On a much-needed vacation from her work as a county court Judge in the border town of Nogales, Arizona, Judge Mary Helen Maley took three books with her to explore treatment options to the seemingly intractable problem of intimate abuse. Although Arizona has some of the strictest domestic violence legislation in the nation, it ranks seventh in the nation for domestic violence-related deaths. In 2006, domestic violence accounted for more than fifty percent of female homicides in Arizona.

The first two books Judge Maley read supported the status quo for dealing with most intimate violence offenders—batterer re-education programs, where an offender is treated alongside other abusers, but in isolation from his/her partner and family. The third book, Linda G. Mills’ Insult to Injury: Rethinking Our Responses to Intimate Abuse (Princeton, 2003) argued for confronting violent behavior within an “Intimate Abuse Circle,” a regularly-meeting group composed of an individual offender, family and community members, and the victim(s), if they wished to participate. This approach, Mills argued, would allow offenders, along with all of those affected by the violence, to address negative behaviors, and other underlying issues, such as financial trouble, a history of abuse, or substance abuse. Based on restorative justice principles, the process promotes healing through honest self-reflection, acknowledgement of wrongdoing, and connection to the broader community.

For years, Judge Maley had witnessed families and communities torn apart by domestic violence, despite stringent criminal punishment. She called Mills immediately, and a few weeks later, the professor presented the circle model to a group of fifty Nogales community members. Within three days, the community had adapted the model to Nogales’s needs and christened it with their own name: Construyendo Circulos de Paz (CCP), or Constructing Circles of Peace.  By June 2005, Judge Maley and her colleagues were referring half of all domestic violence offenders to CCPs.

How do CCPs Work?
Before discussing how the Transition framework informs CCPs, it is helpful to be aware of how Circles work. Once a judge has referred an offender—known as the “applicant” in CCP language—into the program, probation officers assess whether the offender has taken responsibility for the incident, appears willing to change his/her harmful behaviors, and would benefit from the support of extended community members. Most applicants begin CCPs on a plea agreement, but some enter the program after an Order of Protection or after incarceration as a condition of release.

Once accepted into the CCP program, a professional Circle Keeper works with the applicant to identify support people who will take part in the circle. In addition to the Circle Keeper, applicant and his/her support members, CCPs include trained outside community members and, when willing, the victim—referred to as the “participant”—and his/her support people. The total number of Circle participants can range from five to nine.

Circles meet for 26 weekly 2-hour sessions to discuss what is contributing to the violence and how to heal the couple or family. The group begins by developing a set of core values to guide their work and crafting a “Social Compact” that outlines their goals. After 26 weeks of learning to work with one another, listening to each other’s stories, and challenging each other to change, the group generally forms a tight bond. In many cases, the network of support developed through the Circles extends beyond the 26 weeks or the confines of the sessions. 

Application of the Transition Framework

Transition Among Circle Participants
Like many of the male applicants who participate in CCPs, Mario Rodriquez¹ started the circle process tight-lipped and uncomfortable. He was a prominent and proud businessman, and he was ashamed and embarrassed to have to air his problems with others. He had grown up in a family and community where men do not talk about their feelings—much less share them with complete strangers. Multiple sessions passed with Mario uttering few words, rolling his eyes, and checking his watch. 

During the fifth session, Teresa Morales, CCP Program Manager, brought in a “Transitions map” and asked everyone to share an experience that illustrated one of the three phases. Morales assumed this would be another silent session for Mario, but after all of the participants had passed the talking stick around, he burst into tears.

The levies that had walled in his emotions finally gave way. “I feel like a huge storm came and left a river of trash,” he said, adding, “I feel like I’m in the middle of the current, being dragged by it, and banged up by the trash and I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to reach the bank.”  Mario talked openly about the intense pain he had felt when his wife called the police, the shame and humiliation he had experienced in jail, and the horror that overtook him when he acknowledged what he had done. He hated the person he had become. His violence was a storm that had upended his life and now he was in the current of the Neutral Zone and had to deal with the remnants of that bad weather by confronting his anger, his relationship with his wife, and his identity as a man.

