Women Initiating New Goals of Safety

Intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem that disproportionately affects drug-involved female offenders under community supervision. Moreover, accumulating research has found strong associations linking experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) and continued drug use among women in drug treatment. This research suggests that failure to prevent IPV among drug-involved female offenders under community supervision likely to result in higher rates of relapse, treatment attrition and recidivism and underscores the need to address the IPV service needs among the rapidly growing population of female offenders under community supervision. Computerized multimedia IPV prevention service tools have been shown to be feasible and effective in conducting screening, brief intervention and referral for IPV in medical care settings. The proposed services research addresses the significant public health problem of IPV victimization and a co-occurring risk for relapse and recidivism among drug-involved female offenders under court supervision or probation. The proposed computerized tool employs a self-paced, multimedia format to conduct IPV screening, brief intervention and IPV-related service referrals that is informed by best IPV screening and referral practices and previous intervention research. This innovative tool represents a cost-effective option that may implemented with greater fidelity and result in better client satisfaction and IPV prevention outcomes. Furthermore, if found to be effective in identifying IPV and improving linkage to IPV services, this cost effective computerized service tool may be scaled up with ease and speed in court and probation settings in New York State and nationwide.