Spousal assault risk assessment

Racial disparities in criminal justice outcomes are widely observed. In Canada, such disparities are particularly evident between Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons. The role of formal risk assessment in contributing to such disparities remains a topic of interest to many, but critical analysis has almost exclusively focused on actuarial or statistical risk measures. Recent research suggests that ratings from other common tools, based on the structured professional judgment model, can also demonstrate racial disparities...

The aim of this study was to examine the association between the victim vulnerability factors included in the intimate partner violence (IPV) risk assessment tool used by the Swedish police (Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk [B-SAFER]) and rates of IPV revictimization among female victims living in rural towns, countryside, or remote areas. This study also aimed to examine the interaction between rurality and IPV revictimization in relation to victim vulnerability. The sample consisted of 695 cases of male-to-female perpetrated IPV, which had been reported to the Swedish police and subjected to a B-SAFER assessment...

BACKGROUND: In March 2020, the Norwegian government announced a COVID-19 lockdown in order to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. In Norway, lockdown measures included restricting people's ability to leave their home and the closing of social institutions, thus reducing the capacity for victims of intimate partner violence to alert someone outside of their home about violent incidents that occurred during lockdown. At the same time, the restrictive measures forced the victim and the perpetrator to stay together for prolonged periods within the home, and reduced the possibility for them to escape or leave the perpetrator...

This study aimed to a) examine the presence of children in relation to victim vulnerability factors and assessed risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) re-victimization, and b) examine the police response, in terms of risk management, in IPV cases with and without children, respectively. Data from a sample of 1407 women who had reported IPV victimization to the Swedish police was analyzed. The material consisted of risk assessments conducted by the police using the Swedish version of the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (B-SAFER) checklist, as well as the recommended risk management strategies...

Improvements in the risk prediction of domestic violence against intimate partners have the potential to inform policing practices in the prevention of further victimization. The present study examined the incremental predictive validity of 3 measures of risk for intimate partner violence (IPV)-Spousal Assault Risk Assessment (SARA), Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA), and the Family Violence Investigative Report (FVIR)-for IPV, general violence, and general recidivism outcomes. The sample featured 289 men and women who were reported to police for IPV and followed up approximately 3 years post release...

This study investigated the influence of victim vulnerability factors and gender on risk assessment for intimate partner violence (IPV). 867 cases of male and female perpetrated IPV investigated by Swedish police officers using the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (B-SAFER) were examined. For male-to-female IPV, victim vulnerability factors were associated with summary risk judgments and risk management recommendations. For female-to-male IPV, vulnerability factors were more often omitted, and consistent associations were not found between vulnerability factors, summary risk judgments, and risk management...

Subtyping male perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) based on their generality of violence could facilitate the difficult task of matching perpetrator subtype with efficient risk management strategies. As such, the aim of the present study was to compare antisocial and family-only male perpetrators of interpersonal violence in terms of (a) demographic and legal characteristics, (b) risk factors for violence, and (c) assessed risk and the importance of specific risk factors for violence. A quantitative design was used in this retrospective register study on data obtained from the Swedish police...

This study examined whether a typology of perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) could be replicated in a Dutch sample ( N = 154) of self-referred IPV perpetrators using a structured risk assessment tool for relational violence (Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk [B-SAFER]). Our findings support the previous IPV perpetrator subtypes: low-level antisocial (LLA), family only (FO), psychopathology (PP), and generally violent/antisocial (GVA). The subtypes differed on the descriptive dimensions general criminality, substance use, and mental health problems...

The field of intimate partner violence (IPV) risk assessment (predicting recidivism, lethality) is fast growing, and the majority of research examining the predictive validity of IPV risk assessment instruments has been conducted in the past decade. This study examines the average predictive validity weighted by sample size of five stand alone IPV risk assessment instruments that have been validated in multiple research studies using the Receiver Operating Characteristic Area Under the Curve (AUC). The Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA) has the highest average weighted AUC (=...

