Practical Implications of Current Domestic Violence Research: For Law Enforcement, Prosecutors and Judges
Published June 2009
Chapter 3. Offender Characteristics
Section 10 — Which abusers are likely to do it again in the short term?
When officers respond to a domestic violence call, they typically do not have a lot of information about the parties involved, their psychological profiles, family and child development histories, and the like. Fortunately, the research consistently finds that the basic information usually available to officers provides as accurate a prediction of abuser risk to the victim as do more extensive and time-consuming investigations involving more sources (e.g., clinical assessments). [111, 112, 113, 189] As a Bronx study on batterer treatment concluded, intensive individual assessments of attitudes or personality are not required to make reasonable judgments regarding abusers' risk of reabuse. [183]
3-9 – When are abusers likely to reabuse?
3-11 – Is gender an important risk factor?
