Intimate partner violence recidivism over an 8-year follow-up

The study examined the criminal behavior of men who sought treatment for intimate partner violence (IPV). Criminal offenses were coded for the 5 years prior to treatment initiation and the 8 years after treatment initiation into three categories: Domestic Abuse, General Violence, and Other Protection Order Involvement. Of 115 men, 85 (73.91%) had no incidents coded as Domestic Abuse during the 8-year follow-up period. Overall, there were significant reductions in Domestic Abuse and General Violence between the two time periods. It was observed that 12 men (10.4%) accounted for 60% of the incidents of Domestic Abuse recidivism. The main study hypothesis was that borderline and antisocial personality characteristics would be predictive of criminal recidivism after treatment initiation. Counter to hypotheses, these personality characteristics were not predictive of criminal recidivism in the majority of analyses. Consistent with the hypothesis, self-report ratings of antisocial personality characteristics, assessed at treatment program intake, were significantly related to General Violence during the 8-year follow-up. When incidents of General Violence and Domestic Abuse recidivism were combined, this variable was also significantly related to previous self-ratings of antisocial personality characteristics. Self-reports of borderline personality characteristics were not significantly related to any of the criminal recidivism variables. The findings suggest that the majority of men seeking treatment for IPV have no criminal recidivism after treatment initiation, but that a small subsample of men maintain or increase the frequency of criminal behavior after treatment initiation. Future studies will need to examine other individual-level characteristics that may distinguish these men so that treatment can better target the risk factors of IPV recidivism