Upstream Solution to Domestic Violence: Comprehensive Pretrial Intervention in New Orleans

The Upstream Solution to Domestic Violence: A Comprehensive Pretrial Intervention project, based in New Orleans, proposes to address domestic violence in New Orleans, Louisiana. The project aims to expand a comprehensive, survivor-centered intervention for domestic violence offenders with the key outcomes of reducing abusive behavior, diverting appropriate cases from incarceration, increasing survivor trust in criminal justice systems, and increasing access to mental health counseling for historically targeted and marginalized populations. The intended beneficiaries are domestic violence survivors, offenders, and their children and communities. The project seeks to build on existing research into evidence-based and promising practices in domestic violence intervention and provide a replicable model for similar jurisdictions.

The project aims to accelerate justice and intervene immediately in cases of domestic violence (divert 50 cases per year away from incarceration, engage survivors immediately, and coordinate community response); provide comprehensive intervention to offenders to reduce domestic violence; increase domestic violence survivor trust in, and satisfaction with, criminal justice response to violence; and address underlying trauma and decrease violent behavior through quality
behavioral health services.

The project will be a partnership between Beyond Harm, a project fiscally sponsored by Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE), Orleans Parish District Attorney (OPDA), and Tulane University’s Violence Prevention Institute (VPI). OPDA will actively screen, engage victims, and provide referrals to this voluntary program. Tulane University’s Violence Prevention Institute (VPI) will assist with process evaluation, develop a toolkit, and train prosecutors and courts on replication of the model.