This handbook offers clear, practical steps for charting the course of a community action campaign from early planning stages through final results reporting. Ideas for linking evaluation with prevention theory, campaign planning exercises, tips for collecting and analyzing data, and sample surveys and assessment tools are laid out in easy-to-read chapters.

Measuring and Improving Costs, Cost-Effectiveness, and Cost-Benefit for Substance Abuse Treatment Programs:  A Manual, by Dr. Brian T. Yates, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, MD, 1999.
Available at: www.drugabuse.gov/IMPCOST/IMPCOSTIndex.html.

This manual describes several ways to determine cost-effectiveness and benefits, ranging from simple educated estimates to sophisticated, computerized methods.  No background in accounting or research is needed to use the methods described in the manual.  The hands-on format and step-by-step instructions, exercises, and worksheets are designed to guide professionals from a variety of disciplines and educational backgrounds through the collection and analysis of data on costs, procedures, effectiveness, and benefits. 

The Cost of Domestic Violence, by Sylvia Walby, Women and Equality Unit, September 2004.
Available at: www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk.

This groundbreaking report addresses one aspect of domestic violence, the cost, for a range of people and social institutions.  Adding a financial dimension increases the range of ways in which policy interventions can be articulated, measured and evaluated.  While the report focuses on domestic violence in the United Kingdom, much of the information is also relevant for a U.S. audience.

Handbook for the Documentation of Interpersonal Violence Prevention Programs, by the Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention, World Health Organization, Geneva, 2004.
Available at: http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/violence/handbook/en/

This handbook provides a framework for the systematic collection of information about interpersonal violence prevention programs from diverse settings. It is applicable to programs with or without formal mechanisms for monitoring, evaluating and documenting their impact. 

Evaluating Domestic Violence Programs, by J. Edleson, Domestic Abuse Project, Minneapolis, MN. 1997.
Available at: http://www.mndap.org/evalmanual.asp or dap@mndap.org.

This manual examines benefits and drawbacks to program evaluation; discusses setting goals and outcome objectives; outlines appropriate data sources; and details when and how to collect, summarize, present, and use evaluation data. Includes worksheets and an extensive set of sample evaluation forms for reference in designing your own program-specific evaluation materials.

Evaluation Guidebook For Projects Funded by S.T.O.P Formula Grants Under the Violence Against Women Act, by Martha R. Burt, Adele V. Harrell, et. al., Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. 1997.
Available at:  http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/guidebook.pdf. 

This guidebook is a resource for all people interested in learning more about the success of programs that try to aid women victims of violence, including sexual assault, domestic violence, or stalking.  This 250-page, comprehensive manual covers such issues as: developing and using a logic model; making evaluation work for you; measures of short-term and long-term change in victim safety and well-being; describing victim services and support systems; evaluating criminal and civil justice agency changes; measures of community collaboration; data system development; and special issues for evaluating projects on Indian Tribal Lands. 

An Evaluation Framework for Community Health Programs, The Center for the Advancement of Community Based Public Health, Durham, NC, 2000.
Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/eval/evalcbph.pdf.

This document emphasizes program evaluation as a practical and ongoing process that involves program staff, community members, and evaluation experts.  This manual is not a comprehensive manual on how to conduct program evaluation, but rather a framework that promotes a common understanding of program evaluation.  It provides a conceptual roadmap that can be adapted to a variety of settings. 

Evaluating the Outcomes of Domestic Violence Service Providers: Some Practical Considerations and Strategies by Cris Sullivan and Carole Alexy. Applied Research Forum, National Electronic Network on Violence Against Women, VAWnet, National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. 
Available at: http://www.vawnet.org/DomesticViolence/Research/VAWnetDocs/AR_evaldv.pdf.

This article provides an overview of how to conceptualize and carry out program evaluation in domestic violence organizations. The authors include a discussion of how to design appropriate outcomes as well as describing information on how to collect data. The article includes additional resources to assist with outcome evaluations.

 

Prevention

The World Report on Violence and Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, 2002.
Available at: http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/global_campaign/en/ or WHO Publications Centre USA, 49 Sheridan Ave., Albany, NY 12210.

