly despite the change.

“There’s a very small percentage for whom they don’t really engage in the group, that maybe are more what you would call a psychopath, but that’s a very small percentage of the population,” Zarling said. “Most of them value family. Most of them have kids. I haven’t met one man who had kids that says he doesn’t care about his kid.”

Although the program is being implemented for men only as of now, Zarling believes the program wouldn’t need much changing for women. Zarling also says other states are also interested in the program and that it will hopefully be spreading in the near future.

Domestic violence isn’t just a problem for married couples, but rather a real problem both on and off campus.

“The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence says women age 20 to 24 are most at risk to be affected by nonfatal intimate partner violence,” Anthony Greiter, ISU Police, said.

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence also says that 1 in 4 women will be affected by domestic violence in their lifetime. Greiter encourages anyone affected by domestic violence to some talk to the ISU Police.

“As far as resources are concerned, I always encourage people to come talk to us,” Greiter said. “Domestic violence is one of the most underreported crimes, along with sexual assault. But if you’re willing to come talk to the police, we have resources available to you.”

The ISU Police aren’t the only resource campus available for victims of domestic violence.

“On campus in particular, we work closely with the Dean of Students Office, with Judicial Affairs, with counseling services so depending on what the situation is, we can have the University address the concerns as well,” Greiter said.

Greiter also stressed prevention and awareness are key to eliminating domestic violence.

“If we bring awareness to the topic and the issue and we can educate people about the dangers and warning signs, we can get people the help they need,” Greiter said.