title: Searching for the mechanisms of change: a protocol for a realist review of batterer treatment programmes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Conflicting results reported by evaluations of typical batterer intervention programmes leave many judicial officials and policymakers uncertain about the best way to respond to domestic violence, and whether to recommend and fund these programmes. Traditional evaluations and systematic reviews tend to focus predominantly on whether the programmes 'worked' (eg, reduced recidivism) often at the exclusion of understanding for whom they may or may not have worked, under what circumstances, and why.
  
  
  METHODS
  We are undertaking a realist review of the batterer treatment programme literature with the aim of addressing this gap. Keeping with the goals of realist review, our primary aims are to identify the theory that underlies these programmes, highlight the mechanisms that trigger changes in participant behaviour and finally explain why these programmes help some individuals reduce their use of violence and under what conditions they are effective or not effective. We begin by describing the process of perpetrator treatment, and by proposing an initial theoretical model of behaviour change that will be tested by our review. We then describe the criteria for inclusion of an evaluation into the review, the search strategy we will use to identify the studies, and the plan for data extraction and analysis.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The results of this review will be written up using the RAMESES Guidelines for Realist Synthesis, and disseminated through peer-reviewed publications aimed at the practitioner community as well as presented at community forums, and at violence against women conferences. Ethics approval was not needed.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Inner City Health, St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Division of Community Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: Alisa J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9787-979X
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Velonis
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Inner City Health, St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cheff
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Inner City Health, St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Debbie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Finn
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Inner City Health, St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Whitney
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Davloor
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Inner City Health, St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: O'Campo
mesh_terms: D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D012107:Research Design; D012196:Review Literature as Topic
keywords: domestic violence treatment; evidence-based practices; realist review