GLOBAL DATABASE ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLSCOUNTRY-PROFILEISRAELMEASURESBEIT NOAM RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT CENTER FOR PERPETRATORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
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ISRAEL | ASIA
Beit Noam Residential Treatment Center for Perpetrators of Domestic Violence
Type of Measure
Perpetrators Programme
Form of Violence
Domestic violence/Intimate partner violence
Year
1997
Brief Description

In 1997, the Beit Noam Association established the Beit Noam Residential Treatment Center, a hostel for battering men who are in criminal proceedings with the law due to domestic violence, and who were referred for treatment. Referrals to Beit Noam are mainly by probation officers and social services personnel.

The Beit Noam hostel is designed to provide its residents with a therapeutic and educational structure. While battering men undergo an intensive four-month residential treatment program at Beit Noam, their wives or partners and children remain in their home, and are not forced to seek shelter outside their communities.

The hostel houses 13 residents at any given time, each one for a four- month period, engaged in a therapy process designed to transform their abusive behaviors to non-violent ones.

Beit Noam residents are the "hard core" of violent behavior in Israel, representing age groups from 18 to 70. They reflect a cross-section of Israeli society, and cut across the educational and economic spectrum to include all religious and ethnic divides: Jews, Arabs, Orthodox, and non-observing. The Beit Noam therapeutic rationale is based on:

  • Creating a structure that simulates a home atmosphere - The therapeutic work transmits experience in running and participating in equal household rights and obligations. The household is run cooperatively by the residents, requiring them to share tasks, co-exist with the other residents, and exert mutual effort to resolve conflicts in a non-violent way.
  • The therapeutic approach is based on a combination of dynamic and cognitive behavioral techniques. The therapists view violent behavior as a result of emotional blocks, and navigate the residents through a multi-level process that leads to their taking responsibility for their violent actions, understanding the consequences thereof, and creating alternative communication means, i.e., assertiveness and honesty.
Source of Information
Response of the Government of Israel to the questionnaire on violence against women, February 2009
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