Web resource:	https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/28822.pdf
Type:	Journal Article
Title:	Commentary on Websdale: lethality assessment approaches: reflections on their use and ways forward
Other Titles:	Violence against women
Authors:	Campbell, Jacquelyn C
Keywords:	Homicide;Risk assessment;Screening;Prevention;Risk factors
Year:	2005
Publisher:	Sage Publications
Citation:	11 (9), September 2005
Notes:	This article refers to Websdale’s article in the same issue of the journal. One means of preventing deaths arising from domestic violence is for fatality reviews to identify ways the system can be improved. Another strategy is the development of lethality risk assessment instruments and systems. It describes the work on potential lethality by Barbara Hart and the author’s own development of the Danger Assessment (DA), as both coming from different disciplines. It summarises the key reasons that lethality risk assessment is important. It notes that women’s perception of danger is often not enough as they often minimise their danger. There is also a need for judges, probation officers and other criminal justice practitioners to have an accurate system to assess potential danger. It suggests that lethality risk assessment needs to be distinguished from risk of re-assault. Perpetrator’s former criminality and prior history of substance abuse are stronger risk factors for re-assault than for intimate partner homicide of women. Key instruments that have been developed to assess the risk factors for re-assault have relied on information from the criminal justice system. There has been no instrument validated on cases where women have killed their intimate partners in the context of domestic violence. Risk assessment has to take into account the protection actions of the victim and the quality of safety given by the system. Ellen Pence’s community safety audit is one example. It also argues that the protocol one uses along with a lethality risk assessment instrument is as important.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/13929
ISSN:	1077-8012
Appears in Collections:	Journal Articles

Items in ANROWS library are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.