Judging risk: key determinants in British domestic violence cases

Beyond the Initial Assault: Characterizing Revictimization in Intimate Partner Violence and Its Implications for Women's Health

Recent research has emphasized the importance of addressing specific victim-related factors to reduce victims' vulnerability and prevent future revictimization experiences. This study aimed to analyze the vulnerability profiles of women who were victims of intimate partner violence, including those who had experienced a single incident of violence and those who had endured revictimization. Participants were 338 women with active judicial protection measures registered in the system of support for victims of gender violence (VioGén) in Madrid, Spain. The analysis considered sociodemographic characteristics, victimization history, perceived triggers of violence, women's responses and feelings, as well as clinical outcomes linked to revictimization history. The study revealed that many victims faced socioeconomic vulnerability. Furthermore, the findings underscored the intricate link between the likelihood of enduring chronic violence and women's awareness of early indicators of violence risk, their initial responses to aggression, communication skills, and recurrent behaviors in the context of an established violent dynamic. This study offers valuable insights for law enforcement to identify the risk of revictimization. Furthermore, findings raise awareness about the particularly vulnerable situation of some women to repeated victimization experiences and provide relevant information for clinical intervention.

Unpacking Multiagency Structured Professional Judgment Risk Assessments for Family Violence

Assessing the risk for future harm is a crucial task for agencies managing Family Violence (FV) cases. The Integrated Safety Response (ISR) is a multiagency collaboration of such agencies operating in two areas of New Zealand, and one of the first steps in their process is to perform a risk assessment. However, in these assessments, it is unclear whether the factors ISR triage team members select are the basis for their overall risk categorization (low, medium, or high), and if those factors are risk factors (i.e., empirical predictors of outcomes). Therefore, in this study we documented the factors ISR triage teams recorded during their risk assessments for 842 FV cases and examined the relationship of those factors with the risk categories. We then investigated whether those factors and the risk categories were indeed capable of predicting FV-related outcomes (recurrence and physical recurrence). We found most of the triage teams' recorded factors were associated with the risk categories, but fewer than half of the factors were associated with FV-related outcomes. Moreover, the risk categories predicted FV-related outcomes better than chance, but their predictive ability varied across subgroups, performing poorly for aggressors who were Māori or women, and for non-intimate partner cases. We concluded that the ISR triage teams' risk assessment protocol may benefit from increased structure and validation.

The "Golden Thread": Coercive Control and Risk Assessment for Domestic Violence

Research on risk assessment for domestic violence has to date focused primarily on the predictive power of individual risk factors and the statistical validity of risk assessment tools in predicting future physical assault in sub-sets of cases dealt with by the police. This study uses data from risk assessment forms from a random sample of cases of domestic violence reported to the police. An innovative latent trait model is used to test whether a cluster of risk factors associated with coercive control is most representative of the type of abuse that comes to the attention of the police. Factors associated with a course of coercive and controlling conduct, including perpetrators' threats, controlling behavior and sexual coercion, and victims' isolation and fear, had highest item loadings and were thus the most representative of the overall construct. Sub-lethal physical violence-choking and use of weapons-was also consistent with a course of controlling conduct. Whether a physical injury was sustained during the current incident, however, was not associated consistently either with the typical pattern of abuse or with other context-specific risk factors such as separation from the perpetrator. Implications for police practice and the design of risk assessment tools are discussed. We conclude that coercive control is the "golden thread" running through risk identification and assessment for domestic violence and that risk assessment tools structured around coercive control can help police officers move beyond an "incident-by-incident" response and toward identifying the dangerous patterns of behavior that precede domestic homicide.

Communicating the risk of violent and offending behavior: review and introduction to this special issue

How to communicate risk of recidivism in correctional and forensic contexts has been a subject of scholarly discussion for two decades. This emerging literature, however, is sparse compared with studies on the assessment of risk for violent and offending behavior. In this special issue of Behavioral Sciences and the Law, we have gathered together empirical and review papers exemplifying promising directions and methodologies. We begin with a review of the state of the field, and lessons that can be drawn from research into medical risk assessment and risk communication, finding that many of the same principles apply to the forensic context. How risks are framed, and how numerate assessors are, affects how risk information is understood and applied. We discuss the existing research bearing on these issues, as well as the conceptual, practical, empirical, and legal implications of communicating risk using numerical or categorical risk terms. Along with the seven articles in this volume, we suggest directions for future research on measuring and communicating change, understanding and managing the statistical literacy of those who use and communicate risk assessments, and developing a theoretical framework for forensic risk communication research. We hope this volume will help integrate and invigorate research into forensic risk communication.

"Honor," collectivity, and agnation: emerging risk factors in "honor"-based violence

"Honor"-based violence (HBV) is increasingly recognized as form of violence against women and girls, but is neither fully conceptualized nor integrated into risk management strategies that are increasingly used to address gender-based violence in Europe and Anglophone states. This article will argue that there are grounds for the differentiation of HBV as a sub-category of gender-based violence which may affect risk management. Research was based in an analysis of 40 case files taken from Arabic- and Kurdish-speaking clients of a London nongovernment organization (NGO) providing services to women facing violence. Interrelations were found between "honor," agnation, and collectivity in their experiences of violence, with ramifications for service provision.