Samenvatting

On 1 January 2009, the Dutch Temporary Restraining Order Act (Wth) entered into force. This act allows mayors to impose a ten-day restraining order (which may be extended to 28 days) on (potential) perpetrators of domestic violence, which prohibits these perpetrators from entering their own house and contacting their partner and/or children. During the restraining order everyone involved (evicted persons, those who stay behind and children) is offered a range of support and intervention measures. The law requires that within five years after its entry into force the Dutch parliament is informed of the effectiveness. To this end, a study was conducted between September 2011 and August 2013. The aim of this impact assessment is to gain insight in the effectiveness of the restraining order and the support services that are connected to it. The study was designed as a quasi-experimental study with an intervention group (restraining orders) and a control group (similar situations in which no restraining order was imposed). The study shows that the restraining order is associated with less incidence of new domestic violence. After imposing a restraining order new domestic violence occurs less frequently, and in case it does occur, fewer incidents occur than in (comparable) situations where no restraining order was imposed. The main explanation for the correlation found between the restraining order and the lower incidence of new domestic violence seems to lie in the support that is offered after the imposition of a restraining order. Moreover, the support seems to be more effective in the more serious cases than in the lighter cases. The degree in which antecedents of the evicted person are present and whether or not the evicted person is criminally prosecuted are not related to a lower degree of repeated domestic violence.