Preliminary Effectiveness of an Intimate Partner Violence Intervention in Reducing Recidivism Among Criminal Justice-Involved Individuals in Switzerland

The recidivism rates of individuals who have perpetrated intimate partner violence (IPV) are high, highlighting the need for effective preventive measures. Although much research has been conducted on this topic abroad, only limited data are available from Switzerland. To address this knowledge gap, the present study evaluated the effectiveness of a Swiss IPV intervention in reducing recidivism among criminal justice-involved individuals. This study is a secondary analysis of data obtained from two previous studies involving samples of adult men who had been police-recorded for IPV. A retrospective quasi-experiment was used to compare the recidivism rates of individuals assigned to the intervention ( n = 66) to those of individuals not assigned to the program ( n = 204). Recidivism was defined as any re-offense for IPV recorded by the Cantonal Police of Zurich during a 2-year fixed follow-up period. The IPV recidivism rates were lower in the intervention group (6.06%) than in the control group (22.55%). The Cox proportional hazards regression showed a statistically significant intervention effect (HR = 0.21, p = .003, 95% CI [0.07, 0.59]) after adjusting for potential confounders. Given the limitations of this study, these results provide supportive albeit preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of the intervention program. Future research should verify these findings using a methodologically rigorous study design that addresses the limitations of the current study. Refinements of the intervention program and possible new directions for research and practice are discussed.