This groundbreaking report describes the magnitude and impact of violence throughout the world; describes the key risk factors for violence; summarizes the types of intervention and policy responses that have been tried and what is known about their effectiveness; and makes recommendations for action at local, national and international levels. The Report examines a broad spectrum of violence including: child abuse and neglect by caregivers; youth violence; violence by intimate partners; sexual violence; elder abuse; suicide; and collective violence.  Includes a statistical annex with country and regional data derived from the WHO Mortality and Morbidity Database and a list of resources for violence prevention.

A Vision for Prevention: Key Issues and Statewide Recommendations for the Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women in Michigan by Wendi L. Siebold, The Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCADSV), 2003.
Available at: http://www.mcadsv.org/products/sa/MCADSV%20VFP%20booklet.pdf.

This report summarizes five key issues and recommendations related to the primary prevention of violence against women, derived from a yearlong process of collaboration and planning in Michigan. This report provides a model for a collaborative process of developing a statewide primary prevention agenda. For each key issue, the report has a focus statement on why the issue is important; strategies for addressing the issue; and recommendations.

Through a Public Health Lens. Preventing Violence Against Women: An Update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by Corinne M. Graffunder, M.P.H.; Rita K. Noonan, Ph.D.; Pamela Cox, M.P.H.; Jocelyn Wheaton, M.P.H. from the Journal of Women’s Health 13(1): 5-14, 2004.
Available at: http://www.vawnet.org/SexualViolence/PreventionAndEducation/CDC-PublicHealth.php.

This paper highlights the current efforts of the Division of Violence Prevention (DVP), housed within CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), to use a public health approach to the prevention of violence against women (VAW). Building from a recently developed strategic plan and a research agenda, it explains how four core public health principles -- emphasizing primary prevention, advancing the science of prevention, translating science into effective programs, and building on the efforts of others -- drive current programmatic activities in VAW prevention. Several current programs and projects are described. The paper concludes with recommendations for future prevention work by deepening our vision of leadership, expanding our partnerships, pursuing comprehensive approaches, and using evidence-based strategies.

A Public Health Approach to the Violence Epidemic in the United States, by Larry Cohen and Susan Swift, in Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 5., No. 2, October 1993. 

This article describes the dimensions and identifies root causes of violence in the United States and proposes a community-based, public health approach to violence prevention.  Modeled on a prevention program developed by the Contra Costa County Health Department in California, the paper advocates a complex systems approach in which coalition-building and a broad range of strategies are combined to effect change at multiple levels of impact. The “spectrum of prevention” strategies range from strengthening individual knowledge and skills to changing organizational practices, and influencing policy and legislation to reduce violence.  The underlying premise is that no single approach operating at one level of influence is sufficient to transform the complex, interacting social conditions that contribute to violence.

Transforming the Culture by Donna Garske, in Preventing Violence in America, edited by Robert L. Hampton, Pamela Jenkins, and Thomas P. Gullotta, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1996.
Available at: order@sagepub.com or www.sagepub.com.

This journal article builds a compelling case for developing domestic violence prevention strategies that derive from a gender-based analysis. Citing government statistics showing that most violence in families is perpetrated by men against women, the article suggests that gender-neutral analyses (exemplified in mental health and family violence models) tend to miss the point and hinder implementation of effective prevention strategies.  To stop the current epidemic of violence against women and girls, the article suggests it is essential to address the root causes of that violence – men’s socially-sanctioned beliefs that they have the right to control, coerce, and exert authority over the women in their lives.   The article concludes with a vision and model for social change that involves challenging current norms and beliefs through a process of grassroots community organizing.  

 

Collaboration

Forced Bonding or Community Collaboration?  Partnerships between Science and Practice in Research on Woman Battering, by Jeffrey L. Edleson and Andrea L. Bible in Viewing Crime and Justice from a Collaborative Perspective: Plenary Papers of the 1998 Conference on Criminal Justice Research and Evaluation (pp. 25-38), National Institute of Justice, Washington, DC, 1999. 
Available at: http://www.vaw.umn.edu/documents/collab/collab.html.

