DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06483.v1
title: Boston Police Department Domestic Violence Research Project, 1993-1994
title: Version 1

description: The Domestic Violence Research Project was a pilot study
 designed to examine the dynamics of domestic violence within two of
 the ten police districts that comprise the city of Boston. The
 objectives were to collect data on domestic violence in greater detail
 than previously possible, conduct various analyses on this
 information, and determine how the findings could best be used to
 improve the police, prosecutorial, and social service responses to
 domestic violence. Data for 1993 are a stratified random sample of
 reported domestic violence incidents occurring throughout the
 year. The sample represents approximately 27 percent of the domestic
 violence incidents reported in 1993 for the two districts studied, B3
 and D4. The 1994 data include all reported incidents occurring in the
 two districts during the period May to July. After the incident
 selection process was completed, data were collected from police
 incident reports, follow-up investigation reports, criminal history
 reports, and court dockets. Variables include arrest offenses, time of
 incident, location of incident, witnesses (including children), nature
 and extent of injuries, drug and alcohol use, history of similar
 incidents, whether there were restraining orders in effect, and basic
 demographic information on victims and offenders. Criminal history
 information was coded into five distinct categories: (1) violent
 offenses, (2) nonviolent offenses, (3) domestic violence offenses, (4)
drug/alcohol offenses, and (5) firearms offenses.
description: The Domestic Violence Research Project was a
 comprehensive, research-oriented pilot study designed to examine the
 dynamics of domestic violence within two of the ten police districts
 that comprise the city of Boston. The objectives were to collect data
 on domestic violence in greater detail than previously possible,
 conduct various analyses on this information, and determine how the
 findings could best be used to improve the police, prosecutorial, and
 social service response to domestic violence. Some of the important
 questions this project attempted to address were: Are there any
 variations in the patterns of domestic abuse based on neighborhood
 demographics? What types of relationships are most prone to such
 behavior? How often are children involved/present? How often does an
 incident involve a restraining order violation? How often are injuries
 incurred? How often and why are charges dropped against offenders?
 What is the rate of revictimization? What role, if any, does the
 criminal background of the offender play? To what extent are drugs
and/or alcohol involved?
description: The study was conducted in two districts within
 Boston, Massachusetts: district B3, which encompasses Mattapan and
 North Dorchester, and district D4, which encompasses the South End,
 Back Bay, and portions of the Fenway area. The project involved both
 retrospective and prospective data collection and analysis phases.
 The retrospective phase involved collecting a random sample of
 incidents from the two pilot districts from throughout the 1993
 calendar year. After the sample selection process was completed, data
 from police incident reports, follow-up investigation reports,
 criminal history reports, and court dockets were entered into the
 database. Since background checks were performed in February of 1994,
 the researchers were able to obtain information on the offenders'
 criminal conduct since the 1993 sample incident as well as their prior
 alleged criminal history. The prospective phase of the project
 consisted of collecting current data for 1994 and comparing it with
 the 1993 sample, to improve the domestic violence database and to
 provide the domestic violence detectives with a case management tool.
 During the period from May to July 1994, 736 incidents were collected
 for District 3 and 416 incidents for District 4 from the domestic
 violence-related police incident reports of the Department's Field
 Reports Unit. The opportunity the prospective phase offered was the
 ability of the detectives to speak with victims and to relay this
 information to the researchers during the project. To assist with
 this, the researchers developed a Victim Interview Form for the
 detectives to complete after speaking with the victims. This allowed
 more data to be collected than could be collected for the 1993
 incidents. Conversely, the 1994 criminal history information was less
 informative because the time frame was only, at most, four months. In
 addition, data were not collected from original court dockets for the
 1994 incidents because the majority of the cases were still pending at
 the time of the project. A key component of the Project was the
 establishment of a "Partnership Group" involving criminal justice
 agencies, community social service organizations, and a variety of
 advocate groups. The Partnership Group provided a wide variety of
 perspectives on the issue of domestic violence, and allowed the
 Project to be responsive to a broad range of public agencies beyond
 law enforcement. During initial discussions, each member described the
 types of information that would be most useful for problem-solving and
 prevention of domestic violence. These discussions contributed to the
 construction of the initial variable list of the Project. The
 Partnership Group later reviewed and improved upon the 1993 database
 design for use with the 1994 data. For purposes of this project, a
 "violent offense" was defined as any form of assault against a
 person, including threats. If the assault was further defined as a
 domestic situation on the offender's criminal history sheet, it was
 categorized as a "domestic violence offense". Domestic violence was
 defined within the Boston Police Department as the occurrence of one
 or more of the following acts between family or household members:
 causing or attempting to cause physical harm, placing another in fear
 of imminent physical harm, or causing another to engage involuntarily
 in sexual relations by force, threat, or duress. Family or household
 members were considered persons who either were currently or had been
 married to one another, were or had been residing together in the same
 household, were or had been related by blood or marriage, had a child
 in common regardless of whether they had ever been married to each
 other or lived together, or were or had been in a substantive dating
 or engagement relationship, considering the length and type of
 relationship, the frequency of interaction, and the length of time
since the termination of the relationship.
description: Data were collected on a number of areas, including
 arrest offenses, time of incident, location of incident, witnesses
 (including children), nature and extent of injuries, drug and alcohol
 use, history of similar incidents, whether there were restraining
 orders in effect, and basic demographic information on victims and
 offenders. Criminal history information was also collected and coded
 into five distinct categories. These were (1) violent offenses, (2)
 nonviolent offenses, (3) domestic violence offenses, (4) drug/alcohol
offenses, and (5) firearms offenses.
description: Response Rates: Not applicable.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: For 1993, cases were selected using a stratified random
 sample of reported domestic violence incidents occurring throughout
 1993. Cases from 1994 were not randomly selected. Rather, they were
 all reported incidents of domestic violence occurring during May 1 to
July 31, 1994.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: 1993 Data for District B3
DS2: 1993 Data for District D4
DS3: 1994 Data for District B3
DS4: 1994 Data for District D4
DS6: SPSS Data Definition Statements for 1993 Data
DS7: SPSS Data Definition Statements for 1994 Data
description: Domestic violence incidents in Boston, Massachusetts,
occurring in Districts B3 and D4 during 1993-1994.