Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention Advance Access originally published online on December 20, 2006
Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 2007 7(1):55-76; doi:10.1093/brief-treatment/mhl020
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Understanding the Impact of Prior Abuse and Prior Victimization on the Decision to Forego Criminal Justice Assistance in Domestic Violence Incidents: A Life-Course Perspective
From the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of MassachusettsLowell
Contact author: James Byrne, Professor, and Eve Buzawa, Professor, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell. E-mail: profbyrne{at}hotmail.com.
While there has been much attention focused on offenders, crime, and desistance from crime through the life course, researchers have largely ignored victimization and desistance from victimization through the life course. Focusing specifically on domestic violence among a cohort of offenders and victims in a single court setting (Quincy, Massachusetts), the authors explore the factors (including both offender and victim characteristics) related to revictimization and then examine the difference between those victims who do not report revictimization to the police and those victims who do report .The research reported here demonstrates that a childhood history of abuse may increase the probability that revictimizationif/when it occurswill not be reported to police. The implications of this finding for criminal justice system's response to victims of domestic violence are discussed, focusing on (a) the development of new strategies for the identification and control of revictimization that are proactive and police- and/or probation-driven as well as (b) new approaches to treatment and crisis intervention that recognize the importance of understanding victimizationboth at the individual and family levelthroughout the life course.
KEY WORDS: abuse, victimization, life-course perspective, domestic violence, crisis intervention, formal and informal social control mechanisms, batterer treatment