Recommended Research
Research will be needed in order to gauge the effectiveness of meditation as a form of rehabilitation for batterers. The SFSD's comprehensive program, “Resolve to Stop the Violence,” TCSD's similar program, and the Insight Prison Project in California's San Quentin State Prison, should be investigated for best practices and overall effectiveness before implementing an alternative model that incorporates meditation. Moreover, it would be beneficial to continue researching prison meditation programs and other meditation programs that work with people who use violence, including research on prisoners after their release. Also, an in-depth study of the effectiveness of meditation on individuals who do not self-enlist in programs would be valuable to see if individuals who may harbor initial resistance eventually respond to the idea, (as has been reported in the SFSD's program).
Unfortunately, we live in a world where DV is widely prevalent. In order to stop DV it is imperative that we encounter effective solutions to help batterers transform themselves so that they stop committing violence. We must also understand that the dynamics that contribute to the pervasive pathology of DV are both societal and personal, thus efforts to make change must take place on both societal and individual levels. Since batterers must reconstruct themselves on a social and neuro-physiological level, multi-faceted approaches are necessary which incorporate more than education alone can provide. As previously discussed, BIPs are currently not as effective as they could be because they lack tangible tools to help transform batterers from the inside out. Perhaps the key to ending DV is to motivate batterers to want to escape their addiction to control and abuse. Batterers must become aware of their own internal suffering and take conscious action to diminish it; this is precisely what meditation enables practitioners to do.
Though meditation may be viewed as a “soft” technique geared toward healing the batterer, it has proved to be effective at extinguishing violent behavior in many individuals for thousands of years. Meditation enables practitioners to attain a state of equanimity and cultivate compassion and empathy, even in violent-prone individuals. RV12 commented, “With meditation, we establish a stronger connection with our higher selves. Our higher selves have every intention of helping us discover our true paths towards enlightenment.” Moreover, I believe that meditation helps people feel connected to all life forms, or as Buddhist philosophy articulates, to be “one” with all that is. Similar to Confucianism and the axiom, “In order for the forest to be green, the trees must be green,” in order to have a peaceful and nonviolent world we must first have peaceful and nonviolent individuals. I believe that peace and rehabilitation can be achieved through the practice of meditation.
As Buddhist author Alan Wallace states, “Behavior is temporary.”146 Behavior does not make us who we are, it is merely is a manifestation of our suffering. Wallace explains that if we equate people with their behavior, we have equated them with their afflictions. When hostility arises, it is often because of this delusion that people are their negative qualities. Therefore, we must separate the person from their mental afflictions and behaviors and recognize that they are suffering, and that they, like us, want to be happy and free of suffering. We must keep this concept in mind when discussing batterers. Although it is crucial that we analyze the various social dynamics that contribute to domestic violence, ultimately, the choice to commit violence is a personal decision. Perhaps instead of demonizing batterers as vicious, uncaring “monsters,” we should have compassion, and aim to help them eradicate their own internal suffering, which I argue is the root cause of their abusive thoughts and actions.
Finally, we must ask the crucial question, is the goal to punish batterers for their violent attitudes and behaviors, or to help transform them to ensure that the abuse never happens again? If the former is the goal, then we should continue with the more punitive measures that focus on education and accountability. However, if our goal is the latter, then I recommended that we add the experiential practice of meditation to the feminist-based education curriculum, as explained in my proposed model. It seems evident that the benefits that have been found to emerge from the regular practice of meditation are precisely those that would help batterers overcome their pathology. Ultimately, the choice is ours to make.