For CCP program manager Morales, this moment epitomizes the power of the Transition Framework to provide a language for people to be honest, open and to reflect deeply. “Transition is what makes the Circle process the transformative experience that it is,” she says. “It prompts us to think about who we are and why we behave the way that we do. You have to know that before you can figure out who you want to be.”

The synergy between Circles and the Transition framework was evident to professor Mills early on. “When we heard about Transitions, we knew it was the missing link for the Circle process,” she says. Likewise, the Circles, and many of its components, such as the Social Compact and developing support networks, provide a useful structure for managing both individual and community transitions. 

Identifying and developing a network of support is fundamental to both the Circle process and for Transitions. In the CCP context, support people help the applicant and participant acknowledge what behaviors they need to let go of to nurture a healthy relationship (Endings). Support people also signal when participants are reverting to old attitudes or ways of interacting (Neutral Zone), or reinforce positive changes they have made in their individual lives and relationships (New Beginnings).  

Circle Keepers expand the network of support for a family or couple by connecting them to community resources, such as mental health professionals, substance abuse counselors, job training, and education services. By deepening support systems for both applicants and participants, Circle Keepers help sustain transitions triggered by the Circle process. 

While most applicants initially resist the involvement of community members in the Circle, CCP program manager Morales believes their participation is integral to the person’s transition: “When I see men with tears in their eyes thanking the ‘stranger,’—who at first they did not want included in the Circle—for showing up week after week, and supporting them through this tough time in their lives, I know that something magical is happening.” The realization that people in the community truly care about them and their family allows applicants to open up to the group. “Once they realize that they matter to others,” Morales explains, “then they think ‘this person isn’t here to judge me, they’re not just focusing on my faults. They’re sharing their faults and weaknesses too.’” 

Once this trust is established in the Circles, the team is able to address hot-button issues in a less-charged setting. Viewed through the lens of Transition, discussions that might have once escalated to violence between an applicant and his/her partner are understood as a necessary part of the team’s work. It is easier to talk about issues underlying the violence, such as alcohol abuse, a family history of abuse, or behaviors that trigger violence, in a setting that is focused on healing and renewing the family, rather than simply passing judgment.

The Social Compact—which an applicant first drafts together with CPP program personnel and then continually revises with the group—is an ideal tool to begin to establish order in the confusing aftermath of violence and as the Circle begins the uneasy task of working together. The “initial social compact” includes basic goals for changing behavior and restoring peace to the victim, family and community. The compact is continually revised as new challenges and goals are revealed; over time, the compact encompasses goals and responsibilities of all participants.  This important tool for navigating the Neutral Zone gives everyone in the Circle a roadmap for what they hope to accomplish and how they will get there.

It is not just the applicants who are transformed by Circles. As Mills notes, “Circles cultivate in all who attend the potential for change and renewal.” Circles give all participants a safe, supportive environment to reflect on their behaviors, attitudes, and relationships. Through that reflection, participants and even outside community members discover new things about themselves and their families. 

In one Circle, a quiet, timid, stay-at-home mother of four discovered that she sometimes used her silence to hurt her husband. By the end of the 26 sessions, the woman, a Mexican immigrant who spoke only Spanish, found her voice, not only in her ability to communicate with her husband, but also to express what she needed out of the relationship and what she wanted to accomplish in her life. Shortly after the Circle process ended, she enrolled in English classes and made plans to become an American citizen. 

Another member of that same Circle who served as the support person for the applicant recognized some unhealthy patterns of behavior in his relationship with his own wife. “We don’t really know how to talk with one another…and we absolutely need to fight nicer,” he told the Circle. As a testament to the strong friendship, trust and inspiration that had developed among participants, that Circle stayed together voluntarily to address a new family’s challenges before they erupted in violence.

