Crime Prevention & Justice

Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV)
Funder: Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Project Time Period: 2017-2018

Project Category: Health/Formative Evaluation/Summative Evaluation

About RICADV: The Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV), is an organization dedicated to ending domestic violence. The RICADV was formed in 1979 to support and assist the domestic violence agencies in Rhode Island. The RICADV provides leadership to its member agencies, strives to create justice for victims, and raises awareness on the issue of domestic violence in Rhode Island.

The Work: The MAI team conducted a robust mixed-methods evaluation and data collection effort for a community attitudes assessment and media content analysis. MAI deployed a community attitudes assessment survey (the CAAS) to help the RICADV understand current perceptions of domestic violence in Rhode Island. Specifically, we aimed to assess community attitudes toward domestic violence as they relate to key concepts identified through a literature review and based on the RICADV’s experience and expertise. Another key aspect to this work was the media content analysis of select print articles and broadcast news segments, collected and provided by the RICADV, covering domestic violence homicides in Rhode Island from 2013 to 2016.  

What We Learned: Generally, the community attitudes survey revealed that respondents have views that are opposed to domestic violence and aligned to the goals of the RICADV, and the majority reported they would likely intervene in instances of domestic violence. However, it also showed that while respondents are familiar with the most obvious manifestations of domestic violence, they have less awareness about its other forms. The media content analysis revealed that RICADV’s work with the media has generally paid off. Rhode Island media’s reporting describing domestic violence homicides has improved significantly since the RICADV's 2010 media content analysis.