An evaluation of a domestic violence program in a Mexican-American community

Using 235 cases gathered from the Laredo Police Department's Family Violence Incident Reports as well as records compiled by the Webb County District Attorney's Office Domestic Violence Unit, this study evaluated the effectiveness of a newly created program in providing legal remedies and social services to control and reduce the incidence of wife abuse in a predominantly Mexican-American community. Richard Gelles's (1983) Exchange/Social Control Theory was applied to determine if it could serve as a more useful and encompassing tool to explore the issues of ethnicity and socioeconomic status in the evaluation of the domestic violence program. Another goal of this project involved gathering more information on these neglected victims and their risk markers which can reveal the likelihood of wife abuse for such Mexican-American populations. Recidivism was more likely when a traditional approach to domestic violence incidents was taken with no social services used by victims. Recidivism was less likely when an intensive coordinated community approached was used under the auspices of a domestic violence unit program. The Domestic Violence Unit (DVU) and Laredo Police Department (LPD) groups were not equivalent on generational inequality. Several control variables were found to be significantly related to the privacy variable. Victims and batterers were younger in the LPD group than in the DVU group. Laredo Police Department victims experienced more minor injuries while their counterparts experienced fewer but more serious injuries. The DVU victims were more likely to want to prosecute their cases, while LPD victims were likely to drop their cases. Prior history of family violence was the only control variable to influence recidivism. Repeat wife abuse was more likely in homes with a history of such violence. The independent variables (wife working and employment status of the couple) were found to be significantly related to recidivism. Wives who worked had lower rates of domestic violence than those who were just housewives. Couples with different employment statuses were more likely to experience family violence than couples who held the same employment status. Controlling for various variables, the logistic regression of recidivism revealed that being in the LPD group almost triples the odds of recidivism. By incorporating privacy, inequality, and masculinity variables into the analysis, one is better able to understand the complex phenomena of recidivism in Mexican-American wife abuse.