By: West S.C.R. No. 3 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-1 WHEREAS, Victims of domestic violence recognize the need for 1-2 a therapeutic approach to change the behavior of abusive partners, 1-3 and many perpetrators of domestic violence are not provided an 1-4 opportunity to modify their abusive behavior because of a lack of 1-5 intervention programs in Texas; and 1-6 WHEREAS, Outcome studies have shown that batterers 1-7 intervention programs do help men develop better communication 1-8 skills, learn to abate anger, learn conflict resolution skills, 1-9 gain respect, and reduce animosity toward women after having 1-10 received batterers intervention treatment; and 1-11 WHEREAS, In 1989, the 71st Legislature established the 1-12 Battering Intervention and Prevention Project as part of the 1-13 community justice assistance division of the Texas Department of 1-14 Criminal Justice; the project, Texas' first direct involvement in 1-15 domestic violence prevention through specialized programs to 1-16 rehabilitate offenders, is a vital supplement to law enforcement 1-17 and criminal justice systems in responding to domestic violence; 1-18 and 1-19 WHEREAS, Perpetrators of domestic violence must be identified 1-20 before their behavior can be modified, and a study commissioned by 1-21 the Texas Department of Human Services found that approximately 1-22 600,000 women are abused in Texas every year while in 1993 there 1-23 were only 155,767 reported incidents and only 2,254 perpetrators 2-1 completed battering intervention and prevention program treatments; 2-2 now, therefore, be it 2-3 RESOLVED, That the 74th Legislature of the State of Texas 2-4 hereby encourage the community justice assistance division of the 2-5 Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Texas Council on 2-6 Family Violence to issue a directive that local community 2-7 supervision and correctional departments work with battering 2-8 intervention and prevention programs to ensure that each community 2-9 has a system for receiving referrals and reporting violations.