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Assessing risk among women who perpetrate intimate partner abuse

Nazarewicz, Julia, Trood, Michael D., McEwan, Troy, Strand, Susanne, Luebbers, Stefan, Spivak, Benjamin L. (2024) Assessing risk among women who perpetrate intimate partner abuse. Psychology, Crime & Law, . pp. 1-27. ISSN 1068-316X. E-ISSN 1477-2744. (doi:10.1080/1068316x.2024.2369239) (KAR id:106502)

Abstract

This paper presents a prospective evaluation of the predictive validity of three risk assessment instruments in a sample of Australian women identified by police as intimate partner abuse (IPA) perpetrators. Using a subsample from Spivak et al. (2020), 410 female IPA perpetrators were screened using the Victoria

Police Screening Assessment for Family Violence Risk (VP-SAFvR) and evaluated alongside two samples of 60 and 229 female IPA perpetrators assessed using the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (B-SAFER) and a modified version of the Lethality Screen respectively. Of the three instruments, the VPSAFvR possessed indicators of effective discrimination (i.e. sensitivity, specificity, area under the curve) and predictive validity (i.e. positive predictive value, negative predictive value) on general IPA recidivism and its intended outcome of family or intimate partner abuse. The B-SAFER risk judgement similarly predicted its intended outcome of physical IPA recidivism, with notable indicators of discrimination and predictive validity. The results of the Modified Lethality Screen were conversely mixed on measures of discrimination and prediction for its intended outcome of severe IPA. The current findings suggest that these instruments function consistently for women and men who are identified by police as perpetrating family or intimate partner abuse.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/1068316x.2024.2369239
Uncontrolled keywords: Intimate partner abuse; actuarial assessment; structured professional judgement; violence risk assessment; female perpetrators
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
SWORD Depositor: JISC Publications Router
Depositing User: JISC Publications Router
Date Deposited: 30 Jul 2024 08:13 UTC
Last Modified: 02 Aug 2024 10:45 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/106502 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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