Praxis asbl — Evaluated Group Programme for Intimate-Partner-Violence Perpetrators in French-Speaking Belgium

Founded in 2000, Praxis asbl is a specialist non-profit that runs "groupes de responsabilisation" (accountability groups) for perpetrators of intimate-partner and family violence across Wallonia and Brussels, operating from three offices (Liège, Brussels, Hainaut) with a team of about twenty psychologists, criminologists and social workers.

Around 75% of participants are court-mandated, and about 90% are men. The programme runs 21 weekly two-hour sessions (45 hours in total) in closed groups, requiring participants first to acknowledge the violence they committed, then working through its roots, its effects on victims, and alternatives to violent responses in conflict.

An independent evaluation by Charlotte Vanneste, research director at Belgium's National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC/INCC) and professor at the University of Liège, found that one in five Praxis graduates reoffended within two years, falling to 18% among those who completed all 21 sessions — compared with a 54% two-year reoffending rate among perpetrators who received only a fine or a prison sentence with no behavioural programme.

The comparison suggests the programme is associated with substantially lower reoffending than punitive sanctions alone, though as a non-randomised comparison it cannot fully rule out selection effects between who is referred to Praxis and who receives only a fine or prison term.