North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Purpose – There is a growing emphasis on the need to integrate research and practice in the fields of domestic and sexual violence. However, additional research is needed to identify strategies for key stakeholders to use to bridge research and practice in these areas. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The current study analyzed qualitative data collected during a statewide conference for researchers and practitioners whose work addresses domestic and/or sexual violence. Findings – The findings provide information about building effective researcher-practitioner collaborations, developing methodologically sound studies that address practice-relevant research questions, and identifying steps that funders, state coalitions, researchers, and practitioners can take to advance the integration of research and practice. Research limitations/implications – Additional research is needed to evaluate specific approaches to better integrating research and practice related to domestic and sexual violence. Practical implications – Researcher-practitioner collaborations offer numerous benefits to advancing research and practice related to domestic and sexual violence. Additional guidance and tangible support is needed to foster these collaborations. Originality/value – This study used data collected during an innovative conference that brought together researchers and practitioners. The data have implications for furthering the integration of research and practice related to domestic and sexual violence.

Court-mandated domestic violence (DV) treatment programs across the country have seen a marked increase in female clients. These programs use a variety of measurement tools to assess the needs of their clients. Increased numbers of women in treatment for DV reflect a need to address the measurement of intimate partner violence (IPV) for both males and females. Unfortunately, the reliability and validity of many of measures used to assess IPV and related constructs for women remains unknown. The current study focuses on a particular measure, the Propensity for Abusiveness Scale (PAS). The PAS is not a measure of abusive behavior per se; rather, it assesses risk factors for abuse, including affective lability, anger expression, trauma symptoms, and harsh parenting experienced by the respondent. Specifically, the current study compares the factor structure and the measurement properties of the PAS for males and females in a sample of 885 (647 female, 238 male) participants in a DV treatment program. Findings indicate that the PAS demonstrated configural, metric, and scalar invariance between the female and male samples. These results suggest that it is appropriate for researchers and clinicians to make comparisons between women and men based on PAS factor scores.

The state of New Jersey has recommended the widespread adoption of bystander intervention education as a way to engage communities in the prevention of sexual violence. The study reported here gathered baseline data from a random sample of New Jersey residents about their attitudes as bystanders, gender roles, and sexual violence. The analysis of the data revealed that the women reported less support for rigid gender roles and a greater willingness to become active bystanders than did the men. Age and race were also significant in some of the scales. Implications for the development of programs to prevent sexual violence are discussed.