An examination of the impact of community-based rehabilitation on the offending behaviour of male domestic violence offenders and the characteristics associated with recidivism

Purpose. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of completing a community-based rehabilitation programme on both the rate of domestic violence reoffending, and time to first post-treatment offence within an I I-month follow-up period. In addition, the pre-treatment psychological, demographic, and offending history characteristics of recidivists were examined. Methods. Prior to attending West Midlands Probation Area's Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programme (DVPP), 86 male offenders completed a battery of six psychometric tests. The tests were the Novaco Anger Scale, Inventory of Beliefs about Wife Beating, Abusive Behaviour Inventory, Interpersonal Dependency Inventory, Multidimensional Locus of Control Scale and Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding. Post-treatment reoffending was identified from police contact data. Results. Of the 86 offenders who started the DVPP, 21% were alleged to have reoffended within an 11-month post-treatment period. Completing the programme was not significantly associated with either alleged reoffending, or time to first alleged incident. The identified treatment effect size was small (w = 0.20). It was found that higher interpersonal dependency and more frequent contact with the police in the 24 months prior to attending the programme for theft and violent domestic violence predicted post-treatment domestic violence offending. Conclusions. The results of this study indicate that the programme did not significantly reduce the rate of alleged reoffending among programme completers, or the time to first post-treatment offence reported to the police. However, the results suggest that those offenders who were alleged to have reoffended may represent a distinct offender subgroup. These results are discussed with reference to client treatment matching and the move towards nationally accredited rehabilitation programmes in the UK.