Spouse abuse recidivism in the US army by gender and military status

Recidivism by spouse abusers was investigated using records of offenders in the U.S. Army Central Registry. Recidivism by gender and military status ( active-duty or civilian spouse) was compared over a 70-month period. Betwee n fiscal years 1989-1997, 48,330 offenders were identified in initial and r ecidivist incidents. Recidivism was analyzed by means of a Cox proportional hazard rate model, controlling for age, race, number of dependents, educat ion, and substance abuse. Two different sets of survival curves were obtain ed: (a) Men were much more likely than women to have a recurrence and (b) w ithin gender, civilians were more likely to have a recurrence than were act ive-duty military personnel. At 70 months, 30% of the male civilian offende rs and 27% of the male active-duty offenders had committed a subsequent spo use abuse incident compared with 20% of the female civilian offenders and 1 8% of the female active-duty offenders, controlling for other variables.