Home      Login

Abstract: 

Two interesting and helpful articles in this issue explore work with two quite different populations. The first looks at a pre-charge diversion program for misdemeanor offenders; the second examines a batterer intervention program for domestic violence offenders. Dr. Albert Kopak, J.J. Jordan, G. Frost, and Ashley Ballard examine an innovative misdemeanor pre-charge diversion program in Tallahassee, Florida. The program, geared toward adults who have committed relatively minor offenses that do not represent a major risk to the community, seeks to divert them prior to arrest and the issuance of a formal criminal charge. It thus reduces their deeper involvement in the criminal process and the resulting consequences of job loss, family breakups, etc. The results are encouraging, and programs of this nature would go a long way to curtailing growing detention populations and court backlogs and to avoiding putting more individuals into a state of precariousness. The authors recommend more research into this promising strategy, including what the benefits of this approach might be for delaying an offending trajectory. Professors Monica Solinas-Saunders and Jonel Thaller report on a study designed to evaluate the efficacy of a batterer intervention program that uses Cognitive Accountability Training (CAT) with male offenders who were court mandated to attend the 26-week program. Domestic violence continues to be a serious issue, and research that assists in determining the most helpful approach to dealing with this problem is

Keywords: Pre-Charge Diversion; Assessment of Cognitive Accountability Training

Affiliations:  1: Journal Editor.