# Ellen Pence *American sociologist and activist credited with the Duluth Model of coordinated community response to domestic violence.* Ellen Louise Pence (April 15, 1948 – January 6, 2012), a native of [[Minneapolis]], co-founded the [[Domestic Abuse Intervention Project]] (DAIP) in Duluth, [[Minnesota]]. She is credited with devising the [[Duluth model]], under which police, probation, courts and human-service agencies act together on domestic-abuse cases.[^1] The nonprofit that ran the project incorporated in 1980 as Minnesota Program Development, Inc., and says its work "is found in every state".[^2] Pence's Wikipedia biography places the model in all 50 states and more than 17 countries.[^1] In *The Duluth Model*, a paper written by Pence, the model is described as resting on "Empirically tested intervention strategies". The paper also commits public intervention to "ensure due process for offenders through the intervention process."[^3] The organization's dated history records what the model put in place in Duluth. Police issued a mandatory-arrest policy in 1981.[^4] Court-mandated abuser sessions were lengthened from eight to twelve weeks in 1982 and from twelve to twenty-six weeks in 1985. After the prosecutor's "no drop" policy was eliminated in 1985, conviction rates, by the organization's account, "gradually fall from 80% to below 47%."[^5] Minnesota Statutes § 518B.02, enacted in 2001, requires a court that stays a sentence for a domestic abuse offense to order the offender into a counseling or educational program. Its current text sets a program minimum of 24 sessions or 36 hours unless a probation agent recommends fewer.[^6] Pence's papers are held by the [[University of Minnesota]].[^7] In 2014 the Future Policy Award was given to the Duluth Model, and the award named "its founder the late Ellen Pence" among those it recognized.[^8] ## Who Pence took a B.A. in arts at St. Scholastica in Duluth. In 1996 she received a doctorate in sociology from the University of Toronto.[^1] Wikipedia dates her institutional-change work on behalf of battered women from 1975. It records that she founded Praxis International in 1998 and served as its executive director until late 2011, and it names her the chief author of the Praxis Institutional Audit. The Society for the Study of Social Problems gave her its Dorothy E. Smith Scholar Activist Award in 2008.[^1] Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs identifies her as its first director.[^9] A project Time Table row dated 1980 records that she recruited battered women while developing the coordinated community response model.[^10] Her collaborators in the record include Michael Paymar and Coral McDonnell. Together with Pence, they created the Power and Control Wheel.[^11] Paymar was also her co-author on three works: the book *Education Groups for Men Who Batter: The Duluth Model*, the curriculum *Creating a Process of Change for Men Who Batter*, and the documentary *With Impunity: Men and Gender Violence*.[^12] She co-edited the 1999 Sage volume *Coordinating Community Responses to Domestic Violence: Lessons from Duluth and Beyond* with Melanie Shephard of the University of Minnesota School of Social Work.[^9] ## What Pence's paper defines the model as "an inter-agency approach that brings the justice and human service interventions together around the primary goal of protecting victims from ongoing abuse." It states that the model was conceived and implemented in Duluth in 1980–81.[^3] The paper also states that "Eleven agencies formed the initial collaborative initiative." The organization's history gives different counts: nine city, county and private agencies at the outset, eight agencies in the 1981 experimental network, and nine agencies making the policies permanent in 1982.[^2][^4] Among the model's stated assertions is that "The primary responsibility of placing controls on abusers belongs to the community and the individual abuser not the victim of abuse."[^3] Its fourth strategic principle lists the responses the model requires. These include "Mandatory arrest for primary aggressors" and "The use of court ordered educational groups for men who batter."[^3] The Power and Control Wheel is described as "a way of visually representing the tactics typically used by men who batter." The organization's account dates the wheel to 1982. It states that Pence, McDonnell and Paymar created it as part of a curriculum for a court-ordered program for men who batter, drawing on groups of battered women in Duluth.[^11] The same account states, "The wheel is not a theory. It is a conceptual tool." It adds that "The wheel was based on women's experience in hetero-sexual intimate partner relationships."[^11] The organization's history gives a different origin, dating the wheel to 1983 and to "Women in the neighborhood groups".[^13] A project Time Table row dates it to 1981.[^14] By 1984 the three designers had developed a companion Equality Wheel.[^11] The organization's history records that Springer Publishing Company published *Education Groups for Men Who Batter: The Duluth Model* in 1993. A project claim row gives the same publisher and year.[^15][^16] Two project Time Table rows instead date the book to 1985 and to July 1987.[^17][^18] In 2003 the Duluth curriculum for men who batter was renamed. Formerly titled *Power and Control: Tactics of Men Who Batter*, it became *Creating a Process of Change for Men Who Batter*.[^19] The project's claim rows list further material on Pence's work: - A PubMed-indexed article, *The Contributions of Ellen Pence to Batterer Programming*.[^20] - A 2006 work by Pence and Das Dasgupta, *Rethinking the Duluth Model*.