Building the Evidence for Domestic Violence Services & Interventions: A Framing Paper

Authors & Acknowledgement Statement

This report was prepared by National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (Anne Menard and Cris Sullivan, Ph.D., Michigan State University), and Center for Policy Research (Jessica Pearson, Ph.D. and Echo Rivera, Ph.D.). The core project team also included Madeline Solan, MMP, and Stephanie Acker Housman, MPA, ASPE and Marylouise Kelley, Ph.D. FVPSA, Director.

Report & Project Background

In April 2016 the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) contracted with the Center for Policy Research and the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence to host a two day roundtable convening of experts to discuss opportunities to build the evidence base for domestic violence (DV) services. This framing paper provided background information for that discussion. This paper: 1) briefly summarizes and critiques the current state of rigorous evidence on core DV victim services; 2) identifies some key challenges that have limited the development of—and evidence base for—core services; 3) identifies a number of strategies that could assist in building the evidence base; and 4) outlines some areas of opportunity for strengthening future research and evaluation.