Criminal Thinking Among Men Beginning a Batterer Intervention Program: The Relevance of Military Background

ABSTRACT

Recent studies indicate domestic violence rates in military families have increased dramatically in the last decade, raising concerns among academics and service providers alike. Using survey data from a Batterer Intervention Program (BIP) offered in several counties of the Midwest, we conducted a multivariate comparison of veteran and non-veteran offenders convicted of domestic battery and court-mandated to attend the BIP. We analyzed intake data to address the following research question: Does military background affect a BIP client’s criminal thinking patterns? More specifically, does criminal thinking differ between the two groups? We utilized the Criminal Thinking Scale (CTS) (Knight, Garner, Simpson, Morey, & Flynn, 2006) to examine whether veteran and civilian domestic violence offenders varied on the subscales of justification, power orientation, cold heartedness, criminal rationalization, personal irresponsibility, and entitlement. While descriptive analyses did not indicate statistical significance between the groups, multivariate analyses suggested military status was associated with higher levels of criminal thinking, although this might be true only for one particular measure of criminal thinking, criminal rationalization. While our study is exploratory, it represents the first attempt to use the CTS to distinguish between veteran and civilian offenders and provides insights on future research on the issue of batterer rehabilitation and the importance of military background.

KEYWORDS:

• domestic violence
• criminal thinking
• batterer intervention programs
• justice-involved veterans
• military

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Terry Moore for his contribution during the data collection and for the continuous support throughout the research process.

Funding

The data analysis procedures were supported through an Indiana University Northwest Summer Research Fellowship awarded to the second author in 2012.

Additional information

Funding

The data analysis procedures were supported through an Indiana University Northwest Summer Research Fellowship awarded to the second author in 2012.