[^21] - A biographical profile and Duluth Model papers at the Duluth Public Library.[^22] ## When - **1980:** The DAIP organizes under Minnesota Program Development, Inc. At the request of the Duluth shelter (Women's Coalition), Duluth is selected as the site of a pilot criminal justice reform project.[^2] - **1981:** Duluth police issue the experimental mandatory-arrest policy. Eight agencies agree on experimental guidelines, and three mental health centers start groups for men who batter.[^4] - **1982:** After an initial evaluation, nine agencies make the experimental policies permanent. The court raises mandated abuser sessions from eight to twelve weeks.[^5] - **1985:** Mandated sessions rise to twenty-six weeks. The prosecutor's "no drop" policy is eliminated.[^5] - **1987:** The City of Duluth receives a Kennedy School of Government award for its domestic-assault policy changes, and the prosecutor's office returns to subpoenaing victims.[^23] The two organizational sources name the award differently. The 2017 history calls it the John F. Kennedy School of Government Award from the Ford Foundation for *Innovations in State and Local Government*. The current recognitions page calls it the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Innovations in American Government Award.[^23][^24] - **1989:** Duluth police adopt a policy that eliminates arrests in self-defense cases. The DAIP organizes the National Training Project to teach the model and to build an ongoing funding source for its programs. A five-year recidivism study of 1985 arrests is completed.[^25] - **1993:** The Department of Health and Human Services funds Minnesota Program Development, Inc. to form the [[Battered Women's Justice Project]].[^15] - **1996:** The U.S. Department of Justice's Violence Against Indian Women Office funds the Mending the Sacred Hoop Technical Assistance Project. The U.S. Marine Corps contracts with the organization for coordinated-response work at installations in the U.S. and Japan.[^26] - **1997:** Pence publishes her University of Toronto doctoral thesis, *Safety for Battered Women in a Textually Mediated Legal System*, which the organization treats as the start of its Domestic Violence Safety and Accountability Audit.[^27] Wikipedia dates her doctorate to 1996.[^1] - **1999:** The [[National Institute of Justice]] awards the organization a grant to study the impact of court intervention on Native American women.[^9] - **2001:** § 518B.02 is enacted (1Sp2001 c 8 art 10 s 6). It was amended in 2013, subdivision 3 was repealed in 2023, and subdivision 2 was amended in 2026 (c 97 art 1 s 20).[^6] - **2005:** Congress reauthorizes the Violence Against Women Act through H.R. 3402 (109th Congress). A project Time Table row records that Duluth Model funding continued under it.[^28] - **February 5, 2010:** The mayor of Duluth declares "Ellen Pence Day", citing her 20 years of work in Duluth.[^29] - **2011:** Duluth is selected as one of three national sites for the Blueprint for Safety Adaptation Demonstration Initiative. The initiative is a project of the [[Office on Violence Against Women]] carried out with Praxis International.[^30] - **January 6, 2012:** Pence dies of breast cancer, aged 63, in St. Paul.[^1] - **2014:** The Duluth Model receives the Future Policy Award for Ending Violence against Women and Girls.[^8] - **2015:** Sites in the witness-intimidation initiative funded by the [[Bureau of Justice Assistance]] use the Safety Audit process created by Pence.[^30] - **2017:** The organization completes the Blueprint for Safety Demonstration Project funded by the Office on Violence Against Women.[^31] ## Where The model originated in Duluth, which Pence's paper describes as a small working-class city in northern Minnesota.[^3] The project began in an upstairs kitchen of the Duluth Community Health Center. The organization is now located at 202 East Superior Street.[^2] In 1982 the DAIP worked with Range Women Advocates to adapt the model in four rural mining communities in northern Minnesota.[^5] A project Time Table row dated January 2012 records that Pence's papers are archived at the University of Minnesota.[^7] ## Why Pence's paper states several goals for public intervention: - protect victims of ongoing abuse; - hold perpetrators and intervening practitioners accountable for victim safety; - offer offenders an opportunity to change, including punishment if it enhances victim safety; - ensure due process for offenders. It places the focus on stopping the violence, not on fixing or ending relationships.[^3] It credits the model's spread among reformers to its "activist, reform oriented origins".[^3] The organization records that Duluth was chosen as the pilot site at the request of the local shelter.[^2] ## How The model works through changes in "eight core methods of coordinating workers' actions on a case." These include an inter-agency tracking and information-sharing system, periodic evaluations, bi-monthly inter-agency meetings, and accountability clauses in written policies.[^3] Section 518B.02 sets standards for court-ordered programs. Programs must report offenders' threats, violence and order violations to the court and probation. They must have written policies requiring that facilitators "hold offenders and abusing parties solely responsible for their behavior." They must forbid couples counseling until the offender completes the minimum sessions. They must coordinate with "battered women's and domestic abuse programs".[^6] The statute also provides: "Programs must provide separate sessions for male and female offenders and abusing parties." The statute does not name the Duluth Model, and the record does not establish which Minnesota programs use its curriculum.