AUTHOR=Karavias Yiannis , Bandyopadhyay Siddhartha , Christie Christine , Bradbury-Jones Caroline , Taylor Julie , Kane Eddie , Flowe Heather D. TITLE=Impact evaluation and economic benefit analysis of a domestic violence and abuse UK police intervention JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=14 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1063701 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1063701 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

This study evaluated the impact and economic benefit of Cautioning and Relationship Abuse (CARA), an intervention which aims to reduce re-offending of first-time low-level domestic violence and abuse perpetrators. The analysis was based on two samples drawn from separate UK police force areas. CARA’s impact was assessed using a matched sample of similar offenders from a time when CARA was not available. The matching was based on a host of offender and victim characteristics and machine learning methods were employed. The results show that the CARA intervention has a significant impact on the amount of recidivism but no significant reduction in the severity of the crimes. The benefit-cost ratio in both police force areas is greater than one and estimated to be 2.75 and 11.1, respectively, across the two police force areas. Thus, for each pound (£) invested in CARA, there is an economic benefit of 2.75–11.1 pounds, annually.