Gregory Stuart, a new addition to the psychology department at the University of Tennessee, is researching alcohol use and its effects on women and domestic violence with the help of a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The $1.7 million grant is to help fund Stuart's ongoing research into the efficacy of court-referred batterer programs and their effects on violent women. As opposed to the normal batterer intervention most women get when convicted of domestic violence, 80 of the 160 participants in Stuart's research will also go through a short alcohol rehabilitation program to see if that helps reduce reoffending rates.

Stuart's inspiration for the program comes from 17 years of experience with domestic violence research conducted at Brown University. Previous studies show the batterer programs are not as effective as they should be. Stuart believes that there is a correlation between substance abuse, particularly alcohol problems, and violent behavior.

"The first step is to see if we can reduce substance use," Stuart said, "but we also want to decrease violence recidivism."

Up to 20 percent of people arrested for domestic violence in Rhode Island, where Stuart taught at Brown University, are women. According to research done by Stuart and his colleagues at Brown, half of those women met the criteria for hazardous drinking.

Of that group of women, the women that agreed to participate in the program were then randomized into two groups: one that got alcohol treatment plus the batterer intervention, and one that just got the court-mandated batterer program.

If we can help reduce people's alcohol use, we can see collateral benefits in other parts of their lives as well. Gregory Stuart, associate professor at UT"The hope is that we'll see less domestic violence perpetration and victimization in those that get the alcohol treatment than those that just go through the batterer program," Stuart said.

Stuart has been conducting research into alcoholism in violent men since 2003 with funding from another NIAAA grant.

"One of my colleagues showed that men were ten times more likely to be violent against their partner on drinking days and 20 times more likely on heavy drinking days," Stuart said.

A significant reduction in substance use and violent behavior was seen among men who went through both the alcohol treatment and the batterer program in comparison to men who just went through the batterer program. They are hoping to repeat these results with the group of women being studied now.

"Women are more likely to be victimized on days they drink relative to days that they do not drink," Stuart said. While the fact women drink isn't to be blamed for victimization, it is an important factor that increases the risk, he said.

The ultimate goal of Stuart's research is to eventually import the short alcohol treatment into the rest of the country's court-mandated batterer programs if it proves effective. Stuart hopes the revamped batterer program will improve other parts of participants' lives also.

"If we can help reduce people's alcohol use, we can see collateral benefits in other parts of their lives as well," he said.