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Police play an essential role in reducing harms associated with family violence by identifying people at increased risk of physical or mental health-related harm and linking them with support services. Yet police are often poorly trained and resourced to conduct the kind of assessments necessary to identify family violence cases presenting with increased risk. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This paper describes a multi-project collaboration between law enforcement, forensic mental health, and academia that has over three years worked to improve risk assessment and management of family violence by police in Victoria, Australia.

Evaluation of existing risk assessment instruments used by the state-wide police force showed they were ineffective in predicting future police reports of family violence (AUC=0.54-0.56). However, the addition of forensic psychology expertise to specialist family violence teams increased the number of risk management strategies implemented by police, and suggested that the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk assessment instrument may be appropriate for use by Australian police (AUC=0.63).

The practical implications of this study are as follows: police risk assessment procedures should be subject to independent evaluation to determine whether they are performing as intended; multidisciplinary collaboration within police units can improve police practice; drawing on expertise from agencies external to police offers a way to improve evidence-based policing, and structured professional judgement risk assessment can be used in policing contexts with appropriate training and support.

The paper describes an innovative collaboration between police, mental health, and academia that is leading to improved police practices in responding to family violence. It includes data from the first evaluation of an Australian risk assessment instrument for family violence, and describes methods of improving police systems for responding to family violence.

Surveys a police department in a medium‐sized Canadian city to investigate ethnocentrism and role orientation, in particular the officer’s role as crime fighter rather than service provider. Finds that respondents view crime fighting to be more socially significant and personally satisfying than other activities and that they perceived this as having the highest degree of public support. Notes that an adherence by officers to the crime fighting role may tend to keep officers alienated from the community, thus causing increasing role conflict as North America embraces more fully the service delivery model.

There is limited research on Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) in forensic contexts; this case study therefore significantly contributes to the knowledge base. The purpose of this paper is to present the assessment and treatment of an adult male offender with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The client’s offence involved intimate partner violence and was committed at a time of acute psychiatric relapse.

In total, 12 sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy and CAT informed treatment were individually designed to meet the needs of the client, delivered in an in-patient setting in the UK. The client’s progress was assessed using psychometric, observational, and narrative/descriptive methods.

Psychometric evidence was limited by distorted responding. However, narrative/descriptive assessment indicated that progress had been made in some areas. Recommendations for further treatment were made.

In total, 12 sessions did not meet all of the client’s needs. The use of CAT as a model that his team could use in understanding his violence was conducive to risk management. Overall, insight gained through CAT-based psychological intervention contributed to risk reduction.

This case study demonstrates the applicability of CAT to forensic settings.

The police have been given the responsibility of the first response to domestic violence. Their performance in this role has been inconsistent and often inadequate. While many departments have the capacity to improve their response, the police acting alone are often poorly staffed and ill equipped to provide purposeful, proactive change. This study examines the efficacy of a domestic violence coordinated response team pilot project. In an effort to improve the police response and to reduce repeat incidents among intimate partners, this project teamed uniformed police officers and victim advocates as first responders/follow‐up investigators, and augmented them with personnel from probation, parole and corrections services. The pilot project concentrated exclusively on violence between intimate partners. Over 18,000 domestic violence calls for service were reviewed. Evaluators identified and extracted over 4,000 bona fide intimate partner domestic violence cases. The study found the specialized domestic violence unit performed significantly better than the control district. Higher arrest, prosecution and conviction rates resulted from cases initiated by the specialized unit. Factors impacting performance of the unit are explored and observations made concerning evaluation difficulties and strategies.

If child custody decisions are based on erroneous beliefs, family courts may not be acting in the best interests of children. This study examined family court professionals' beliefs about family violence. Respondents (N = 410) of diverse professions, including child custody mediators, evaluators, and therapists, family law attorneys and judges, victim advocates and university students, completed a 10‐item multiple‐choice quiz. Results revealed low rates of correct responding, with respondents correctly answering approximately three out of 10 items on average, based on current research in the field. Overall, response rates were highly consistent with the discredited patriarchal paradigm. Shelter workers and victim advocates had the lowest average score, and men were found to have slightly higher scores than women. More troubling, students' scores were not significantly lower than those of family court professionals. Implications are discussed with respect to decision‐making in the context of child custody disputes.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the development, structure, and implementation of a new programme for domestic abuse (DA) perpetrators.

A needs-led DA perpetrator programme is proposed, named as “Up2U: Creating Healthy Relationships” (Up2U). The background to Up2U, its aims, configuration, and delivery methods are presented in this paper. To illustrate Up2U, the targets for change and referral population in the development site are discussed. Furthermore, the paper reflects on some of the implementation decisions and the steps taken towards evaluating the impact of Up2U in the development site.