[^6] The state's statutory framework for battered women predates the project. Chapter 428 of the 1977 session laws (S.F. No. 124) was enacted by the [[Minnesota Legislature]] and approved June 2, 1977. It directed the commissioner of corrections to designate four pilot shelter and support programs: two in the seven-county metropolitan area, one in a city outside it, and one serving a predominantly rural population. It defined "battered woman" as "a woman who is being or has been assaulted by her spouse, other male relative, or by a male with whom she is residing or has resided" in the past. It also required every licensed hospital, physician, public health nurse and local law enforcement agency to collect data on battered women.[^32] ## How much Chapter 428 appropriated $500,000 from the general fund for the biennium ending June 30, 1979. No more than $50,000 could go to education grants, and no more than 15 percent to administration. The act separately appropriated $100,000 to the governor's manpower office for displaced-homemaker programs.[^32] In 2023 the Northland Foundation awarded the Carlton County Attorney's Office and the DAIP a $150,000 grant to examine the county's domestic-violence practices.[^33] The record carries no dollar figures for the federal grants and contracts listed above. ## How many The organization states that its work is found in every state.[^2] Wikipedia gives all 50 states and over 17 countries.[^1] The organization reports that the wheels "have been translated into over 30 languages and over 20 different cultural contexts".[^11] Pence's paper states that the initiative "became the most replicated woman abuse intervention model in the country."[^3] Other counts in the organization's record: - **1989:** The first on-site institute drew practitioners from eleven states.[^25] - **1998:** A national conference in Duluth drew more than 500 attendees.[^34] - **2014:** The Future Policy Award was chosen from 25 international nominations.[^8] ## Omissions in official accounts *The Duluth Model* states that the model "has been widely successful in offering greater victim protection and reducing repeat acts of violence in many different communities." It adds: "But it has not been successful everywhere."[^3] The paper cites no study, figure or date for either statement. The same organization's history records two relevant items. For 1985, it records the elimination of the "no drop" policy and the fall in conviction rates from 80% to below 47%.[^5] For 1989, it records the completion of a five-year recidivism study of 1985 arrests, described as the first such study in the U.S., but it does not report the findings.[^25] The record shows that the study was completed; it does not establish what the study found. ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *Ellen Pence* (revid 1368217132, retrieved 2026-10-27) — birth, education, 1975 start of advocacy, Praxis International, 2008 award, death January 6, 2012, in St. Paul; model in all 50 states and over 17 countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Pence [^2]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History, Benchmarks, and Recognitions* (©2025) — 1980 incorporation as Minnesota Program Development, Inc.; origin in the Duluth Community Health Center; nine agencies; work "found in every state"; 1980 pilot-site selection; address. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/about-us/recognitions/ [^3]: Ellen Pence, *The Duluth Model* (Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, undated; posted 2017) — definition, eleven agencies, assertions, goals, strategic principles, eight core methods, success statement. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/The-Duluth-Model.pdf [^4]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History and Recognition* (2017), 1981 entries — mandatory arrest policy; eight-agency network; groups for men who batter. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DAIP-History-and-Recognition-2017.pdf [^5]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History and Recognition* (2017), 1982 and 1985 entries — permanent policies; sessions from eight to twelve and twelve to twenty-six weeks; Range Women Advocates; "no drop" elimination and conviction rates. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DAIP-History-and-Recognition-2017.pdf [^6]: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, *Minnesota Statutes 2025, section 518B.02* — text of subds. 1–2; history 1Sp2001 c 8 art 10 s 6; 2013 c 125 art 1 s 82; 2023 c 52 art 5 s 80; 2026 c 97 art 1 s 20. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/518B.02 [^7]: University of Minnesota Libraries, archival collection record (project Time Table row TL-0805, January 2012) — Pence's papers archived at the University of Minnesota. https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/11/resources/6836 [^8]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History, Benchmarks, and Recognitions*, 2014 entry — Future Policy Award; 25 nominations; recognition of Pence as founder. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/about-us/recognitions/ [^9]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History, Benchmarks, and Recognitions*, 1999 entry — Pence as first director; Sage volume with Melanie Shephard; NIJ grant. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/about-us/recognitions/ [^10]: Project Time Table row TL-0379 (1980), citing Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History* — Pence recruits battered women and develops the coordinated community response model. