Intimate Partner Violence During the Transition from Prison to the Community: An Ecological Analysis

Abstract

While extensive research has been conducted on the causes of intimate partner violence in the community, very little is known about rates and predictors of domestic violence perpetrated by offenders who have recently been incarcerated. Some evidence suggests that formerly incarcerated individuals may be at an increased risk to perpetrate intimate partner violence during the transition from prison to the community (e.g., Hairston & Oliver 2006;Hilton, Harris, Popham, & Lang, 2010;Oliver & Hairston, 2008). The primary goal of this dissertation was to examine the extent to which former inmates engage in domestic violence during the transition from prison to the community. A second goal of this dissertation was to determine the independent and interactive effects of selected individual, situational, and social- iii Dedication My dissertation is dedicated to my dad, Stephen J. Freeland, PhD (Colorado State University, 1981). Da, I still have the "Round Tuit" that Pop gave to you while you were writing your dissertation. I am honored that you passed it down to me while I was writing mine. Your achievement of a PhD was the biggest motivator for me to follow in the same path (even if mine is not in a "real" science -ha ha). You have no idea how wonderful it has been to be able to share my struggles during this process with someone who knows them only too well. I never would have begun this journey without your support, and I never would have finished without your perpetual encouragement. I love you.iv Table 2 Demographic characteristics of the study sample and study population who were released from prison to Multnomah county and the population of offenders released to the entire state between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2009.................................................................................................................. 117 Table 6 Descriptive statistics for individual, situational, and social-structural level variables (n=1137)................................................................................................ 155 Table 7 Descriptive statistics for additional individual-level demographic characteristics (n=1137)........................................................................................ 156 ....................................................................................... 219 Incarceration rates in the United States (US) are exceptionally high. With more than 730 per 100,000 US residents housed in prisons and local jails, current incarceration rates have surpassed those of any other time in US history and those of all other Western European countries (Gottschalk, 2009;Raphael, 2009;Tonry, 1999). While the growth in US incarceration rates initially corresponded with increasing violent crime in the 1980s, an overall decrease in violent crime in the 1990s was not followed by a reciprocal decrease in incarceration (Tonry, 1999;Warren, Gelb, Horowitz, & Riordan, 2008). Violent crime-with the exception of gun violence-is no higher in the ...

The Risk of Family Violence After Incarceration: An Integrative Review

“…Approximately one quarter of men (26%) and women (24.7%) reported physical violence during the time between the male partner’s release and the first postrelease follow-up interview—a median time of 6 months. Freeland Braun (2012) found a similar prevalence of reentering men (25%) were suspected or taken into custody for a new domestic violence incident, with a much longer follow-up period (average of 4.4 years). Using a shorter time frame, within the last month, Grieb and colleagues (2014) revealed that 11% of respondents experienced physical altercations with an incarcerated family member.…”

“…Studies of samples who all experienced incarceration (Freeland Braun, 2012; McKay et al, 2018a; 2018b; Stansfield et al, 2020) all focused on incarcerated men (regardless of prior offense category) and testing whether the releasee perpetrated any new family violence, broadly defined. The one exception was a recent study by Mowen and Fisher (2019) that used a sample of juveniles within the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) data to examine new family violence incidents perpetrated by juveniles.…”

“…This includes the importance of promarriage attitudes held by mothers (Turney, 2014), which was associated with a heightened risk of self-reported physical abuse perpetrated by an incarcerated father after release. In the study with the most complete information on formerly incarcerated men, Freeland Braun (2012) found that witnessing violence in one’s family growing up and neighborhood disadvantage were both associated with an increased risk of new family violence after release from prison. The study also found that employment and a higher number of children increased the risk of subsequent family violence.…”

“…Our review of significant risk factors highlighted the importance of intraindividual changes in family conflict, substance use, and relationship quality after the release of a partner from prison. Relatedly, the protective factors identified in the quantitative studies included substance use treatment in prison (Freeland Braun, 2012), healthy male relationship beliefs, women’s higher conflict resolution skills and women’s reports that their partners rarely became jealous (McKay et al, 2018a), in addition to older age of the person incarcerated (Bell et al, 2013; Freeland Braun, 2012; Stansfield et al, 2020; Wakefield, 2015). In other quantitative studies, evidence of protective factors entailed supporting and strengthening family relationships.…”