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The increasing number of anti-trafficking organizations and funding for anti-trafficking services have greatly out-paced evaluative efforts resulting in critical knowledge gaps, which have been underscored by recent recommendations for the development of greater evaluation capacity in the anti-trafficking field. In response to these calls, this paper reports on the development and feasibility testing of an evaluation protocol to generate practice-based evidence for an anti-trafficking transitional housing program. Guided by formative evaluation and evaluability frameworks, our practitioner-researcher team had two aims: (1) develop an evaluation protocol, and (2) test the protocol with a feasibility trial. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of only a few reports concerning anti-trafficking housing program evaluations, particularly one with many foreign-national survivors as evaluation participants. In addition to presenting evaluation findings, the team herein documented decisions and strategies related to conceptualizing, designing, and conducting the evaluation to offer approaches for future evaluations.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is an urgent public health concern. Given the dire consequences for exploited youth, growing attention has been focused on the importance of preventing, identifying, and responding to CSEC in school settings. Despite calls for schools to be prepared to identify and respond to CSEC, limited specific guidance is available to prepare and inform school personnel about how to recognize and address CSEC. In this article, we will describe a sample protocol that delineates how schools can respond to CSEC concerns, identifications, and disclosures. Our protocol was created as part of a larger project to develop CSEC awareness and response materials to be used within middle and high schools. It is our intention that this sample protocol will stimulate additional practice, policy, and research attention on how to effectively recognize and address CSEC in schools.

Purpose: A growing subpopulation of intimate partner violence (IPV) victims comprises mothers who have been mandated to services by either the court system or child protective services (CPS). Two human service agencies in the United States developed a 13-week novel intervention to address these women. All participants were assigned to the intervention, which featured group psychoeducation sessions, social events, and childcare. Method: This quasi-experimental study gathered preliminary evidence regarding whether the intervention promoted participants' (N = 70) parenting practices. Specifically, growth curve analyses using hierarchical linear modeling examined outcomes at completion (3 months) and follow-up (6 months). Results: Participants reported statistically significant improvements on key parenting practices at both postintervention time points. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary support for engaging court- and CPS-involved female IPV survivors in specialized, group-based interventions such as that investigated herein. Future research should investigate similar programs using larger samples and more robust designs.

Advances in statistics provide new methods for analyzing practice data. These advances include person-centered methods (PCMs) that identify subgroups of research participants with similar characteristics. PCMs derive from a frame of reference that is similar to the risk factor perspective in practice. In practice, the delivery of services is often contingent on identifying at-risk populations and then providing interventions to groups based on shared risk profiles. PCMs use this perspective. Moreover, PCMs provide a means for identifying high-risk groups with a precision rarely afforded by routine variable-centered methods. This article describes a latent profile transition analysis (LPTA), one of several PCMs. To demonstrate LPTA, we estimate risk profiles and treatment effects using data from a cohort study of a school-based social skills training program. We define four steps in PCMs analysis, describe key statistical tests, and conclude with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of PCMs for practice research. [This article was published in "Journal of Community Psychology" (EJ955395).]

Campus sexual assault (SA) policies and sexual consent definitions have not been widely studied. The study team conducted a nationally representative review of college and university websites (n = 995), assessing the prevalence of publicly accessible online policies and definitions and examining associations with school characteristics. A content analysis was performed on a subsample (n = 100) of consent definitions. Most schools (93.0%) had an SA policy and consent definition (87.6%) available online. Schools were more likely to have a policy or consent definition if they were large (=5,000 students), public, or had a female enrollment of =33%. Detail and comprehensiveness of definitions varied. Findings highlight opportunities for schools--especially small schools, private schools, and those with more male students--to increase access to SA policies and consent definitions.

