Assessing the feasibility and fidelity of an intervention for women with violent offenses

• This study examined the feasibility and fidelity of a new intervention called Beyond Violence for incarcerated women with violent offenses.
• Group participants’ feedback was also collected to explore perceived satisfaction and degree of helpfulness.
• Overall, the results from multiple forms of data displayed a high degree of feasibility for and satisfaction with this new intervention, as well as successful fidelity to the intervention model.

Women convicted of assaultive or violent offenses represent a small but important subpopulation of adults involved in the criminal justice system. The limited treatment and rehabilitation programs that are available for these women are usually developed for male offenders and do not consider factors that are especially relevant to women, such as higher rates of mental health and substance use disorders as well as their likely histories of interpersonal violence. Moreover, women's trajectories into violent behavior – as well as their trajectories out – may differ from their male counterparts. Due to the absence of programs available for this unique population, a new gender-specific and trauma informed intervention, Beyond Violence, was developed. This paper describes a pilot study with a mixed-methods approach that assesses the feasibility and fidelity of the intervention within a state prison for women. Overall, various components of feasibility (i.e. engaging the target population, gaining institutional support, and finding skilled treatment staff), were realized, as were fidelity elements such as adherence to the intervention material, and high attendance and satisfaction by participants. The positive results of this pilot study increase the likelihood of dissemination of the intervention and a randomized control trial is currently underway.