Mentoring serial and high-risk perpetrators of intimate partner violence in the community: Engagement and initiating change

Background: Mentoring has typically been used with young offenders. A pilot-mentoring project has been introduced in the UK for high-risk intimate partner violence (IPV) offenders. Aims: The aim of the study was to evaluate how serial and high-risk IPV men engaged with mentoring and how change was initiated for this population. Methods: Interviews were conducted with two mentors, six mentees and four support workers, and file notes for 16 mentees were examined. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data. Results: The global theme, tools and techniques that facilitate engagement comprised two organising themes, building relationships and tenacity of the mentor, which explained how engagement was initiated and driven. Catalysts to initiate change with its two organising themes, hooks and focus on the future, captured factors that act as potential turning points or triggers for the mentees to address their use of IPV and start the process of change. Conclusions: Mentoring is an innovative and alternative approach for engaging intervention-resistant serial and high-risk IPV perpetrators, enabling them to identify their need to change and laying down the foundation that could facilitate this change. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Walker, K & Bowen, E 2015, 'Mentoring serial and high-risk perpetrators of intimate partner violence in the community: Engagement and initiating change' Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, vol 25, no. 4, pp. 299–313. DOI: 10.1002/cbm.1964 which has been published in final form at https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cbm.1964. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.