A 30-month follow-up of court-referred batterers in four cities

A follow-up of court-referred male batterers in four cites was conducted to assess the long-term outcomes of batterer programs (N = 618). About 70% of the batterers' initial and new female partners were interviewed by phone e very 3 months for the first 15 months and every 7 to 8 months for the next 15 months. According to the women's reports, 41% of the men committed a rea ssault during the 30-month follow-up period-an increase of only 7% over the 15-month reassault rate. Nearly two thirds of the first-time reassaults oc curred in the first 6 months. About a fifth of the men repeatedly reassault ed their partners and account for most of the reported injuries. The reassa ult rate for men attending a program for 3 months or more is significantly less than for dropouts. The reassault rates are not significantly different across the four programs, despite differences in program length and servic es.