IL PROTOCOL EVALUATION

PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF THE ILLINOIS PROTOCOL FOR DOMESTIC ABUSE BATTERERS PROGRAMS ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFERRALS, BATTERER PROGRAM OPERATION, AND THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COMMUNITY

Report presented at 6th International Conference on Family Violence Research, Durham NH, July 1999.
1994 Version of Illinois Standards upon which this evaluation research is based
Executive Summary of Final Report (February, 2001)
The academic paper was published in Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma, 5, pp. 181-197 (2001). You can download a pre-publication version here: WordPerfect Microsoft Word

The University of Illinois at Chicago, in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Human Services and with the cooperation of the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts, evaluated the implementation of the Illinois Protocol for Domestic Abuse Batterers Programs. We evaluated the Protocol's effect on (1) criminal justice referrals for domestic abuse, (2) batterer intervention systems in Illinois, and (3) community-based coordinated efforts to prevent domestic abuse.
The central questions of this evaluation were (1) How has the Protocol effected judicial sentences for domestic violence? (2) How has the Protocol effected the way batterer intervention sustems deliver services to men who batter? (3) Does the Protocol impact community efforts to prevent violence?

The key variables in this evaluation were: (1) judicial utilization of batterer intervention systems and reasons judges utilize or do not utilize batterer intervention systems; (2) characteristics of Illinois batterer intervention systems, including amount and type of service provided, intervention model employed, kind and quality of data collected by batterers programs, methods for holding men accountable for their violence, overall compliance with the Protocol, and the ecology of the batterer intervention systems (where and how well the program fits into the local domestic violence community); (3) perceptions of the domestic violence community and other community-based service providers about the value of the program and the Protocol in preventing domestic violence against women.

We utilized qualitative and quantitative research methods to intensively study 20 Illinois batterer intervention systems and within their respective communities. Data include: surveys of 50 victim service agencies, 63 batterer programs, and 823 men in 21 batterer programs; structured interviews with 146 key informants (28 judges, 11 prosecutors, 14 probation officers, 43 battered women's advocates, and 45 batterer program staff).

Contact Information:

Larry W. Bennett lwbenn@uic.edu
University of Illinois at Chicago
Jane Addams College of Social Work
1040 W. Harrison [m/c 309]
Chicago, IL 60607-7134
(312)996-4577