In 2018, Seattle Municipal Court (SMC) entered a multi-year, multi-discipline and multi-agency collaboration and research study with a common purpose: to prevent domestic violence and improve safety for survivors by providing individualized, state-certified better intervention for domestic violence perpetrators charged in SMC. The court calls it the Domestic Violence Intervention Program, or DVIP for short.
DVIP is unique because it involves not only the court’s perspective and is a collaboration across research, advocacy groups and community services. Partners include the City of Seattle’s Mayor’s Office and City Attorney’s Office, Anger Control Treatment and Therapies, Northwest Family Life, the YMCA, Salvation Army, Refugee Women’s Alliance, University of Washington (UW) School of Social Work and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO)’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women awarded two professors at UNO—the university involved in evaluating the program for the past six years’—a grant to conduct a comprehensive outcome evaluation of DVIP.
Over the next three years, the research team at both UNO and UW will assess the court’s program impact on decreasing offender recidivism, increasing survivor hopefulness and empowerment, boosting utilization of supportive services and identifying the reasons some participants drop out of treatment. This research will build on a previous UNO-led evaluation of DVIP from 2021-23.
“This research project has brought system partners together in a way that hasn’t really happened before,” said Jason Grant, SMC Probation Manager. “Community-based providers have long supported survivors and held offenders accountable. Now, with university researchers, we’re taking a more intentional, structured look at how it all fits together. The expertise we have with our partners at UW and UNO brings credibility and clarity to the work, and we’re excited to take this next step to understand what’s working and how we can keep improving.”
The research team will conduct data collection throughout 2025 and 2026. Results will be shared through academic publications, webinars, and reports, with the goal of influencing domestic violence treatment nationwide.
Why is this work so important? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 41 percent of women and 26 percent of men experience physical or sexual violence and/or stalking by a significant other at some point in their lives.
Oftentimes, cases of domestic violence show up in the courts. In 2024, 1,459 cases of domestic violence were heard at SMC, with defendants being offered the opportunity to enter DVIP. Services are also available to survivors of domestic violence. For a complete overview of the program, click here; and for a complete look at DV case numbers at SMC from 2020-25, click here.
“We know that domestic violence is a persistent and complex public health issue,” said UNO’s Tara Richards, PhD. “This research will help us understand not only what works, but why it works. By partnering with local practitioners in Seattle, we’re generating insights that can inform solutions nationwide and around the world. That’s critical for building safer communities everywhere.”