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/about-us/history/ [^11]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *The Development of the Power and Control and Equality Wheels* (undated; posted 2017) — 1982 creation by Pence, McDonnell and Paymar; "not a theory"; 1984 Equality Wheel; over 30 languages. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/The-Development-of-the-Power-and-Control.pdf [^12]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History, Benchmarks, and Recognitions*, 2024 entry — Pence–Paymar co-authored book, curriculum and documentary. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/about-us/recognitions/ [^13]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History and Recognition* (2017), 1983 entry — women in the neighborhood groups develop the Power and Control Wheel. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DAIP-History-and-Recognition-2017.pdf [^14]: Project Time Table row TL-0393 (1981), citing Wikipedia, *Duluth model* — dates the wheel to 1981. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duluth_model [^15]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History and Recognition* (2017), 1993 entries — Springer publication of the book; HHS funding to form the Battered Women's Justice Project. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DAIP-History-and-Recognition-2017.pdf [^16]: Project claim row S-8032 — Pence and Paymar, *Education Groups for Men Who Batter: The Duluth Model* (Springer, 1993). https://duluth-model.org/ [^17]: Project Time Table row TL-0471 (1985), citing Wikipedia, *Ellen Pence* — dates the book to 1985. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Pence [^18]: Project Time Table row TL-0509 (July 1987), citing Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *About Us* — dates the book to 1987. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/about-us/ [^19]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History and Recognition* (2017), 2003 entry — renaming of the men's curriculum. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DAIP-History-and-Recognition-2017.pdf [^20]: PubMed, *The Contributions of Ellen Pence to Batterer Programming* (project claim row S-7754) — index record of the article. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20710000/ [^21]: VAWnet (project claim row S-8044) — lists Pence and Das Dasgupta, *Rethinking the Duluth Model* (2006). https://www.vawnet.org/ [^22]: Duluth Public Library (project claim row S-8034) — Pence biographical profile and Duluth Model papers. https://duluth.lib.mn.us/ [^23]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History and Recognition* (2017), 1987 entries — Kennedy School award; prosecutor resumes subpoenaing victims. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DAIP-History-and-Recognition-2017.pdf [^24]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History, Benchmarks, and Recognitions*, 1987 entry — award named as the Innovations in American Government Award. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/about-us/recognitions/ [^25]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History and Recognition* (2017), 1989 entries — self-defense arrest policy; National Training Project; institute for eleven states; five-year recidivism study. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DAIP-History-and-Recognition-2017.pdf [^26]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History and Recognition* (2017), 1996 entries — DOJ Violence Against Indian Women Office funding; Marine Corps contract. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DAIP-History-and-Recognition-2017.pdf [^27]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History, Benchmarks, and Recognitions*, 1997 entry — Pence's doctoral thesis and the origin of the Safety Audit. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/about-us/recognitions/ [^28]: Congress.gov, *H.R. 3402, 109th Congress* (2005; project Time Table row TL-0750) — VAWA reauthorization; the row's statement that Duluth Model funding continued. https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/3402 [^29]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History, Benchmarks, and Recognitions*, 2010 entry — "Ellen Pence Day," February 5, 2010. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/about-us/recognitions/ [^30]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History, Benchmarks, and Recognitions*, 2015 entry — 2011 Blueprint site selection (OVW, Praxis International); witness-intimidation initiative funded by BJA using Pence's Safety Audit. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/about-us/recognitions/ [^31]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History and Recognition* (2017), 2017 entry — Blueprint for Safety Demonstration Project funded by the Office on Violence Against Women. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DAIP-History-and-Recognition-2017.pdf [^32]: Minnesota Legislature, *Laws of Minnesota 1977, Chapter 428 (S.F. No. 124)* (approved June 2, 1977) — pilot programs; definition of "battered woman"; mandatory data collection; appropriations. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1977/0/428 [^33]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History, Benchmarks, and Recognitions*, 2023 entry — $150,000 Northland Foundation grant. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/about-us/recognitions/ [^34]: Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, *History and Recognition* (2017), 1998 entry — national conference for more than 500 attendees. https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DAIP-History-and-Recognition-2017.pdf