The Family Violence Intervention Program (FVIP) is a 24-week professional treatment program focused on the education and behavioral changes of family and domestic violence offenders ordered by the court. It is not an anger management program. The FVIP facilitator implements an evidence-based curriculum that addresses the core elements of power and control that foster violent families and partnerships. In addition, accountability, psychoeducation and peer support elements enhance the effectiveness of such programs.
The Family Violence Intervention Program (FVIP) seeks to address an individual’s unhealthy behaviors and beliefs related to violence, abuse, power and control by providing psychoeducation, accountability, and healthy alternatives. The program aims to increase the safety of current and future victims by addressing the perpetrators’ behavior and providing non-violent alternatives that promote safe and sound relationships.
Victim support services are important in reducing family violence and the recurrence of this type of violence in the community, but they are only part of the equation. Without effective treatment of the perpetrator’s violent habits in a given relationship, the cycle of violence can repeat when the victim returns home. Family violence interventions aim to stop this cycle by addressing both halves of the equation in a conscious and needs-based manner.
In addition, the FVIP program has a positive impact on the community as a whole by providing prosecutors with alternatives that provide a plan of action that leads to change rather than disciplinary action. Most studies show that participants using family violence intervention programs are less likely to commit new acts of violence. Several studies have shown that FVIP reduces recurrence by thirty six to eighty-five percent.