In response to a previous study that recommended additional referrals and community programming in order to extend the impact of specialized batterer counseling, the current study tested the effectiveness of including case management as part of a batterer program in Pittsburgh, PA.
On the whole, the evaluation found little benefit from the case management. Compared to the treatment participants who did not receive case management, those who received case management were not less likely to reassault their partners. The men who contacted any additional assistance in the form of other counseling or other help were no less likely to reassault their partners or to be rearrested. The small portion of men who received some form of drug and alcohol treatment or "other help" did have slightly lower rates of reassault and rearrest, but this tendency was not statistically significant. In fact, the men with drug and alcohol treatment or other counseling were significantly more likely to have threatened their female partner during the followup. This may be because the men blamed their partners for having to participate in the extra services, were more distressed and threatening, or were aggravated by the additional issues identified in the services. A previous process evaluation exposed difficulties in implementing the case management component of the treatment, getting men to complete the referrals, and in delivering the referral programming. Improving program outcomes may require a more consistent, intensive, and comprehensive implementation of case management. A quasi-experimental design compared batterer program outcomes of a sample of African-American men who entered the batterer program under the case management project (n=202) to a sample of African-American men who entered the program prior to the case management (n=482). Reassaults were identified through a 12-month followup with the female partners at 3-month intervals. 4 tables and 34 references