Evaluating Services for Survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault

Stephanie Riger is Professor of Psychology and Gender and Women′s Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago She is the recipient of the American Psychological Association′s Division 27 award for Distinguished Contributions to Research and Theory and a two-time winner of the Association for Women in Psychology′s Distinguished Publication Award. She is author of Transforming Psychology: Gender in Theory and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2000) as well as numerous journal articles and other books. Her current research focuses on the impact of welfare reform on intimate violence, and the evaluation of domestic violence and sexual assault services. Larry Bennett is Associate Professor, Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago. His research interests include the implementation of evidence-based practice in social service agencies, the relationship between substance abuse and domestic violence, the structure and effectiveness of community based batterers intervention programs, and the links between various forms of men′s violence such as bullying, sexual harassment, dating violence, and adult partner abuse. He was a member of the Consensus Panel on Family Violence of the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, and currently chairs the Illinois Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence Interdisciplinary Task Force. He is a licensed clinical social worker in the State of Illinois, limiting his practice to court-ordered child custody evaluation.Sharon M. Wasco is a research assistant, instructor, and doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a student affiliate of the American Evaluation Association and the Society for Community Research and Action (Division 27 of the American Psychological Association). In recent years, Ms. Wasco has assisted in developing evaluation materials for sexual assault and domestic violence programs and has provided training and program-specific technical assistance to service providers implementing evaluations in both Michigan and Illinois. She is interested in the effects of gender-based violence on victims, their support networks, and communities. Ms. Wasco works with her faculty advisor, Dr. Rebecca Campbell, researching how service providers, organizations, and systems respond to sexual violence against women. Paul Schewe is a prevention researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a clinical/community psychologist with extensive experience in developing and evaluating school-based violence prevention programs. In recent years Dr. Schewe has worked on a variety of projects ranging from evaluations of single programs, to community-based collaborations, to statewide initiatives. The focus of these efforts have included sexual assault, teen dating violence, and domestic violence prevention programs, as well as early childhood interventions to promote social-emotional development. He is the editor of Preventing Relationship Violence Across the Lifespan (APA Press, 2002) and author of numerous articles on sexual assault prevention and related topics. Dr. Schewe is a home-schooling father of three children, and contributes to his local community as a scout leader and soccer coach.Lisa Frohmann is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois, Chicago. For twenty years she has been working in the area of violence against women as both a researcher and activist. Her research focuses on the prosecution of domestic violence and sexual assault cases and the social construction of race, class and gender in the law. She is also working on new research, The Autobiographical Photography Project, that examines battered women’s conceptions of "safety" as expressed through photography and narrative. Dr. Frohmann’s activist work includes serving as a rape crisis hotline advocate and as an instructor in women’s self defense techniques. She has consulted with sexual assault and domestic violence agencies to provide in-service training on case prosecution and women’s experience in court, develop evaluation tools, and navigate organizational change. She also serves on the Board of Directors’ Evaluation Committee of Heartland Alliance, which insures that all research conducted in affiliated organizations meet strict ethical standards. Jennifer Camacho is an Epidemiologist with the Chicago Department of Public Health, where she works as internal evaluator. She received her Masters from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Community Prevention & Research, where she studied violence against women, program evaluation, and statistics. She regularly teaches informal courses on the use of non-parametric statistics in the evaluation of small programs and enjoys doing independent evaluative and statistical consulting. In addition to violence against women, her research interests include organizational responses to persons with disabilities. Publications for this year include work on community interventions for persons with disabilities and work on the radiating impact of domestic violence. Rebecca Campbell is a Professor at Michigan State University. Her current research includes studies on the community response to rape, vicarious trauma among violence against women researchers and service providers, and the evaluation of rape crisis center services. She is the author of Emotionally Involved: The Impact of Researching Rape (Routledge, 2001). Dr. Campbell received the 2000 Louise Kidder Early Career Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (Division 9) of the American Psychological Association. To get a break from thinking about violence against women, she enjoys gardening and cooking.

Evaluating Services for Survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault is a valuable resource not only for researchers and evaluators, but for service providers and funders as well. Written in clear, straightforward language, it addresses many complex factors that come in to play when conducting victim-service evaluations, including issues of safety and confidentiality. A great tool for anyone involved in the work to end violence against women.

• I. The Political and Social Context of Evaluation1. The Evolution of the Violence Against Women Social Movement and Services for Victims2. Collaboration in Evaluation ResearchII. Key Aspects of Doing an Evaluation3. Why Evaluate?4. Basic Concepts in Evaluation5. Using Evaluation ResultsIII. Lessons Learned6. Lessons Learned in Evaluating Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault ServicesIV. Additional ResourcesV. ReferencesVI. Appendix A. Evaluation Measures for Domestic Violence ServicesVII. Appendix B. Evaluation Measures for Sexual Assault ServicesVIII. About the Authors