Change in Treatment Has No Relationship with Subsequent Re-Offending in U.K. Domestic Violence Sample: A Preliminary Study

• NCJ Number: 224314
• Journal: International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 52 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2008 Pages: 598-614
• Author(s): Erica Bowen; Elizabeth Gilchrist; Anthony R. Beech
• Date Published: October 2008
• Length: 17 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

To address the gap in understanding the process of domestic violence offender rehabilitation in the United Kingdom, the present study examined both group-level statistically significant change and individual clinically significant change across a range of psychological characteristics implicated in domestic violence by the underlying program theory of a profeminist psychoeducational program; the relationship between psychological change and post-treatment offending is also explicitly examined.

Abstract

The results indicate that program completers achieved limited significant psychological change. However, the level of psychological change achieved had no association with reoffending. Although the study directly questions the validity of current group-based interventions for male domestic violence offenders in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, current issues concerning the accurate measurement of criminogenic needs and criminogenic outcomes continue to hamper the ability to adequately evaluate both treatment outcome and the underlying mechanisms of change. A majority of evaluation studies of domestic violence offender rehabilitation programs have employed only one outcome measure, that is, reoffending. To examine how programs achieve their impact it is necessary to examine the underlying program theory. In this study, data were presented from a sample of 52 male domestic violence offenders who were court mandated to attend a profeminist psychoeducational rehabilitation program in the West Midlands. The extent of both statistically and clinically significant psychological change achieved across a variety of measures (pro-domestic violence attitudes, anger, locus of control, interpersonal dependency) assessed pre- and posttreatment, and their association with posttreatment reoffending within an 11-month followup period was examined. Tables, figure, and references