Research supports provision of treatment targeting perpetrators’ criminogenic needs, delivered with responsivity to their learning styles, at an intensity that matches their risk. Change on treatment targets can be evaluated in the context of differences in recidivism outcomes to help assess whether impact can be attributed to the programme. It can also serve as a more proximal index of success/failure for individual clients. Such implementation and evaluation decisions are a benefit of the present researcher-practitioner partnership.

Up2U is innovative by being risk-and needs-led rather than taking a gendered approach to DA treatment, and this new evidence-based approach may reduce partner abuse. This is the first paper to outline Up2U’s structure, content, implementation, and measurement.

The purpose of this paper is to determine recidivism outcomes for 953 offending men with domestic violence histories, serving community-based sentences and enroled in the domestic abuse program (DAP), provided by Corrective Services New South Wales in Australia.

An intention to treat definition of DAP participation and a quasi-experimental and pseudo-prospective research design compared recidivism outcomes of the treatment group to a propensity score matched control group. Cox and Poisson regression techniques determined survival time to first reconviction and rates of reconvictions adjusted for time at risk.

DAP enrolment was associated with significant improvements in odds of time to first general reconviction (15 per cent) and first violent reconviction (by 27 per cent) compared to controls. Reconviction rates were significantly lower (by 15 per cent) for DAP enrolees. Programme completion was necessary for significant therapeutic effect; 62 per cent completed the programme.

This evaluation suggests the 20 session DAP is an effective intervention which could be adopted by other jurisdictions to modify criminal behaviours of domestically abusive men; potentially lessening the physical, emotional and financial impacts on victims and providing savings to government and criminal justice systems. The methodology, with refinements, could be adopted by other service providers to evaluate similar community-based therapeutic interventions in forensic settings.

First peer reviewed evaluation of the DAP. The programme contributes to evidence-based best practice interventions for domestically violent men.

In Western, industrial nations, there is a high level of gender symmetry in intimate partner abuse. Nevertheless, efforts to reduce domestic violence have been stymied by public policies that favour rigid, feminist models based on flawed theories of patriarchy, and that stereotype males as perpetrators and females as victims. The treatment model advanced in this paper, developed by the author and used in his family violence clinic near San Francisco, California, is based on an accumulated body of research evidence on the etiology and characteristics of intimate partner abuse. Partner abuse cannot be fully understood without considering that the family typically involves mutual dynamics, and requires interventions based on a systemic assessment and understanding of each case. In this model, all modalities may be utilised, and treatment proceeds in a three‐phase approach to maximise both treatment effectiveness and victim safety.

The purpose of this paper is to explore risk factors contained in the existing UK domestic abuse (DA) risk assessment tool: domestic abuse, stalking and harassment and honour-based violence (DASH) for individual predictive validity of DA recidivism using data from Devon and Cornwall Constabulary.

In total, 1,441 DA perpetrators were monitored over a 12-month period, and 270 (18.7 per cent) went on to commit a further DA offence. The individual risk factors which were associated and predictive of increased risk of recidivism were identified.

Only four of the individual risk factors were significantly associated with an increased risk of DA recidivism: “criminal history”, “problems with alcohol”, “separation” and “frightened”. Therefore, 21 of the risk factor items analysed could not discriminate between non-recidivist and recidivist perpetrators. Only two risk factors were able to significantly predict the recidivist group when compared to the non-recidivist group. These were identified as “criminal history” and “separated”. Of those who did commit a further DA offence in the following 12 months, 133 were violent and 137 were non-violent. The risk factors associated with these types of recidivism are identified.

The implications for UK police practice and the DASH risk assessment tool are discussed. By identifying key individual factors that can prioritise those individuals likely to recidivate and the severity of that recidivism, this could assist police decision making regarding the response and further prevention of DA incidents. The validation of association between individual factors and DA recidivism should improve the accuracy of risk levels.

This is the first large-scale validation of the individual risk factors contained within the UK’s DA risk assessment tool. It should be noted that the validity of the DASH tool itself was not examined within the current study.

There is a body of evidence that suggests a range of psychosocial characteristics demarcate certain adults to be at an elevated risk for victimisation. The purpose of this paper is to examine consistency between one police force, and a corresponding Victim Support service based in England, in their assessment of level of risk faced by victims of violent crime.

This study explored matched data on 869 adult victims of violent crime gathered from these two key services in Preston, namely, Lancashire Constabulary and Victim Support, from which a sub-group of comparable “domestic violence” cases (n=211) were selected for further examination.

Data analyses revealed methodological inconsistencies in the assessment of victimisation resulting in discrepancies for recorded levels of risk in domestic violence cases across these two agencies.

These findings provide a compelling argument for developing a more uniformed approach to victim assessment and indicate a significant training need.

This paper highlights areas of good practice and forwards several recommendations for improved practice that emphasises the integration of empirical research conducted by psychologists to boost the validity and reliability of risk assessment approaches and tools used.