IDAP (Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme) — Sweden's Discontinued Prison and Probation Perpetrator Programme

IDAP (Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme) was a manualised, cognitive-behavioural group programme for male perpetrators of intimate-partner violence, delivered within Sweden's Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvården) from 2004 and accredited by an independent scientific panel in 2006.
Kriminalvården's own research and development unit evaluated IDAP by comparing 340 convicted offenders who began the programme between 2004 and 2007 against 452 contemporaneous convicted offenders who did not receive it, tracking subsequent violent reoffending.
The evaluation found 25% of IDAP participants reoffended violently compared with 23% of the comparison group — no meaningful difference overall. Within the IDAP group, however, completers reoffended at 18% versus 42% for those who dropped out, suggesting selection effects rather than a clear programme benefit.
Kriminalvården began phasing IDAP out from around 2020, and subsequent independent academic review has cited it as one of the few batterer-intervention programmes tested against a real comparison group internationally — a reminder that popular perpetrator programmes are not automatically effective and that rigorous, honestly reported evaluation is essential before scaling.

Read the full analysis: https://www.kriminalvarden.se/globalassets/publikationer/kartlaggningar-och-utvarderingar/6008_slutrapport_idap-behandlin.pdf