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, Studies of group programs for violent men ordered 1-7 into treatment show recidivism rates as low as four percent, and 1-8 other studies found that between two-thirds and three-fourths of 1-9 men who completed voluntary programs remained nonviolent; and 1-10 WHEREAS, In 1989, the 71st Legislature established the 1-11 Battering Intervention and Prevention Project as part of the 1-12 community justice assistance division of the Texas Department of 1-13 Criminal Justice; the project, Texas' first direct involvement in 1-14 domestic violence prevention through specialized programs to 1-15 rehabilitate offenders, is a vital supplement to law enforcement 1-16 and criminal justice systems in responding to domestic violence; 1-17 and 1-18 WHEREAS, Perpetrators of domestic violence must be identified 1-19 before their behavior can be modified, and a study commissioned by 1-20 the Texas Department of Human Services found that approximately 1-21 600,000 women are abused in Texas every year while in 1993 there 1-22 were only 155,767 reported incidents and only 2,254 perpetrators 1-23 completed battering intervention and prevention program treatments; 2-1 now, therefore, be it 2-2 RESOLVED, That the 74th Legislature of the State of Texas 2-3 hereby encourage the community justice assistance division of the 2-4 Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Texas Council on 2-5 Family Violence to issue a directive that local community 2-6 supervision and correctional departments work with battering 2-7 intervention and prevention programs to ensure that each community 2-8 has a system for receiving referrals and reporting violations.