Amy L. Shadoin, PhD¹, Mary Laska, PhD², Suzanne Nace Magnuson, MS², and Melissa Evans, BS³. (1) Research Officer, National Children's Advocacy Center, 210 Pratt Avenue, Huntsville, AL 35801, (2) Research Coordinator, National Children's Advocacy Center, 210 Pratt Avenue, Huntsville, AL 35801, 256-327-3798, smagnuson@nationalcac.org, (3) Research Assistant, National Children's Advocacy Center, 210 Pratt Avenue, Huntsville, AL 35801

The First Responders Program is a domestic violence intervention model that pairs trained victim advocates with patrol officers, creating a pro-active team to combat and reduce domestic violence. First Responders provide time-critical, on-the-scene support for victims and their children. This approach deviates from the traditional police response to domestic violence and enables advocates to connect, intercede and offer various support options at the time of crisis. This evaluation examines the First Responders program and its effects on domestic violence recidivism in the context of intervention response. Analysis will cover the victim demographics, the relationships between victims, offenders, and witnesses, the incident locations and previous domestic violence incident reports. The classification of the abuse incident, the witness characteristics and victim/offender involvements with substance abuse will also be analyzed in regards to the response to the program. Preliminary results show a decrease in subsequent contact with law enforcement for both the offender as offender and victim as victim, after involvement with the First Responder program. Preliminary results also allow us to fully recognize the impact of domestic violence in our community and the response of individuals who have been involved in domestic violence events.

Learning Objectives:

• 1.Describe the First Responder model of partnership between law enforcement and victim advocates in providing time-critical responses to victims of domestic violence.
• 2.Summarize the benefits of coordinated community response to domestic violence.
• 3.Discuss methods to reduce recidivism as measured by DV reports.

Keywords: Domestic Violence, Evaluation

Related Web page: www.nationalcac.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: employment with the National Children's Advocacy Center, the evaluator or this project and administrator for the grant partially funding this project.