Clinician ratings of batterer treatment behaviors in predicting reassault.

This article examines the use of clinicians' ratings of batterer program participants to predict their reassaults during a 6-month posttreatment follow-up and a longer and more inclusive postintake follow-up period (n = 380). The ratings consist of 10 items that reflect the behavioral criteria used by clinicians in making judgment about treatment success. Logistic regressions and ROC analyses show that the sums of the clinician ratings are significant but weak predictors of especially severe reassaults in the longer postintake follow-up. Analyses of the individual items and the determinants of the ratings reveal attendance compliance and avoidance techniques to be the strongest predictors and suggest that participant motivation, represented by these items, underlies the ratings. The overall weak prediction, however, reinforces the limitations of clinical ratings and the need to augment them with additional information.