Examination of the Outcomes of Various Components of a Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence by Male Offenders

• NCJ Number: 219731
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 22 Issue: 6 Dated: August 2007 Pages: 367-381
• Author(s): Jeffrey A. Bouffard; Lisa R. Muftic
• Date Published: August 2007
• Length: 15 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: North Dakota State University
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research); Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the impact on domestic violence cases of participation in a coordinated community response (CCR) to domestic violence in a mid-sized city.

Abstract

Study findings showed differences in the types of offenders who complied with various aspects of the court's order for supervised community-based assessment and treatment for domestic violence; for example, offenders with a previous arrest for domestic violence were significantly less likely to appear for their program intake interview than those without such histories. Offenders who did not appear for their intake interviews were also significantly more likely to reoffend than those who began compliance with the court order. Individuals with higher levels of education, less serious criminal records and current criminal charges, and a deferred imposition sentence were less likely to be deemed "in need" of treatment in clinicians' judgments. Differences in the co-occurrence of drug and alcohol treatment needs were also found to predict which offenders would complete the 24-week intensive domestic violence treatment program. This finding suggests that the CCR could be improved by adding treatment components that target co-occurring substance abuse treatment issues. The more serious offenders (those with prior domestic violence arrests and protection orders placed against them) were more likely to reoffend (both general and domestic violence reoffending) than those without histories of domestic violence. On the other hand, there was no indication that the number of intervention components completed impacted the probability of reoffending, although relatively few participants completed multiple components of the intervention, which limits confidence in these conclusions. The study obtained profile and program participation data on 131 male domestic violence offenders involved in a CCR intervention. 6 tables and 23 references