Role of Drug and Alcohol Abuse in Domestic Violence and Its Treatment: Dade County's Domestic Violence Court Experiment, Executive Highlights

• NCJ Number: 163411
• Author(s): J S Goldkamp; D Weiland; M Collins; M White
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 11 pages
• Grant Number(s): 93-IJ-CX-0028
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Survey

Annotation

The Dade County (Fla.) Domestic Violence Court was studied with respect to the role of drug abuse in domestic assault, the impact of the domestic violence court approach, and the effect of a specialized treatment approach that combined batterer and drug treatment.

Abstract

The study included a baseline study and an experimental evaluation of the treatment. The research considered cases entering the courts in the spring of 1993 and followed control and experimental group defendant group defendants and probationers from their entry in treatment in 1994 and 1995 through a 7-month followup. The early outcome results suggested that the combined treatment appears to have produced some positive, practical results in reaching its treatment population and retaining it in treatment with greater accountability. When taken in conjunction with the baseline findings that cases continuing in processing and cases involved in treatment had lower rates of reoffending, findings suggest that the efforts to implement a combined treatment may have had a positive impact in preventing reoffending among domestic violence offenders. Findings also suggest that such an approach could benefit from further differentiation of the types of incidents, offenders, and risks associated with domestic violence cases and court responses and interventions most appropriate for each type.