Intimate Partner Violence During the Transition from Prison to the Community: Perspectives of Incarcerated African American Men

ABSTRACT

The thematic findings presented in this paper emerged from a pilot study designed to inform the Safe Return Initiative, a U.S. Office of Violence Against Women federally funded technical assistance project intended to enhance the capacity of domestic violence and prisoner reentry federal grantees to more effectively address relationship conflict and domestic violence during a man's transition from prison to the community. A series of focus groups were conducted with African American men who were incarcerated, African American men on parole supervision, and African American women who were currently or formerly involved in an intimate relationship with a incarcerated man or a man on parole to uncover respondents' perspectives on the sources of conflict between men under correctional supervision and their female partners during and following incarceration.

KEYWORDS:

• Prisoner rentry
• relationship conflict
• domestic violence
• African Americans