A study of domestic violence recidivism following treatment among incarcerated men who batter

Over 30 domestic violence treatment evaluation studies have been conducted using samples of community-residing domestically violent men. However, only three published studies have examined domestic violence treatment programs designed for use with incarcerated men who batter. Participants were 140 domestically violent men (mean age = 37, SD = 7.7) who were incarcerated in a Wisconsin state prison between 2000 and 2003. The study evaluated the utility of known risk factors for domestic violence recidivism when applied to the entire sample of incarcerated men, and compared the domestic violence recidivism rates of men who participated in a domestic violence treatment program designed for incarcerated men to the recidivism rates of a matched group of incarcerated men who did not participate in treatment. Finally, the study examined the relationship between known risk factors for domestic violence and rates of recidivism following treatment of domestically violent, incarcerated men. It was concluded that participation in the treatment program was associated with a statistically significant reduction in domestic violence recidivism compared to untreated offenders. Because many of variables that were previously identified as relating to domestic violence recidivism among community-residing batterers did not relate significantly to recidivism among this sample of incarcerated batterers, it was hypothesized that these two groups represent distinctly different types of domestically violent men