Type:	Journal Article
Title:	Lessons from a successful and failed random assignment testing batterer program innovations
Other Titles:	Journal of Experimental Criminology
Authors:	Gondolf, Edward W
Keywords:	Perpetrator programs;Counselling;Mental health
Year:	2010
Publisher:	Springer Publishing
Citation:	6 (4), December 2010
Notes:	With increasing pressure to conduct experimental evaluations of domestic violence interventions, it is important to weigh further the most challenging aspect of experimental designs: the implementation of random assignment. This paper reviews two attempted experimental evaluations of counseling programs for domestic violence offenders, and formulates implications for conducting and interpreting program evaluations. The two [US] case studies offer an instructive comparison of a maximally implemented experiment and a failed one at the same setting. In the first study, the random assignment was introduced within the counseling program and with implicit leverage of court sanctions for non-compliance to the assignment. In the second, random assignment was disrupted by unforeseeable events and inter-agency breakdowns in the complex referral system. Interestingly, implementation issues in both studies raised divergent interpretations from researchers and practitioners. They appear to imply a need for more disclosure of implementation problems in experimental evaluations and for more caution about over interpreting the existing experimental evaluations in the field. ? Springer, Part of Springer Science+Business Media. For further information, visit SpringerLink .
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/15617
ISSN:	1573-3750
Appears in Collections:	Journal Articles

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