This paper explores factors contributing to successful collaborations between practitioners and researchers studying the impact of adult domestic violence and the effectiveness of services aimed at stopping it. The paper identifies potential challenges to research partnerships and, through interviews with the researchers and practitioners from four successful collaborations, highlights strategies for effectively navigating these challenges. 

Recommendations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Researcher-Practitioner Collaborations, by Vera E. Mouradian, Mindy B. Mechanic and Linda M. Williams.  National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, 2001.
http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/general/recom_report.pdf.

This report summarizes advice and information collected from victim advocates, practitioners, and researchers about ways to create effective collaborations that produce the most useful research on issues relevant to ending violence against women.

 

STATISTICS, DATA COLLECTION AND USE OF DATA ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

The Data Sets On &Related to Violence Against Women, developed by the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV) in collaboration with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC).
Available at: http://www.vawnet.org/DomesticViolence/Research/OtherPubs/VAWDataSets.php#VAW.

This resource page features a compilation of publicly accessible online data sets on violence against women, and provides information about utilizing and/or analyzing data to enhance the work of advocates and others working to end domestic and sexual violence. Tables of national and state data sets include live links to data sets, annotations, and related information. This resource page also includes some considerations around the credibility, value and limitations of research and data collection methods, links to research reports and publications, and information for researchers.

Implications for Advocacy and Training: An Analysis of Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States by the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence.
http://www.vawnet.org/NRCDVPublications/TAPE/OtherResources/CostofIPVImplications.pdf.

This brief (8 pages) report summarizes the background, methodology, findings, and discussion of the study, Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The purpose is to aid practitioners in using the information contained in the study.

Researching Violence Against Women: A Practical Guide for Researchers and Activists by M. Ellsberg and L. Heise, PATH and World Health Organization, 2005.
Available at: http://www.path.org/publications/pub.php?id=1175.

This manual has been developed in response to the growing need to improve the quality, quantity, and comparability of international data on physical and sexual abuse. It outlines some of the methodological and ethical challenges of conducting research on violence against women and describes a range of innovative techniques that have been used to address these challenges. Methodologically rigorous research can then be used to guide the formulation and implementation of effective interventions, policies, and prevention strategies.

Websites

Domestic Violence Websites

Communities Against Violence Network (CAVNET)
http://www.cavnet2.org

The CAVNET database is a searchable source of information about violence against women, children, people with disabilities, gays, lesbians, and others.

The Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse (MINCAVA)
http://www.mincava.umn.edu/

The Minnesota Center Against Violence & Abuse operates this electronic clearinghouse via the world wide web, with access to thousands of gopher servers, interactive discussion groups, newsgroups, and web sites.  The clearinghouse aims to provide a quick and user friendly access point to the extensive electronic resources on violence and abuse available through the Internet.

SafeNetwork
http://www.safenetwork.net

SafeNetwork provides training and technical support to domestic violence agencies and advocates in California. 

Silicon Valley Domestic Violence Project
http://www.growing.com/nonviolent/research/dvlinks.htm

Provides a huge range of links to domestic violence oriented websites, including resources for working with different ethnic groups, batterers’ intervention programs, immigration issues, federal domestic violence offices, and more.

Violence Against Women Electronic Network (VAWnet)
www.vawnet.org 
Provides support for violence against women intervention and prevention efforts at the national, state, and local levels through electronic communication and information dissemination. VAWnet participants have access to online database resources. Network members are able to engage in information sharing, problem-solving, and issue analysis via electronic mail and a series of issue-specific forums facilitated by nationally recognized experts in the field of violence against women. VAWnet also operates an extensive searchable electronic library available to the general public, providing links to external sources; an “In the News” section; and access to articles and audio and video resources focused on intimate partner and sexual violence and related issues. 

PREVENTION WEBSITES

Prevention Connection
www.preventconnect.org/159.0.html

Prevention Connection: The Violence Against Women Prevention Partnership is a national project of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) to conduct web conferences, moderate a ListServ and lead on-line discussions to advance primary prevention of violence against women.

Transforming Communities Technical Assistance, Training and Resource Center (TC-TAT)
http://www.transformcommunities.org

TC-TAT serves as a technical assistance, training, and resource center for the advancement of new practices, learning, and skill development in domestic violence prevention.  The TC-TAT website provides a wide range of resources and tools.

