Police in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) now routinely use risk assessment tools to identify common risk factors for re-abuse and lethality when responding to domestic abuse. Nevertheless, little is known about the extent to which officers understand and perceive the importance of factors commonly included on risk assessment tools for predicting future abuse. This study attempts to shed some light into this area of research by exploring the responses of 720 British and American police officers to questions regarding how important and how essential various risk factors are for evaluating the level of risk or harm a victim of domestic abuse may face in the future. Findings indicated that British and American officers were largely in agreement about a small constellation of risk factors that they considered integral to the risk assessment process: using or threatening to use a weapon; strangulation; physical assault resulting in injury and escalation of abuse. The results revealed that officers' country of employment, rather than their demographic characteristics or experience policing domestic abuse, was a particularly influential predictor of their perceptions, and that both the situational context and the victim's perception about risk are important in domestic abuse risk assessment.

Physical violence is but one of many tools that may be used to gain greater power within intimate relationships, yet the legal response has been critiqued for failing to recognise and respond to the full spectrum of abusive behaviours, such as coercive control. Using a sample of police officers from the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), the current study utilises hypothetical vignettes to assess police officers' perceptions of domestic abuse, including those incidents that are not necessarily physically violent, but involve stalking and other coercive, controlling behaviours that are harmful and require intervention. Within-and between-country similarities and differences were analysed. Findings revealed that the majority of officers in both countries possessed a good level of understanding of domestic abuse and how they should respond to itamidst and beyond the physical violence. However, our analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data also showed that the use of physical violence is at the forefront of many officers' expectations about domestic abuse, and that when physical violence is absent, the police response is less proactive. Our study finds some support for the idea that non-physical abuse does go "under the radar" to some extent for some officers, and that this is more the case for American officers than their British counterparts. Findings are discussed in terms of context of the research sites and implications for policy, practice and future research. ARTICLE HISTORY

No abstract

No abstract

Support groups are collections of people who provide mutual support for each other regarding a shared characteristic or dilemma (Cline, 1999). Although support groups vary in structure, membership, group leadership, modality, and goals, support groups generally are formed so members can receive support from others with similar experiences. Members can empathize with each other and legitimize experiences, share coping strategies and information, and provide a sense of community. Traditionally, support groups have been small groups of people who meet face-to-face, but with today's technological advances, thousands of support groups have been created online. Although some investigations of the efficacy of support groups suggest that there are potential drawbacks of attending them, support groups nonetheless provide a vast array of benefits for members. Bender's (1976a, 1976b) extensive reviews of the history of support groups reveal that people have voluntarily gathered in supportive groups throughout history to meet survival needs, pursue common goals, and provide mutual aid. However, the number of support groups in Western countries has sharply increased in the past few decades. For example, Wuthnow's (1994) national survey found that up to 40% of Americans had been a member of a supportive group at some point in their lives. Current estimates for the United States acknowledge hundreds of thousands of support groups for a wide variety of issues and more than 10 million support group members. There are many potential reasons for the recent proliferation of support groups, but one such explanation is that, with industrialization and mobility, people felt a decreased sense of family and community support. Moreover, people may have become dissatisfied with the bureaucratization of professional services as well as the inability of friends or family to provide adequate support. Further, online support groups have gained significant traction due to their ability to create a sense of anonymity, especially with regard to more stigmatized issues.The nature of support groups varies greatly, but common features of support groups help distinguish them from other sources of support such as individual therapy sessions or psychotherapy groups. First, support groups differ from individual counseling or therapy because instead of aiming to produce specific therapeutic changes, support groups primarily aim to provide emotional and instrumental support, to facilitate personal