New report on domestic violence prevention calls for focusing more resources on partners who cause harm

An Illinois woman says she made a difficult decision to stay with her partner because of their children, despite the couple’s “imperfect relationship.” 


Then one night he attacked her inside their home.

The woman — who spoke on the condition that she be identified only by her first name, Carolina — says her partner hit her in the face. Her 12-year-old daughter heard them fighting and called the police.

After he was taken away in handcuffs, Carolina, 33, said she knew that things had to change.

A judge ordered her partner to enroll in an alcohol abuse treatment and a Partner Abuse Intervention Program, which provides education to people who cause harm in an effort to reduce and prevent domestic violence.

Now four years later, Carolina says the abuse has stopped and she credits the program as a wakeup call for her partner.

While every survivor's experience is unique, a new report commissioned by the Michael Reese Health Trust found that expanding such programming, for those who’ve committed abuse, is essential to ending domestic violence in Illinois.

“If we're really going to truly break the cycle, we need to reach partners who cause harm,” said Jennifer Rosenkranz, senior program director of domestic violence at the Michael Reese Health Trust.

Experts at survivor-centered organizations, like The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence, agree.

“You have to stop it at the source,” Alondra Montes of the Chicago-based The Network said. “They're either going to continue with the new relationship or find their way back to that old partner that they hurt.”

Along with expanding existing partner abuse intervention programs, or PAIPs, the report recommends creating new “non-stigmatizing” resources,” for those who’ve caused harm, like a specific hotline similar to the one available to survivors.

But to do this will require more funding and it shouldn’t come at the expense of survivor services, according to Rosenkranz.

“We have the same goal in preventing and ending domestic violence,” Rosenkranz said. “We need both approaches.”

Advocates said to reach that goal they’ll need to act quickly.

Incidents of domestic violence are on the rise across the area. Calls to the domestic violence hotline were up in Chicago in 2024. Domestic violence homicides increased by 17.8% in 2025, even as murders and other violent crimes in Chicago declined, according to city data.

‘Why aren’t there services for him?’

Christine Call has been advocating against domestic violence for decades, first on the survivor side, and later pioneering some of the earliest abuse intervention programs in the Chicago area.

“The work [and] why I've been so interested in this is [because] it came from the women, from survivors, who were in our program, who would say to me: ‘Why aren't there services for him? I don’t want to live with him again, but I would really like my children to have a father, I would like him to have an opportunity to change,” Call said.

Her organization, the Center for Advancing Domestic Peace, is one of 27 PAIP providers in Cook County, according to the report. There were 2,025 participants referred to PAIPs in fiscal year ‘23, according to data from the Illinois Department of Human Services, which oversees the programs.

These intervention programs typically involve weekly meetings for a group of 12 to 15 people, which run for six months to a year. Meetings center around a group activity, aimed at helping people better understand their behaviors, take accountability and build healthier responses to stress.

“Over the years, as we've done this work, we've recognized that many of the individuals in our programs have also been victims, victims as children, victims as adults, victims in community violence,” Call said.

We give them an opportunity to examine the beliefs that led them to make the decision to harm somebody else, to harm an intimate partner, and give them an opportunity to think about where did they learn that.”

Almost all program participants are ordered to attend by a judge, either through their sentence or as part of an alternative to prosecution. Some PAIPs in Illinois, like Call’s, leave a few seats open to volunteer participants.

‘He regrets how he treated me’

Determining the actual effectiveness of these programs can be a challenge, according to the Michael Reese report, which argues there needs to be more research and thorough evaluations.

During fiscal year ‘23, the Illinois Department of Human Services found only 5% of participants were re-arrested. Of the 27 participants interviewed for the Michael Reese report, the majority reported changes in their behavior.

Carolina, the survivor whose partner participated in the study, said she saw a positive impact.

“He regrets how he treated me,” she said. “When he would get home from his sessions we could sit and talk and he would say that listening to others' stories helped him realize how badly he was treating me.”

The Michael Reese report also recommends expanding the types of services offered to those who harm. They advocate for incorporating case management systems and cognitive behavior therapy into already existing programs and want expanded options for volunteer participants.

There are just two fully volunteer programs in Cook County, and one lost funding last year, according to Rosenkranz.

On top of that, they’re pitching new ideas like a hotline service specifically for people to call if they’re worried they may hurt someone or already have.

Alondra Montes, of The Network, oversees the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline and like Call, has experience in both survivor services and abuse intervention. The current hotline is available to anyone impacted by domestic violence and according to The Network, 272 of the 30,010 calls they received in 2024 were from people causing harm.

Montes believes a line designated for those who harm, will only increase opportunities for prevention and intervention.

“We’ll talk to them just like people and give them resources, just like people, just like the survivors,” Montes said. “Because if they're looking for help, that's great. If they're taking accountability, that's great. That's what they need. That's the first step to getting help.”

For anyone seeking help, the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline is available any time of day at (877) 863-6338.