Enhancing coordinated community responses to reduce recidivism in cases of domestic violence

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a project designed to enhance coordinated community responses by examining recidivism rates. Project enhancements included expanded danger assessment and information sharing among criminal justice practitioners and advocates. When compared to a baseline period, results indicated that offenders had significantly lower rates of recidivism after the project was implemented. There were steady declines in the number of recidivists over 3 years of the project, beginning in the pilot year and decreasing significantly during the intervention years. Logistic regression procedures found two variables that were significantly related to offenders not having recidivated during all years of the study: the offender having been court mandated to attend the Men's Nonviolence Program and the offender having completed the program. There was evidence to support the use by probation officers of a danger assessment tool to predict recidivism.