Policing Intimate Partner Violence: Attitudes toward Risk Assessment and Collaboration with Social Workers

Abstract

Risk-informed collaborative police-social service interventions are an emerging strategy intended to enhance offender accountability and victim-survivors' safety in intimate partner violence (IPV) cases. These interventions use risk assessment to determine appropriate interventions and enhance the police response for dangerous offenders by engaging in collaboration with social work advocates. Because little is known about the responsiveness of police officers to risk-informed collaborative interventions, this study examines police officer (N = 544) attitudes toward IPV risk assessment and collaboration with social workers. The majority of police officers did not believe a social worker would be helpful at the scene of an IPV incident. However, those who agreed that a social worker would be helpful were more likely to be knowledgeable about the dynamics of IPV. Officers who believed risk assessment was important were more likely to believe that the police response to IPV is necessary. Finally, officers' perceived knowledge about risk for homicide was not consistently associated with actual knowledge about IPV. These findings suggest a need for knowledgeable social workers to collaborate with police, particularly in high-risk cases, and to offer training for officers on risk factors for homicide, coercive control, and misperceptions about IPV.

Measuring intimate partner violence risk: A national survey of Canadian police officers

“…More recently, there has been a movement towards using risk assessment as a critical first step to inform collaboration with other services. A risk-informed collaborative intervention is an essential approach in the prevention of escalating IPV through an increased coordinated systems response (Campbell et al, 2009;Messing & Campbell, 2016;Messing, 2019;Ward-Lasher et al, 2017).…”

Perceptions of Victim Advocates and Predictors of Service Referral Among Law Enforcement Personnel

“…Existing scholarship has demonstrated inconsistencies in police perceptions of advocates (Corcoran et al, 2001; Gaines & Wells, 2017; Hatten & Moore, 2010; Lonsway & Archambault, 2008; Lord & Rassel, 2000; Sudderth, 2006; Ward-Lasher et al, 2017). Mixed findings within the literature may be attributed to the type of advocate (community-based NGO or system-based), heterogeneity of officer samples, and various methods used to assess perceptions of advocates.…”

“…These concerns stemmed from notions that advocates may have encouraged non-reporting, disrupted the investigation process, and interrupted suspect prosecution in order to protect a victim’s well-being (Gaines & Wells, 2017; Lonsway & Archambault, 2008; Martin, 2005; Ward-Lasher et al, 2017). Ward-Lasher and colleagues (2017), for example, assessed perceptions of risk assessment collaborations with community social workers among more than 500 Arizona police officers. Nearly three-quarters of officers did not agree that a social worker would be helpful in terms of DV investigations.…”

Risk assessment for intimate partner violence: how can the police assess risk?

“…Between 77% and 87%, across services, endorsed the item that using the DASH, 'helps get the right information from victims', and 79% to 87% felt that its use had improved police responses to intimate partner abuse. Finally, in a study of 544 police officers in Arizona, more than half of officers agreed that it is important to assess risk for homicide at every intimate partner violence incident (Ward-Lasher, Messing, & Hart, 2017). Robinson, Myhill, Wire, Roberts, and Tilley (2016) conducted a number of interviews with police who had used the DASH.…”