MyStrength Campaign
www.mystrength.org

A Project of the California Department of Health Services and the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), MyStrength was created for men to learn about and share ways of living a life based on equality, caring and respect.

Evaluation Websites

Results Based Accountability (RBA)
www.raguide.org or www.resultsaccountability.com

RBA is a disciplined way of thinking and taking action that communities can use to improve the lives of children, families and the community as a whole. It is a step-by-step process for identifying results/outcomes; indicators; baselines; strategies; and performance measures.

Applied Survey Research (ASR)
www.appliedsurveyresearch.org

ASR is a non-profit research organization dedicated to helping people build better communities by providing valid, meaningful, and usable assessments and outcome evaluations necessary for effective community planning and programming. ASR helps communities and organizations use existing data or generate new data and share it with community leaders, the media and the public.

  

Community Organizing Websites

The Community Tool Box
www.ctb.ku.edu

This excellent online resource provides over 6,000 pages of practical skill-building information on over 250 different topics. Topic sections include step-by-step instruction, examples, check-lists, and related resources.

ABSTRACTS AND RESEARCH STUDIES

Summary of International Studies

For an overview of international studies related to the economic costs of domestic violence, please see Economic Costs of Domestic Violence by Lesley Laing and Natasha Bobic,
Available at: http://www.austdvclearinghouse.unsw.edu.au/PDF%20files/Economic_costs_of_DV.pdf.

The Monetary Value of Saving a High-Risk Youth (article) by Mark A. Cohen, Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, (Nashville, TN).  Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Vol. 14, No. 1, March 1998, pp. 5-33, Springer Netherlands.
Available by subscription at www.springerlink.com.

Programs targeted at high-risk youth are designed to prevent high-school dropout, crime, drug abuse, and other forms of delinquency.  Even if shown to be successful in reducing one or more social ill, a key policy question is whether the cost to society from that intervention program exceeds its benefits.  Although the costs of intervention programs are often available, the benefits are more illusive.  This paper provides estimates of the potential benefits from “saving” a high-risk youth, by estimating the lifetime costs associated with the typical career criminal, drug abuser, and high-school dropout.  In the absence of controlled experimental data on the number of career criminals averted, one can ask the reverse question – how many career criminals must be prevented before the program “pays for itself?”  Based on a 2% discount rate, the typical career criminal causes $1.3 - $1.5 million in external costs; a heavy drug user, $370,000 to $970,000; and a high-school dropout, $243,000 to $388,000.  Eliminating duplication between crimes committed by individuals who are both heavy drug users and career criminals results in an overall estimate of the “monetary value of saving a high-risk youth” of $1.7 to $2.3 million.

 

The Cost of Batterer Programs: How Much and Who Pays? (article) by Alison Snow Jones, Johns Hopkins University. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2000:15: 566-586, Sage Publications.
Available by subscription at: http://jiv.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/15/6/566

This article documents the economic costs of four geographically and programmatically diverse batterer treatment programs and illustrates the components and procedures of a program cost analysis. Such analyses provide an essential component of cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) and can assist policy-makers in understanding how the structure and scope of batterer programs influence the costs. Cost per batterer session at the four sites was similar ($22-$32) despite differences in organizational structure and scope of services provided even when cost figures are adjusted ($17-$22) for other services offered by the sites. The estimated cost of program completion in 1995 ranged from $264 to $864. Completion costs that take account of other services that these sites provide range from $261 to $622, with three of the sites reporting completion costs less than $400. Much of the cost of these programs is borne by batterers.

The Organizational Benefits of Assisting Domestically Abused Employee (article) by Pamela R. Johnson and Julie Indvik, California State University, Chico, CA. Public Personnel Management, Vol. 28(3), Fall 1999, pp. 365-374.
http://www.allbusiness.com/periodicals/article/315231-1.html.

This article defines domestic violence, outlines costs of domestic violence to employers, and suggests steps employers can take to assist domestically abused employees. The National Safe Workplace Institute estimates the effects of domestic violence on employers in terms of decreased productivity, lowered morale, and increased absenteeism; increased health care, insurance, and related costs; increased personnel costs for replacement and temporary workers; emergency diversion of security and human resources personnel; and increased security expenditures related to the possibility of domestic violence in the workplace. Organizations can take the following actions: recognize warning signs, encourage disclosure, initiate legal action, develop a domestic violence program, be aware of stalkers, purchase computer software predicting which abusers are most likely to kill their spouses, and provide in-house assistance and education programs.