In this study, 216 risk assessments conducted by law enforcement officers in a suburb of Stockholm using the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (B-SAFER) were followed up and correlated to both recidivism and type of protective actions implemented by the police. The results showed high recidivism rates across all risk categories, except in the highest risk group, where the recidivism rate was significantly lower. This finding suggests a poor, and even negative, predictive power of the police risk assessments: the higher the police-assessed risk, the lower the recidivism rate...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a crime that is present in all countries, seriously impacts victims, and demands a great deal of time and resources from the criminal justice system. The current study examined the use of the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment Guide, 2nd ed. (SARA; Kropp, Hart, Webster, & Eaves, 1995), a structured professional judgment risk assessment and management tool for IPV, by police officers in Sweden over a follow-up of 18 months. SARA risk assessments had significant predictive validity with respect to risk management recommendations made by police, as well as with recidivism as indexed by subsequent contacts with police...

A significant number of burns and deaths from fire are intentionally wrought. Rates of intentional burns are unevenly distributed throughout the world; India has a particularly high rate in young women whereas in Europe rates are higher in men in mid-life. Data from hospitalized burn patients worldwide reveal incidence rates for assault by fire and scalds ranging from 3% to 10%. The average proportion of the body surface area burned in an assault by fire or scalds is approximately 20%. In different parts of the world, attempted burning of others or oneself can be attributed to different motives...

The aim of the present study is to give a systematic overview of risk assessment instruments for the field of domestic violence. Six instruments were identified, which had been published in a peer-reviewed journal and for which validation studies exist: the Domestic Violent Screening Instrument (DVSI), the Danger Assessment (DA), the Spousal Assault Risk-Assessment (SARA), the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk-Assessment (ODARA), the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG), and the Domestic Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (DVRAG)...

In the present study, a structured risk assessment instrument for intimate partner violence, the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (B-SAFER), was coded for 146 files of spousal assault cases from the Dutch probation service, dating from 2004 and 2005. The aim of the study was twofold: (a) to validate Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart's typology using the risk factors of the B-SAFER and (b) to examine the relationship between the subtypes found and recidivism rates. Four subtypes of assaulters were identified: family only, generally violent/antisocial, low-level antisocial, and psychopathology...

BACKGROUND: Repetitive head trauma is an identified risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The violence in wife assault is repetitive and targets the head. This association provides a rationale for studying the relationship between spousal abuse and AD. DESIGN: To preliminarily evaluate the possibility of an increased susceptibility for AD in women subjected to spousal abuse and to identify challenges associated with such a study, we performed a pilot case-control study involving women with AD and compared the incidence of spousal abuse against two control groups...

We evaluated the reliability and validity of judgments concerning risk for violence made using the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment Guide (SARA; Kropp, Hart, Webster, & Eaves, 1994, 1995, 1998). We analyzed SARA ratings in six samples of adult male offenders (total N = 2681). The distribution of ratings indicated that offenders were quite heterogeneous with respect to the presence of individual risk factors and to overall perceived risk. Structural analyses of the risk factors indicated moderate levels of internal consistency and item homogeneity...

The present study examined differences in the amount and severity of spousal violence and posttraumatic stress symptoms between incarcerated battered women who killed/seriously assaulted their abusers and battered women incarcerated for other offenses. Additionally, several risk and buffering variables suggested by trauma research were tested to determine their ability to predict present posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology. Findings revealed that battered women who killed/seriously assaulted their batterers experienced more frequent and severe spousal abuse than those in the comparison group...

Although patient compliance is a problem for almost all forms of therapy, treatment programs for male batterers face special concerns. Male batterers are often perceived as coming to therapy only because of the external pressures of courts or intimate partners. In the present study, we examined the rates at which male batterers failed to attend treatment following an initial assessment interview. Of the 526 men recommended for treatment, only 218 (41%) attended a single treatment session, and only 132 (25%) completed the brief (10-week) treatment program...