Evaluation of Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies for Domestic Violence Cases in the State College, Pennsylvania, Police Department, 1999-2000

This project was an 18-month long research-practitioner
 partnership to conduct a process evaluation of the State College
 Police Department's implementation of a grant to encourage arrest
 policies for domestic violence. The general goals of the process
 evaluation were to assess how and to what extent the State College
 Police Department's proposed activities were implemented as planned,
 based on the rationale that such activities would enhance the
 potential for increasing victim safety and perpetrator accountability
 systemically. As part of the grant, the police department sought to
 improve case tracking and services to victims by developing new
 specialized positions for domestic violence, including: (1) a domestic
 violence arrest coordinator from within the State College Police
 Department who was responsible for monitoring case outcomes through
 the courts and updating domestic violence policies and training (Part
 1, Victim Tracking Data from Domestic Violence Coordinator), (2) a
 victims service attorney from Legal Services who was responsible for
 handling civil law issues for domestic violence victims, including
 support, child custody, employment, financial, consumer, public
 benefits, and housing issues (Part 2, Victim Tracking Data From Victim
 Services Attorney), and (3) an intensive domestic violence probation
 officer from the Centre County Probation and Parole Department who was
 responsible for providing close supervision and follow-up of batterers
 (Part 3, Offender Tracking Data). Researchers worked with
 practitioners to develop databases suitable for monitoring service
 provision by the three newly-created positions for domestic violence
 cases. Major categories of data collected on the victim tracking form
 (Parts 1 and 2) included location of initial contact, type of initial
 contact, referral source, reason for initial contact,
 service/consultation provided at initial contact, meetings, and
 referrals out. Types of services provided include reporting abuse,
 filing a Protection from Abuse order, legal representation, and
 assistance with court procedures. Major categories of data collected
 on the offender tracking form (Part 3) included location of initial
 contact, type of initial contact, referral source, reason for initial
 contact, service/consultation provided, charges, sentence received,
 relationship between the victim and perpetrator, marital status,
 children in the home, referrals out, presentencing investigation
 completed, prior criminal history, and reason for termination. Types
 of services provided include pre-sentence investigation, placement on
 supervision, and assessment and evaluation. In addition to developing
 these new positions, the police department also sought to improve how
 officers handled domestic violence cases through a two-day training
 program. The evaluation conducted pre- and post-training assessments
 of all personnel training in 1999 and conducted follow-up surveys to
 assess the long-term impact of training. For Part 4, Police Training
 Survey Data, surveys were administered to law enforcement personnel
 participating in a two-day domestic violence training program. Surveys
 were administered both before and after the training program and
 focused on knowledge about domestic violence policies and protocols,
 attitudes and beliefs about domestic violence, and the background and
 experience of the officers. Within six months after the training, the
 same participants were contacted to complete a follow-up survey.
 Variables in Part 4 measure how well officers knew domestic violence
 arrest policies, their attitudes toward abused women and how to handle
 domestic violence cases, and their opinions about
 training. Demographic variables in Part 4 include age, sex, race,
education, and years in law enforcement.

Tags: arrest-procedures, case-management, case-processing, domestic-violence, offender-profiles, police-officers, police-training, policies-and-procedures, process-evaluation, victim-safety, victim-services
Organization: Department of Justice