Evaluating Alternative Police Responses to Spouse Assault in Colorado Springs: an Enhanced Replication of the Minneapolis Experiment, 1987-1989 (ICPSR 9982)

Principal Investigator(s): Black, Howard, Colorado Springs Police Department; Berk, Richard, Colorado Springs Police Department; Lily, James, Colorado Springs Police Department; Owenbey, Robert, Colorado Springs Police Department; Rikoski, Giannina, Colorado Springs Police Department

Summary: The purpose of this study was to replicate an experiment in Minneapolis (MINNEAPOLIS INTERVENTION PROJECT, 1986-1987 [ICPSR 9808]) testing alternative police response to cases of spouse assault, using a larger number of subjects and a more complex research design. The study focused on how police response affected subsequent incidents of spouse assault. Police responses studied included arrest, issuing emergency protection orders, referring the suspect to counseling, separating the suspect... (more info)

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Black, Howard, Richard Berk, James Lily, Robert Owenbey, and Giannina Rikoski. EVALUATING ALTERNATIVE POLICE RESPONSES TO SPOUSE ASSAULT IN COLORADO SPRINGS: AN ENHANCED REPLICATION OF THE MINNEAPOLIS EXPERIMENT, 1987-1989. Compiled by Howard Black, Richard Berk, James Lily, Robert Owenbey, and Giannina Rikoski, Colorado Springs Police Department. ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 1994. doi:10.3886/ICPSR09982.v1

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09982.v1

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This survey was funded by:

• United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (86-IJ-CX-0045)

Summary:   The purpose of this study was to replicate an experiment in Minneapolis (MINNEAPOLIS INTERVENTION PROJECT, 1986-1987 [ICPSR 9808]) testing alternative police response to cases of spouse assault, using a larger number of subjects and a more complex research design. The study focused on how police response affected subsequent incidents of spouse assault. Police responses studied included arrest, issuing emergency protection orders, referring the suspect to counseling, separating the suspect and the victim, and restoring order only (no specific action). Data were obtained through initial incident reports, counseling information, and personal interviews. Follow-up interviews were conducted at three- and six-month periods, and recidivists were identified through police and court record checks. Variables from initial incident reports include number of charges, date, location, and disposition of charges, weapon(s) used, victim injuries, medical attention received, behavior towards police, victim and suspect comments, and demographic information such as race, sex, relationship to victim/offender, age, and past victim/offender history. Data collected from counseling forms provide information on demographic characteristics of the suspect, type of counseling, topics covered in counseling, suspect's level of participation, and therapist comments. Court records investigate victim and suspect criminal histories, including descriptions of charges and their disposition, conditions of pretrial release, and the victim's contact with pretrial services. Other variables included in follow-up checks focus on criminal and offense history of the suspect. The data collection includes separate data files for the original, second, and final versions of some of the forms that were used.

Subject Terms:   arrests, counseling, crisis intervention, domestic assault, intervention, intervention strategies, police intervention, police response, recidivism, spouse abuse, victims

Geographic Coverage:   Colorado, Colorado Springs, United States

Time Period:  

• 1987-03--1989-04

Date of Collection:  

• 1987--1989

Unit of Observation:   Incidents, individuals, and court cases.

Universe:   All domestic violence calls made to the Colorado Springs Police Department between March 1987 and April 1989.

Data Types:   survey data, and event/transaction data

Data Collection Notes:

All variables over two columns wide may contain values of "-22", "-66", "-77", "-99", "X". These values may or may not be documented in the codebook. All alphanumeric variables over seven columns wide with these same values are not listed in the "MISSING VALUE RECODE" nor in the "MISSING VALUES" files.

Study Design:   This study employed a factorial design whereby the police response to spouse assault acted as the independent variable. Models of domestic violence were developed using two competing theories: Victim Empowerment and Specific Deterrence. When an officer arrived at the scene of a domestic violence incident, a random treatment was assigned via radio dispatch. Officers had final authority over assignment, and could assign another treatment at their own discretion. Treatments included arresting the suspect, issuing an emergency protection order, referring the suspect to counseling, separating the suspect and the victim, and restoring order only (no specific action). A unique four-digit project ID number was assigned to each subject. It was possible for an individual to appear several times: as a victim in one case and a suspect in another -- as a victim or suspect in several cases with different partners -- or as a repeat case that was not properly screened. Follow-up interviews were conducted with victims at three- and six-month periods. Recidivists were identified through extensive police and court record checks, and victim empowerment data were collected with a validated survey instrument.

Sample:   A random sampling method was used in the assignment of all five of the officer response alternatives. Officers had final authority over assignment, and could assign another treatment at their own discretion.

Data Source:

personal interviews, counseling session forms, and police and court records

Description of Variables:   Variables from initial incident reports include number of charges, date, location, and disposition of charges, victim and suspect demographics, weapon(s) used, victim injuries, medical attention received, behavior towards police, and victim and suspect comments. Data collected from counseling forms provide information on suspect demographics, type of counseling, topics covered in counseling, suspect's level of participation, and therapist comments. Court records investigate victim and suspect criminal histories, including descriptions of charges and their disposition, conditions of pretrial release, and the victim's contact with pretrial services. Other variables included in follow-up checks focus on criminal and offense history of the suspect.

Response Rates:   Of the 1,150 cases in the project (excluding the repeat cases), 80 percent received an initial interview. Final interviews were completed on 1,079 (70 percent) of the 1,202 cases that received the randomly assigned treatment.

Presence of Common Scales:   None

Extent of Processing:  ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

• Standardized missing values.
• Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
• Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Original ICPSR Release:  1994-06-03

Version History:

• 2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 44 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.
• 2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 25 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

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