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Researcher evaluates police efforts to combat domestic violence By Deborah A. Benedetti
Dr. Jennifer Adams Mastrofski, assistant professor of administration of justice with the Institute for Continuing Justice Education and Research at Penn State, specializes in family and divorce policy, court reform, domestic violence and conflict resolution.	A Penn State researcher has been awarded one of only four Researcher-Practitioner Partnership grants from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) of the U.S. Department of Justice to evaluate law enforcement strategies to encourage arrest for domestic violence. Dr. Jennifer Adams Mastrofski, assistant professor of administration of justice with the Institute for Continuing Justice Education and Research, has received $75,000 from NIJ. The 18-month research project titled “Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships: Evaluation of Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies for Domestic Violence” began last January and is funded through June 2000. Mastrofski’s practitioner partner is the State College, Pa., Police Department, which also has received funding from the Violence Against Women Grants Office of the U.S. Department of Justice. The department’s countywide grant, an 18-month Grant to Encourage Arrest Policies, is funded for $459,819. Lt. Diane M. Conrad, commander of the Investigations and Records Division of the State College Police Department, said, “Sixty percent of homicides in our community are domestic-violence related. Nationally, more than half of all homicides are the result of domestic violence, and domestic violence is the single largest cause of injury to women. When grant funding became available through the Violence Against Women Act, we seized this opportunity to further improve our collaborative, community-wide services to victims of domestic violence. In the Arrest Policies grant, our objective is to afford maximum protection to domestic violence victims by wielding the power of the criminal justice system to hold offenders accountable and keep victims safe. We also support other community systems that provide assistance and resources to battered women and their children. Our approach is: a strong response to domestic violence cases is homicide prevention.” Sgt. John Wilson, community relations unit supervisor for the State College Police Department, added, “Domestic violence has always been a major problem. Police officers recognize these are extremely dangerous situations for victims, children and police. We are called back to the same place over and over again. We are looking for ways to improve safety for everyone involved.” To help address the growing problem of domestic violence throughout the United States, the National Institute of Justice has awarded numerous Encourage Arrest Policies grants nationally, but only four researchers have been funded to date for researcher-practitioner partnership evaluation grants. Other partnership projects are funded in Colorado, California and New York. “To be considered for this grant, it was critical that I document the long-term relationship I have established with the State College Police Department and community groups involved in reducing and preventing domestic violence,” Mastrofski said. This relationship includes membership on the Centre County Domestic Violence Task Force since 1995, as well as other funded research projects with the State College Police Department and related agencies. Under a previous STOP Violence Against Women project funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency with Violence Against Women Act monies, Mastrofski developed and conducted pre- and post-training assessments of law enforcement and other personnel from justice-related agencies who participated in the police department’s countywide domestic-violence training. For this current research project, she is completing a process evaluation of the police department’s newest domestic violence initiatives, including establishment of a domestic violence case management team; creation of new specialized positions within the police department, probation and parole, and victims service agencies; continuation and expansion of training in domestic violence; and completion of a community-safety audit. Practitioner partners working with the police department and Mastrofski include the Centre County Women’s Resource Center, Centre County Probation Services and Keystone Legal Services. In addition to these initiatives, the State College Police Department already has developed domestic violence teaching manuals, protocols and policies. These materials are being requested for use by other police departments, Wilson noted. As a process evaluator, Mastrofski is monitoring the police department’s efforts to develop new positions and institute more comprehensive tracking systems for domestic violence cases. She is meeting regularly with the people involved in all aspects of the Encourage Arrest Policies grant to document progress, provide feedback and assess outcomes throughout the funding period. Mastrofski is using a multimethod approach to focus the evaluation in four target areas: Training of law enforcement personnel and other professionals participating in domestic violence training throughout the funding period. Tracking/monitoring of developments in agency and interagency database systems and activities of the domestic violence case management team. Safety audit of victim access points in the community. Services for victims as perceived by women victims themselves. She expects the process evaluation to lay groundwork for a future impact evaluation of the police department’s initiatives through its Encourage Arrest Policies grant. One of the first products completed by the evaluation to date has been a technical assistance project, which involved sending a team of eight participating partners from Centre County to the Colorado Springs, Colo., Police Department’s Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team (DVERT) project. DVERT is nationally recognized as a model community-response project encompassing more than 17 service agencies. DVERT hosted Mastrofski and her researcher-practitioner team for a three-day site visit to learn more about its initiatives and applicability for the State College project. Mastrofski brings 14 years of teaching and research experience in family policy, domestic violence and justice-system reform to this project. She also specializes in conflict resolution and mediation across a number of contexts. Last January, she completed a project to develop six hours of conflict resolution curriculum for law enforcement officers across Pennsylvania. The $28,578 contract was awarded by the Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officers Education and Training Commission and provided funds to train more than 200 law enforcement trainers within the Commonwealth. For that contract, she collaborated with Michael Teeters, training and education officer for the Penn State Department of Police Services; Stephen D. Mastrofski, professor of criminal justice, Michigan State University; and Donald Zettlemoyer, director of the Penn State Institute for Continuing Justice Education and Research.