National Evaluation of the LEAA Family Violence Demonstration Program in Five Sites in the United States, 1980-1981 (ICPSR 4571)

Version Date: Feb 28, 2008

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Principal Investigator(s):
Jeffrey Fagan, Columbia University. School of Law

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04571.v1

Version V1

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Summary

This study focused on the actuarial and situational correlates of domestic violence and the variables that differentiate those who batter their partners from those who are "generally" violent. The study defined violence as physical violence and excluded both psychological abuse and verbal threats. Domestic violence was defined as a man battering his spouse or partner, while extradomestic violence referred to the batterer's involvement in violence outside the home, as reported by the victim of the domestic incident. The data are victim reports concerning batterers collected through face-to-face interviews with 270 former clients of Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA)-funded family violence programs conducted approximately three months following final contact with the program. The data include demographic variables on both the LEAA-funded program client and her partner, variables detailing the partner's domestic and extradomestic violence, and variables on any services received by the client.

Citation

Fagan, Jeffrey. National Evaluation of the LEAA Family Violence Demonstration Program in Five Sites in the United States, 1980-1981. [distributor], 2008-02-28. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04571.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (78-MU-AX-0049)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

None

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Time Period(s)

1980-03 -- 1980-06, 1980-11 -- 1981-02

Date of Collection

1980-03 -- 1980-06, 1980-11 -- 1981-02

Data Collection Notes

  1. This collection contains only data collected from a subset of 270 domestic violence victims who were interviewed approximately three months after contact with a Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA)-funded family violence program. Other data collected through this grant, such as site visit data or any other data, are not available.

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Study Purpose

This study focused on the following questions: what are the major actuarial correlates of domestic violence (e.g., background factors, childhood precursors, etc.), what are the environmental or situational correlates of domestic violence (e.g., characteristics of the relationship, history of violence in the relationship, and reinforcing properties of the environment), are there "degrees" or indices of violence that are useful in the study of domestic violence, and what are the situational and background variables that differentiate those who batter their partners from those who are "generally" violent?

Study Design

This study consists of information obtained from 270 face-to-face interviews with domestic violence victims throughout the country. Respondents were former clients of Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA)-funded family violence programs, drawn from five projects in four cities, offering counseling or shelter services, or both. The interviews took place in two waves over a one-year period: March through June of 1980 and November 1980 through February 1981. The interviews were conducted approximately three months following the client's final contact with one of the LEAA-funded programs. The study defined violence as physical violence and excluded both psychological abuse and verbal threats. Domestic violence was defined as a man battering his spouse or partner, while extradomestic violence referred to the batterer's involvement in violence outside the home, as reported by the victim of the domestic incident.

Sample

The interview samples were drawn from clients of five Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA)-funded projects, in four cities, offering counseling or shelter services, or both. Clients of domestic violence projects did not necessarily represent the population of domestic violence victims. Clients who could be reached and who consented to an interview did not necessarily represent the population of domestic violence project clients.

Universe

Any client of one of the five Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA)-funded projects in the four selected cities in the United States.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual

Data Source

The data were collected from face-to-face interviews.

Data Type(s)

Description of Variables

This dataset contains demographic variables for both the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA)-funded family violence program client and her partner. The demographic variables include age, race, education level, employment status, length of relationship, length of abuse in the relationship, if there were children in the home, and ages of the children. Abuse-specific variables include the nature of the assault, the most serious injury, frequency of abuse, if drug use or drinking accompanied the abuse incidents, if there were incidents of abuse during pregnancy, if either the respondent or her partner were abused by their parents as children, and if there was physical violence between the parents of either the client or her partner. Variables pertaining to the partner's violent, but not domestic violence, incidents such as the use of weapons are included. Other variables detail services received by the client, including having received counseling, civil or criminal legal services, diversion or mediation services, children's services, having stayed at a shelter, and having received a protective or restraining order as a result of the incident, as well as satisfaction with the services received. Variables on the prosecution of the partner include reason why the partner was not prosecuted (e.g., dropped because of victim reconciliation or diversion into a counseling program) or the outcome of the prosecution (acquittal, sentenced to prison, fine, or probation). Other variables ask if children were involved in or witnessed the instant incident, if the children tried to stop violent fights between the client and her partner, any problems the child might have experienced since the battering incident such as frequent illness, bed wetting, academic, sleeping, or eating problems, excessive fearfulness, nervousness or withdrawal, whether the children exhibited self-destructive behaviors, had run away, had been violent towards parents or others, had made threats, or had destroyed property.

Response Rates

Not available.

Presence of Common Scales

Several Likert-type scales were used.

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Original Release Date

2008-02-28

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Fagan, Jeffrey. NATIONAL EVALUATION OF THE LEAA FAMILY VIOLENCE DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM IN FIVE SITES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1980-1981. ICPSR04571-v1. San Francisco, CA: URSA Institute [producer], 1984. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2008-02-28. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04571.v1

2008-02-28 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.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Weight

None

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.