Citation

Lin SC, Su CY, Chou FHC, Chen SP, Huang JJ, Wu GTE, Chen WJ, Chao SS, Chen CC. J. Forensic Psychiatry Psychol. 2009; 20(3): 458-472.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/14789940802638341

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A case-control trial enrolled 70 high-risk domestic violence (DV) offenders under protective orders and court-ordered batterer treatment (study group) and 231 low-medium risk DV offenders under protective orders only. Recidivism was defined as any recurrence of violence by the offenders. These acts of violence included both physical and verbal violence, which were measured by interviewing the victims by telephone at three, six, and nine months after mandatory treatment for the study group or after adjudication of the protective order for the control group. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of overall DV recidivism rate at the six-month and nine-month assessments, and no difference in physical violence at any assessment stage. However, the treated offenders showed greater reductions in the percentage of physical violence from the three-month to the six-month and the six-month to the nine-month follow-ups than non-treated offenders (43.0% vs. 35.1%, and 37.5% vs. 10%, respectively). Alcohol use was a significant variable in predicting recidivism. Thus the treated offenders demonstrated reductions in the rate of physical violence compared to the control group. As high-risk offenders are thought to be at risk of recidivism and more severe forms of DV, the authors suggest increasing resources and modifying treatment programs to suit the offenders' needs to prevent further violence, especially by those who abuse alcohol.