A comparison of four batterer intervention systems - Do court referral, program length, and services matter?

A comparative multisite evaluation was conducted in four geographically distributed cities to examine the relative effectiveness of different approaches. The intervention systems represented a range of court-referral procedures (pretrial or postconviction), program duration (3 months to 9 months), and additional services (occasional referral or in-house alcohol treatment). 210 men at each site were recruited and tested (background, Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test). The batterers' partners were interviewed by phone every 3 months over a 15-month follow-up after intake, with a response rate of 77% overall. There was no significant difference in the reassault rate, portion of men making threats, and victim quality of life across the four sites. The longest, most comprehensive program did, however; have a significantly lower rate of severe reassault substantiated in a logistic regression controlling for background variables. The findings suggest that differing intervention systems that conform to fundamental standards can achieve similar outcomes.