The purpose of the proposed research is to 1. determine, experimentally, the main effects of alternative police responses (Advise, Separation, Arrest or Warrant, No Warrant) to domestic misdemeanor assaults in reducing both official and self-reported recidivism for a one- year follow-up period to e compared with 6- month recidivism outcomes. (The analyses for main effects for a six- month follow-up period is currently in process and is funded by the National Institute of Justice which ends September 30, 2988. The NIJ funded research does not contain provisions for any of the analyses proposed herein). 2. Determine the conditions under which police interventions effectively reduce recidivism among cohabitant couples randomly assigned to alternative police treatments and to test a number of general hypotheses/assumptions about the nature of domestic violence. 3. Conduct a new record search providing for up to alternative police dispositions) to determine the time required to accurately assess failure (repeated violence). The Principal Investigators have conducted an elaborate and rigorously implemented experiment in Omaha, Nebraska to assess the effects of five different police interventions involving domestic misdemeanor assaults. The Omaha Project is one of six funded by NIJ to investigate this issue and is the only project gathering both official and self-reported recidivism data for more than a 6- month follow-up period (1 year). However, NIJ has limited analyses on the Omaha data set to assessments for the main effects of treatment on the 6-month follow-up data. We are proposing to extend the analyses of the Omaha data, as indicated here, in very significant and meaningful ways. Regardless of the results of the current comparisons of experimental groups 6 months after treatment, the findings must have explained. Analyses will be conducted to determine the conditions under which different treatments influence domestic violence to include assessments for Justice system depression effects, economic dependency, modeling, empowerment, displacement, etc. The data base developed from the Omaha experiment is exceptional and the issues remaining to be addressed are of seminal importance. This proposal attempts to wed the two.