Given the growing prevalence of technology-based instruction, social work faculty need a clear understanding of the strengths and limitations of these methods. We systematically examined the evidence for technology-based instruction in social work education. Using comprehensive and rigorous methods, 38 articles were included in the review. Of these, 23 employed Web-based strategies, 12 employed interactive television-based strategies, and three combined both methods. Among the studies, there was a wide range of samples, content areas, measures, and data analyses. Results found that 84.2% of the studies reported that technology-based pedagogical methods produced academic outcomes equivalent or superior to traditional methods. Despite limitations, this body of evidence supports the continued use of technology in social work education as an alternative to classroom education. Future directions include the need for higher quality research and further investigations of specific issues relating to content, student subpopulations, and measures.

Advances in statistics provide new methods for analyzing practice data. These advances include person-centered methods (PCMs) that identify subgroups of research participants with similar characteristics. PCMs derive from a frame of reference that is similar to the risk factor perspective in practice. In practice, the delivery of services is often contingent on identifying at-risk populations and then providing interventions to groups based on shared risk profiles. PCMs use this perspective. Moreover, PCMs provide a means for identifying high-risk groups with a precision rarely afforded by routine variable-centered methods. This article describes a latent profile transition analysis (LPTA), one of several PCMs. To demonstrate LPTA, we estimate risk profiles and treatment effects using data from a cohort study of a school-based social skills training program. We define four steps in PCMs analysis, describe key statistical tests, and conclude with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of PCMs for practice research. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

We investigated agency directors' perspectives about how service goals should be prioritized for domestic violence and sexual assault service subtypes, including crisis, legal advocacy, medical advocacy, counseling, support group, and shelter services. A sample of 97 (94% response rate) North Carolina domestic violence and/or sexual assault agency directors completed a survey asking participants to rank the importance of service goals. Overall, participants considered emotional support provision to be a critical service goal priority across all service types. Social support and self-care service strategies were deemed less important. However, prioritization of other service goals varied depending on the service type. Statistically significant differences on service goal prioritization based on key agency characteristics were also examined, and agency characteristics were found to relate to differences in service goal prioritization. (Contains 4 tables.)

Domestic violence advocates and researchers advocate for a survivor-centered approach for assisting women experiencing intimate partner violence (IV), with individualized safety plans and services; yet little empirical work has been done to determine IV survivors' specific combinations of vulnerabilities and assets that might inform such an approach. Using latent profile analysis of a cohort of 448 survivors, five distinct subgroups were previously identified in terms of biopsychosocial asset and vulnerability profiles. The purpose of the current study was to apply person-oriented methodology for survivor-centered investigation of differences in help-seeking and protective actions according to subgroup membership within this cohort. Though not differing demographically, the subgroups were found to differ significantly and meaningfully in their patterns of IV help-seeking and protective actions. Thus, reliance on population-aggregate linear relationships between IV exposure and safety efforts may risk overlooking important variation by vulnerability and asset profile, and knowledge of distinct clusters among functioning profiles may help with understanding of survivors' coping strategies.The authors outline service-need considerations across the subgroups and provide guidance for targeted outreach, locating IV survivors and matching services to their needs. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

Violence researchers have called for the use of person-oriented methods to understand differences that have been found in biopsychosocial consequences among those who experience intimate partner violence (IPV). To address this issue, we apply a person-oriented statistical method, latent profile analysis (LPA), to test for meaningful subgroups of a sample of 448 battered women based on participants' appraisals of their vulnerability relative to their violent partner, depressive symptoms, physical injuries, overall physical health functioning, and their positive and negative social relationships with friends and family. The LPA established five significantly distinct subgroups. Using MANOVA, we examined these subgroups and their respective IPV exposure, both concomitant and separate incidents within the past year. Those with the most intensive violence exposure show the greatest level of challenge and impairment. However, the groups with comparable levels of IPV exposure manifest distinctly different configurations of biopsychosocial profiles, indicating a need for adaptive interventions commensurate with these profiles. We discuss the implications these findings have for developing adaptive interventions for battered women, as well as the potential utility of person-oriented tools for violence researchers. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)

