"This work is critical to restorative justice principles and the strategic initiatives of the Washington State Department of Corrections."

— John J. Aldana, Sr.
Superintendent
Olympic Corrections Center

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Exploring the Model

Information about key elements and aspects of the PAR Model can be found on the following pages:

Applying a new "social technology" to the challenge of violence.

The Violence Integrative
Prevention and Restoration Model

A new framework for describing and understanding violence Evidence-based Focus on issues of power Integrates the 5 bodies — physical, emotional mental, environmental and spiritual Public health — nonpolitical, nonreligious Restorative Defines the process from which violence emerges Integrates neuroscience, epidemiology, etc.

The Violence Integrative Prevention and Restoration (PAR) Model is a new, evidence-based, cognitive approach to violence response and prevention built upon a public health foundation. It is a significant departure from the traditional “punitive” model for dealing with violence. The PAR Model incorporates new thinking about and language for describing violence, provides a new framework for preventing and responding to violence, and presents an effective alternative to the commonly-used traditional punitive-based approaches for dealing with violence.

The PAR Model provides a framework within which a broad range of programs and practices can operate without the inhibiting barriers found in punishment-based approaches.

The PAR Model integrates a broad range of diverse disciplines including social theory, the public health approach, developmental theory, evolutionary science (archeology, biology, etc.), psychology, neuroscience, and physiology. The Model also incorporates and integrates the concept of the "five bodes" — the physical, emotional, mental, environmental and the spiritual aspects of human existence.

Although the PAR Model is derived from the Integrative Power Management Model (IPM2), it is the most developed and tested of the three variations of the IPM1. The PAR Model has been successfully demonstrated in international, educational and prison settings.

The Model

The PAR Model provides a foundation for the reduction and, in many settings, elimination of violent crime, child abuse, war, rape, genocide, “honor” killings of women, “ethnic cleansing,” family violence, terrorism, slavery and other forms of violence.

Violence is also an economic problem, reflected in the cost of prisons, police forces, the War on Terror, security (borders, airports, ports, etc.), health costs, veteran costs, economic disruption and personal security.

The PAR Model strips violence of its overtones of fear, superstition, demonization, vengeance and powerlessness. Those using the PAR Model have reported that they see violence and its dynamics in new ways, resulting in more positive, effective, lasting and compassionate outcomes.

►	Comparing Models: The PAR Model is significantly different than traditional, punitive-based responses to violence. Comparing Results: The PAR Model and traditional, punitive-based approaches produce different outcomes.

Violence

Violence is described as a symptom of a:

►	Thought-borne pathogen: ► Severe Malevolent Thought Virus (SMTV) . . . arising from: ► Experienced Power Deprivation (EPD)

The SMTV presents as any action resulting from:

1. An intention to do harm; and/or
2. Attempts to acquire inappropriate power and control for self-serving gain, which results in harm.

Harm can be physical, sexual, mental, emotional and economic. The actions can be “active” — such as hitting or intimidating someone, or depriving someone of rights — or “passive” — such as generating harm through exploitation or neglect. It can also be self-directed, as in the case of self-inflicted injury and suicide. A definition of violence allows us to move forward with an elementary sense of the nature of this disease.

Power and Control

There are three basic questions related to issues of human power and control which are incorporated into the PAR Model. They are:

1. Who am I (what is my value)?
2. What is the nature of the world?
3. What is my place in that world (what does my life mean)?