The Violence Integrative Prevention and Restoration Model s not a technique, program, treatment, policy, course, project, method, or procedure. It's not something one DOES to others. Rather, it is a framework within which a broad range of programs and practices can operate without the numbing barriers found in punishment-based approaches.
Examples
There are a number of different types of frameworks. For example, there is a religious framework. In some forms of this framework, violence is seen as evil; those committing acts of violence as evil-doers; and those who have violence done to them as victims or martyrs. Violence may be believed to come from the devil or devils, or unseen and frightening forces. The response to violence under this framework can be punishment, injury, or death. Examples are torture of those who commit acts of violence as well as hanging and beheading.
Another example is the legal/moral framework. Under this framework, violence is seen as a moral failing (or failing of character) and a crime. The legal/moral world is divided into criminals, victims, and the criminal-justice system which is responsible for providing protection from criminals as well as chasing them down when they commit crimes.
Sharing the Drama Triangle
Both of these approaches are widespread. They see violence through the eyes of the "drama triangle." Developed by Dr. Stephen Karpman, this way of describing human behavior succinctly describes the melodrama which is characteristic of these traditional approaches to violence. There are three types of players on the drama triangle.
The first is the "persecutor." The persecutor is the villain in the drama — the one that commits the act of violence. The second is the "victim" — the one on the receiving end of the violence and who takes the role of the "underdog" in the drama. The third is the "rescuer" — the one who jumps in to help the "victim" and who takes on the role of the hero.
Persecutors, victims, and rescuers can be individuals or groups of people such a nations, ethnic groups, businesses, military units, professions, or any other combination of people.
The drama triangle is a game. It stimulates us with the drama and perpetuates the cycle of violence in a convoluted and continuing set of human transactions. For example, rescuers can persecute persecutors, making the persecutor into a victim. The roles keep changing and the drama continues.
The PAR Model Framework
The PAR Model is free of the drama triangle. Violent transactions, as seen through the eyes of the PAR Model, have no persecutors, no victims, and no rescuers. Instead, there are stakeholders — each with a relationship to violence. Punishment is replaced with evidence-based treatment; resentment with understanding; revenge with healing; condemnation with restoration; fear with confidence; futility with action; helplessness with power.
The PAR Model provides a framework under which those affected by violence as well as professionals working in the field can integrate an understanding of power issues, brain dynamics, and a person's ability to restructure their experience of reality so that violence is replaced with healthy expressions of power. This approach and its core elements allow a broad range of disciplines and techniques — such as chemical addiction treatment programs, job skills training, and psychotherapy — to operate free of the inhibiting weight of traditional drama triangle approaches.
The Public Health Approach
The PAR Model is a non-political and non-religious approach to the epidemic of violence. The Model incorporates a number of public health components including epidemiology (understanding the nature and dynamics of the Severe Malevolent Thought Virus), prevention, health eduction (including education programs), data gathering and analysis, behavioral science, nutrition (expanding to cover all five bodies), demographics, govenment policy and management, infant and child development, research and evaluation, and health promotion.