More than 20 years ago, concerns were raised about whether domestic violence and sexual assault agencies need for stable funding would conflict with the values that initiated these respective movements. Since then, the movements have evolved considerably. Therefore, it is timely to investigate the challenges domestic violence and sexual assault agencies face today. This exploratory study used focus groups and interviews to identify the challenges facing North Carolina domestic violence and sexual assault movements from the perspectives of agency directors and funding staff. Using an open-coding approach, seven challenges were identified including funding, sustainability, community norms, tension between grassroots versus professional service providers, lack of attention to sexual assault, the need for welcoming services for all survivors, and the need for comprehensive services to help survivors with co-occurring mental illnesses and substance abuse problems. The findings also pointed to recommendations for ways to address these challenges. (Contains 2 tables.)

Although most social work professionals may expect that women who experience partner violence will sustain acute physical injuries, social workers may be less knowledgeable about the chronic health problems with which violence survivors often struggle. To inform social work practice, we reviewed and synthesized the recently published research on health outcomes associated with partner violence victimization. We focused our review efforts on chronic physical and mental health conditions that social workers are likely to see in their practices. Using rigorous selection criteria, we selected 28 articles for review from over 3,500 found in our search. The review showed that although women who experience partner violence are likely to seek health services, they have poor overall physical and mental health, and their health needs are not addressed sufficiently by current health and human service systems. We offer social work practice, policy, and research recommendations to encourage comprehensive services that promote women's health and safety.

Rape resistance trainings need to prepare women to recognize and resist sexual assault across a range of experiences and contexts. To help address this need, this research used an investigation of 415 college women who completed a survey about their situational responding to an experience of acquaintance sexual assault. A previously established person-centered analysis model of four distinct risk and protective factor profiles was used to investigate the variability in women's responding. The profiling factors included women's prior victimization, alcohol consumption, relationship expectancies of the assailant, and assertive precautionary habits. Multivariate ANOVA was used to test for differences among the four profile groups on their cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responding. Results showed that the profile groups significantly differed in their assault responses. The findings highlight the utility of holistic, multivariate analyses for understanding women's sexual assault responses and help inform tailored resistance and empowerment trainings. (Contains 5 tables and 4 figures.)

Little guidance exists about how to tailor empowerment and resistance sexual assault programming to be responsive to varying groups of women. Using an investigation of 415 college women who completed a self-administered survey about a range of sexually aggressive experiences by a known male assailant, this investigation tested for distinct multivariate profiles of contextual factors among sexually assaulted women to discern how these factors may differentially combine to influence women's vulnerability to sexual assault. We applied latent profile analysis (LPA) to determine meaningful subgroups of women based on interrelationships among factors that contextualize women's vulnerability to sexual assault, including prior victimization, alcohol consumption, relationship expectancies of the assailant, and assertive precautionary habits. LPA established four significantly distinct multivariate profiles of substantively different groups of women. Group difference tests reinforced the findings and aided in group profile interpretations. Implications for the development of tailored resistance and empowerment programs are discussed. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

Knowledge about where battered women present for services and the violence, biopsychosocial, and demographic factors associated with their help seeking can provide social workers with guidance in anticipating needs among this portion of their clientele. The authors examined the service contact patterns of a sample of battered women (N = 448) following an incident of partner violence that triggered legal involvement. Significant group differences, tested with t tests and chi squares, between women who sought compared with those who did not seek services were found on partner violence exposure and biopsychosocial factors. Correlations and regression analyses of relationships among partner violence and biopsychosocial and demographic factors with help-seeking indices show how battered women's needs differentially relate across a range of service types. Results show distinctive profiles of needs and resources among battered women who seek violence, legal, health, economic, substance abuse, and religious helping services.

Given the prevalence of domestic violence and the likelihood that many victims will not receive services from specialized domestic violence providers, this article provides a framework for contextualized assessment that can be used by generalist practitioners. Drawing from stress and coping theory, the authors discuss the relevance of assessing appraisals and emotional responses within the context of environmental and individual risk and protective factors. Through an illustrative case assessment, the authors describe the contextualized assessment process and its ramifications for strategic safety planning. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)