Changing
perpetrators' behavior to prevent violence against women in Mexico

According to a 2021 national survey on household relationship dynamics, seven in ten women aged 15 and older have experienced at least one form of violence during their lifetime in Mexico (INEGI, ENDIREH 2021). This violence directly restricts women's freedom of movement, their access to employment, and their financial stability.

In response, Mexico's legal framework has evolved: the 2007 General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence made rehabilitation programs for perpetrators of violence mandatory. Specialized centers, known as CECOVIM (centers dedicated to eliminating violent behavior within couples and families), have since been rolled out nationwide to work with perpetrators of violence.

Globally, most gender-based violence prevention mechanisms focus on protecting victims: approaches centered on perpetrators remain rare, and their effects are still rarely evaluated. Among them, the ACTV approach (Achieving Change Through Values-Based Behavior), developed in the United States using acceptance and commitment therapy, has shown promising results, including lower recidivism rates and longer intervals before reoffending.

The CORE model, designed by ProSociedad based on the ACTV approach, draws on acceptance and commitment therapy to help participants recognize their emotions — anger, shame, the need for control — without acting on them, and to choose non-violent behaviors aligned with their own values.

The program is aimed at men aged 18 to 65 convicted of domestic violence and referred under a conditional suspended sentence, an alternative to incarceration already established within the Mexican judicial system. It runs over 18 weeks, with up to 24 two-hour group sessions of around 12 participants each, alongside individual mentoring that takes into account each person's specific risk factors, such as employment, family dynamics, and isolation.

Participants are referred directly by the judges as part of their judicial measure, which ensures a steady flow of admissions and ongoing supervision. Under the project funded by FID, the project team is pursuing two complementary goals: transferring the CORE model's implementation to public institutions in the state of Jalisco (municipal and state governments), and laying the groundwork for a future impact evaluation. This involves strengthening data collection and management systems, standardizing monitoring protocols, and training public officials to facilitate the sessions.

Two iterations of the model have already been carried out with 120 participants. Early internal data point to improvements in emotional regulation and a reduction in violent behavior, although these results have not yet undergone rigorous validation.

By the end of this project, several concrete results are expected:

• At the operational level, a third cohort of 216 men will take part in the program during this phase. The results of this iteration, along with the training materials and supervision protocols developed, will be shared with other Mexican states which have already expressed interest in adopting the CORE model using their own institutional resources.
• At the institutional level, formal agreements with municipalities and the state government will allow trained public officials to run CORE sessions themselves, without relying on the project team. This capacity for self-sufficiency is a key condition for scaling up the program in the future.
• On the data side, a centralized infrastructure will make it possible to track participants over time, using standardized indicators covering socio-emotional skills, behaviors, and risk factors for violence. These data will form the basis for a future impact evaluation with a control group.