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The San Diego Navy experiment: an assessment of interventions for men who assault their wives
1Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309, USA.
Insights
This study examined cognitive-behavioral interventions for servicemen who physically assaulted their wives. No significant differences were found between the men
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Criminology
- Domestic Violence Research
Background:
- Domestic violence, specifically physical assault by servicemen against their wives, is a significant societal issue requiring effective intervention strategies.
- Previous interventions have shown varying degrees of success, necessitating further research into effective treatment modalities for perpetrators.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of three distinct 12-month interventions for servicemen with a history of physically assaulting their wives.
- To compare the outcomes of cognitive-behavioral interventions in a men's group and a conjoint group against a rigorously monitored group and a control group.
Main Methods:
- A randomized controlled trial involving 861 couples where the male partner had physically assaulted his wife.
- Participants were assigned to four groups: men's group, conjoint group, rigorously monitored group, and a control group.
- Cognitive-behavioral interventions were applied to the men's and conjoint groups, with outcome data collected from both perpetrators and victims over an 18-month period.
Main Results:
- Statistical analyses indicated no significant differences in outcomes across the experimental groups.
- The implemented cognitive-behavioral interventions did not demonstrate a statistically significant advantage over the control or rigorously monitored groups in reducing domestic violence.
Conclusions:
- The study's findings suggest that the tested cognitive-behavioral interventions, as implemented, were not significantly more effective than control conditions for servicemen who physically assaulted their wives.
- Further research is needed to explore alternative or modified intervention strategies for this population.
Abstract:
Three different 12-month interventions for servicemen who had been substantiated as having physically assaulted their wives were used and the outcomes examined. The 861 couples of the study were randomly assigned to 4 groups: a men's group, a conjoint group, a rigorously monitored group, and a control group. Cognitive-behavioral interventions were implemented for the men's and conjoint groups, and outcome data were gathered from male perpetrators and female victims at roughly 6-month intervals over the approximately 18-month experimental period. Data analyses revealed nonsignificant differences between the experimental groups over a variety of outcome measures.