Measuring the Costs of Domestic Violence Against Women and the Cost-Effectiveness of Interventions (book) by L. Laurence and R. Spalter-Roth, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Washington, D.C. 1996.

This book describes an economic model for measuring the direct and indirect costs of domestic violence to society and for assessing the cost-effectiveness of interventions. The focus is on the institutional prevalence and direct costs in the health care, child well being, employment, homelessness, criminal justice and social services sectors. The book also reviews research on some of the indirect costs of domestic violence such as absenteeism and lost productivity. The model does not include the costs of the long-term impacts of children’s exposure to violence or of the intergenerational transfer of violence.

The Cost and Benefits of Intervening: Battered Women’s Mental and Physical Health Over Time (study) by Laura McCloskey, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
http://www.gold.ahrq.gov/GrantDetails.cfm?GrantNumber=R01%20HS11088

This study compares seven existing domestic violence interventions in different hospital settings.  The actual cost of these hospital programs and the estimated cost of other services will be contrasted to the cost of violence to women’s long-term mental and physical health, accumulated quality years of life, economic productivity and social capital.  Although the survivor shoulders the greatest burden, the cost of relationship violence to society has yet to be fully weighed.  M costs surface as the most salient to the health care community, however, there are many related costs that should be taken into account to take a broad view of the toll.  The findings will offer new information on the cost-effectiveness of a variety of hospital-based interventions and specific recommendations.   Results expected in Fall 2006.

Evaluating Coordinated Community Responses to Domestic Violence (report) by Melanie Shepard, National Resource Center on Domestic Violence,
Available at: http://www.vawnet.org/DomesticViolence/Research/VAWnetDocs/AR_ccr.php

This report provides a summary and analysis of research on coordinated community responses to domestic violence. It provides an overview of different mechanisms for coordination, examines individual components of a coordinated community response, and addresses the overall response. The focus is on the justice system, advocacy and programs for abusers.

Long-term Health Care Effects of Domestic Violence (study) by Robert S. Thompson, MD and Frederick Rivara, MD MPH, Center for Health Studies, Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, Seattle WA.
http://depts.washington.edu/hiprc/projects/prevention/health.html

Domestic violence (DV) is a major societal problem, affecting up to 25 percent of women in their lifetimes, yet knowledge of the impact of DV on health-care utilization and on health status is only rudimentary. This study will assess the impact of DV over an 11-year period on health-care utilization and cost for adult women and their children. Female victims of DV and their children will be compared to a group of non-victims to determine the effect of DV on physical and mental health status, social functioning, and health-risk profiles. This information will be important in convincing health care plans to institute programs for abused women.

Domestic Violence in Bristol – Findings from a 24-hour Snapshot (report) by N. Westmarland, M. Hester and A. Carroza, Bristol: University of Bristol, United Kingdom, 2005.
Available at: http://www.bris.ac.uk/sps/research/fpcw/completed.shtml.

This report describes a study of the amount of help-seeking and support given to domestic violence victims during a 24-hour period in Bristol (United Kingdom). It includes an overview of difficulties encountered, an estimate of the prevalence of domestic abuse in Bristol, findings focused on information about the individuals experiencing domestic abuse, types of abuse experienced, the nature of the support provided, and estimates of costs. This report is one model for how a city might approach collecting local data related to domestic violence. It includes the survey and database used in the snapshot.

Cost-Effectiveness of Domestic Violence Interventions (study) by Mary Zachary, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY.
http://www.gold.ahrq.gov/PrintView.cfm?GrantNumber=K08%20HS11297

This project investigates the effectiveness of domestic violence interventions, defines outcome measures, and develops a method for a cost-benefit analysis.  The study will provide information to guide the medical community on how best to develop domestic violence interventions and investigate the cost-effectiveness of domestic violence interventions in primary care.  The project began in March 2003 and is expected to be completed in September 2007.