Evaluation of Two Approaches for Responding to Allegations of Family Maltreatment in the U.S. Army: Coordinated Community Response Impacts and Costs

ABSTRACT Introduction The U.S. Air Force (USAF) conducted a program of research to develop and disseminate reliable and valid criteria for partner and child maltreatment (comprising abuse [physical, emotional/psychological, and sexual] and neglect). These criteria are now used in all branches of the U.S. military. The U.S. Army was the first service outside the USAF to adopt the criteria sets and computerized decision support tool but maintained the original committee composition (the “Case Review Committee” [CRC]) instead of adopting the entire assessment, allegation determination, and treatment planning process (the “Field-tested Assessment, Intervention-planning, and Response” [FAIR] system). The Army commissioned this study to compare the CRC and FAIR processes by testing (1) intra-committee process (i.e., three facets of committee functioning—fidelity to regulations, cohesion and team process, outsized influence of unit representatives); (2) coordinated community response to maltreatment (i.e., perceptions of fairness to alleged offenders and victims, impact on unit representatives, and (3) collaboration between the Family Advocacy Program (FAP, the military’s maltreatment response agency) and outside agencies; and (4) the time expended and cost. Materials and Methods New York University’s Institutional Review Board approved the study protocol, and the Army’s Human Research Protection Office provided permission to collect data. The ten Army garrisons with the most annual maltreatment cases participated. Committee members, FAP social workers, unit commanders, and independent observers completed assessments of individual meetings and of their overall impression of the processes. A test of whether the means significantly differed between phases was then performed separately for each outcome, and 95% CIs of the unstandardized mean difference between phases were estimated. Results Independent observers rated FAIR meetings as significantly more faithful to regulations. Unit representatives (i.e., commanders and/or first sergeants) perceived the committee to function better during FAIR (although other committee members and independent observers did not perceive differences). Unit representatives not only rated FAIR as significantly more fair to both alleged offenders and victims (ratings from other committee members did not differ), but also were more likely to attend FAIR meetings and, when they did, rated their ability to serve soldiers and families higher during FAIR. However, FAP social workers rated their relationships with units as being better during CRC, and outside agencies rated their relationship with FAP as significantly better during CRC. Costs to the Army were nearly identical in the two committee structures. Conclusion Results indicated that the CRC and FAIR processes cost almost identical amounts to run and that the FAIR system was superior in ways most likely to impact service members: (1) independent observers judged its meetings to be more faithful to Army and DoD Instructions; (2) unit representatives were more likely to attend and believed the FAIR system to be fairer (to both alleged offenders and victims) and better functioning. Care should be taken, however, in nurturing relationships between FAP and (1) unit representatives and (2) outside agencies, which may have weakened during FAIR.

Coordinated Community Responses to Domestic Violence: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Coordinated community responses (CCRs) are a commonly used intervention in the field of domestic violence (DV), yet research findings on CCRs to DV have been inconsistent. The aim of this study was to examine the current state of CCRs to DV, with a specific focus on those responses that involve law enforcement officers as key players. A systematic review of 31 databases resulted in 18 peer-reviewed manuscripts for inclusion in this study. Manuscripts were included if they were written in English and published in 1999 or later; focused specifically on DV and criminal justice and/or community responses; research outcomes were specific to cases, victims, or offenders; the intervention was clearly described and evaluated using an experimental or quasi-experimental design; and was implemented in the United States. Findings suggest that there is a great deal of variability across CCR studies involving law enforcement officers with regard to (a) whether studies used the term “coordinated community response” to describe the intervention being evaluated, (b) the types of cases included, (c) the nature of the CCR being evaluated, (d) the outcomes that were examined, and (e) how these outcomes were operationalized. These variations make it difficult for scholars to draw broader conclusions about the effectiveness of CCR interventions. Future research should include the identification of core outcomes that can be used across studies to allow for comparison studies and meta-analyses. There is also a need for studies to focus on identifying which components of CCR interventions are most critical to producing positive outcomes.

From Health to Financial Problems: Multiproblems Among Victims of Partner and Non-Partner Physical Violence, and Matched Nonvictims

Previous research suggests that victims of partner physical violence (PPV) often face multiple distinct problems, but comparative population-based studies focusing on the prevalence of multiple problems are lacking. Aim of the present study is to gain insight in the prevalence of multiple problems among individuals victimized by PPV in the past 12 months, compared with matched nonvictims and victims of non-partner physical violence (non-PPV). For this purpose, data were extracted from two population-based surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019 on potentially traumatic events in the Netherlands. We focused on problems identified in previous studies on PPV and non-PPV and related problems, varying from physical health, mental health, financial and legal problems, to lack of social support and being exposed to other potentially traumatic and stressful life events (LFEs). In total, 49 respondents were victimized by PPV and 89 by non-PPV in the past 12 months. They were compared with pairwise matched groups not affected by any traumatic or stressful LFEs in this period ( nPPV victims comparison group = 245, nnon-PPV comparison group = 445). Results showed that PPV victims significantly more often faced all 12 distinct problems than matched nonvictims (2.31 ≤ odds ratio [OR] ≤ 15.48) and non-PPV victims (2.12 ≤ OR ≤ 4.52). PPV victims more often had any problem than non-PPV victims (OR = 8.19), but no significant differences were found between PPV and non-PPV victims with regard to mental health problems. Findings stress the necessity of a multidisciplinary coordinated community response to help PPV victims.

CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS IN RURAL SETTINGS: AN ELDER-ABUSE NEEDS ASSESSMENT

There has been concern about the increasing prevalence of elder abuse in the rural settings. This trend has called for more coordinated efforts to address elder abuse in the rural community. The current literature regarding elder abuse suggest there is more to learn about systematic obstacles service providers face. The framework applied in this study include elements of Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological model, showing a multilevel application to the obstacles agencies encounter when supporting else abuse victims. Little research has been conducted on the providers who work with elders in the rural context. In this study, based on the needs assessment of Iowa, we have examined the perceived barriers service providers face. Our sample included 222 providers across Iowa who took an online survey. The survey was initially sent to members of the Coordinated Community Response team of Iowa. Our findings indicated that service providers revealed multilevel challenges (i.e., individual vs. organization level) in working with elder abuse cases. Service providers’ perceived effectiveness training was negatively associated with the quality of training they evaluated (β=.24, p<.05). The data also showed us that a large portion of agencies offered no training and education on elder abuse. Common themes described by the providers as barriers to addressing abuse was lack of education, social isolation, low awareness and ageism. These results highlight that training for elder abuse in the rural setting needs multilevel systematic efforts.

The Trials and Tribulations of Testing Couples-Based Interventions for Intimate Partner Violence

This article considers the risks and benefits of couples’ interventions for intimate partner violence (IPV). Because current batterers’ treatment programs have been shown to be largely ineffective in stopping recidivism, there is clearly a need to experiment with novel approaches to establish empirically supported treatments for IPV. Previous studies testing the efficacy of conjoint therapy for couples experiencing situational violence have demonstrated promising results. However, most states mandate prohibiting testing these couples’ interventions in court-mandated samples. In this article, we describe a randomized clinical trial of the Creating Healthy Relationships Program (Cleary Bradley, Friend, & Gottman, 2011) for situationally violent couples in a court-mandated sample and the difficulties in conducting such an experiment within an established coordinated community response.