Preliminary Results of a Police-Advocate Home-Visit Intervention Project for Victims of Domestic Violence

ABSTRACT A police-advocate home-visit intervention project was conducted with 204 women who were victims of domestic violence requiring police intervention. These women, who resided with their children at the time of the incident, received law enforcement-advocacy services through a home-visit project conducted by neighborhood patrol officers and battered women's advocates. A comparison group of battered women, receiving the intervention, and a matched group of battered women, receiving standard police intervention, revealed a significant reduction in calls for police service for the intervention group, for a 12-month period following the intervention. Additional investigation is required to fully understand the reason for this difference and the potential utility of this type of domestic violence intervention.