Citation

Chalk R. J. Aggression Maltreat. Trauma 2000; 4(1): 29-53.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1300/J146v04n01_03

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The introduction of family violence treatment and prevention programs during the past few decades has occurred in the absence of scientific evidence that could indicate the types of benefits to be gained by the use of these programs as well as the types of clients who would benefit from them. Although a broad patchwork of interventions has emerged in social service, law enforcement, and health care settings, few of these programs have been evaluated in a systematic manner. The use of comparison groups in family violence program evaluation studies is also rare. As a result, evaluation studies currently provide limited guidance in the design of family violence prevention and treatment programs. Violence in Families: Assessing Prevention and Treatment Programs is a recent report on family violence prepared by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine that identifies a set of methodological issues designed to improve the quality of family violence evaluation research. The report provides an in-depth analysis of 114 evaluation studies of interventions in the area of child maltreatment, domestic violence, and elder abuse and includes policy and research recommendations designed to improve the quality of evaluation studies in this field. Two key areas--research infrastructure and the development of appropriate theories, measures, and datasets that can support more rigorous evaluations--require attention to improve the capacity of the evaluation research field to inform family violence policy and practice. The lack of opportunities for long-term collaboration between researchers and service providers presents an important challenge in developing research on the multiple pathways to services and the implementation and effects of service interventions.