Transition Among CCP Program Leaders
At the outset, CCPs operated under a relatively informal structure and relied heavily on dedicated volunteers. While this system worked well in the early stages, it faced challenges as the number of referrals increased. In less than a year, the number of Circles jumped from eight to 30—requiring greater administrative oversight, increased data collection, and the hiring and training of new circle keepers. 

Judge Maley, Professor Mills, and the community members who had helped to develop CCPs recognized that the program had arrived in its own Neutral Zone. In launching CCPs, they had, at least partially, ended their old way of addressing intimate abuse. And though they had begun to try out this new approach, they had not yet embraced their identity as a full-fledged treatment program for intimate abuse. Doing so would require them to formalize CCP operations, hire new staff, and establish a director. 

Such changes triggered a host of anxieties. Would the new staff be as committed to the project as the founders? Would expanding the program dilute the personal attention that initial participants had received?

As is characteristic of the Neutral Zone, this period was also a creative time for the CCP program. “We started thinking of different ways to bring in the community and how to more effectively use Transitions in the Circles,” says Morales. During this time, Morales partnered with a local women’s group, called La Asociacion de Promotoras, that provides health and social services to low-income families in Nogales. The Promotoras provided much-need volunteers to serve the growing number of Circles. In exchange, Morales coached them in developing their own organization. And through this partnership, the CCP process has become further embedded in the broader Nogales community.

The CCP program continues its journey towards its New Beginning as a full-blown organization. In the summer of 2007, the program took one step closer to autonomy, when it moved out from under its host agency, Portable Practical Educational Project (PPEP), and started to operate as an independent non-profit.  Morales admits, “We know it’s the right move, but we still feel the anxiety of the unknown,”—as is the case with all transitions.

Transition Among the Community
The CCP process has pushed Nogales to experience transitions not only in the way it views the issue of intimate abuse, but also in how it defines itself as a community. The predominantly-Latino town has had to shed cultural norms that make it difficult, particularly for men, to share emotions and reach out to others for help. It has had to examine issues that can contribute to intimate abuse—from economic to cultural and religious factors—and to acknowledge ways in which the community reinforces them. And it has had to adapt to new ways of engaging one another and working together.

The payoff has been significant. In its New Beginning, Nogales is experiencing a level of engagement and investment in each other that is rare in most communities today. Inspired by the Circle process and the impact of Transitions, the Asociacion de Promotoras, has incorporated aspects of both models in its work with low-income families on either side of the border. One promotora summed up her appreciation for Transitions this way: “Muchas de nuestras families sienten las emociones de transicion, pero nunca sabiamos porque.  Ahora lo entendemos y nos da mas poder.” (“Many of our families feel the emotions brought on by Transitions, but we never understood why. Now we understand them and that gives us greater power to do our work.”)

Measuring Success
CVR is conducting a range of evaluations to gauge the impact of Transitions in the Circle process. Through the Community Experience of Reconciliation and Transition (CERT) survey, CVR assesses participants’ understanding of the framework at the beginning and end of treatment.  CCP staff also observe the Circles mid-way through the process and record how the framework is informing the process.  Researchers have also interviewed individual offenders and victims, held focus groups with community volunteers, and they also plan to interview criminal justice personnel (district attorney’s office, defense bar, and the local judiciary) to understand better the influence of the program on the community. 

In 2004, CVR received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct a randomized study comparing CCPs and a batterer intervention program (men’s group that uses “classes” to alter attitudes and behavior). To date, 122 offenders have been randomized into the study, and a report is expected in the spring of 2007.

While CVR is still in the data-gathering stage, the staff is overwhelmed by the impact that the CCP process has had in Nogales. “We have offenders who have gone through CCPs and want to come back as a support person or Co-Circle Keeper for someone else,” says Morales. “That says a lot about the success of this program.”

1. The names of participants have been changed. Back ^