Impact of danger assessment screening and safety education on abused women's perceived risk of serious re-abuse

Nearly 1200 women are murdered by a current or former intimate parnter per year in the U.S. Many more suffer severe injuries resulting from intimate partner violence (IPV). 40% of women surviving attempted homicides by intimate partners did not think their abusive partner was capable of killing them.

In a quasi-experimental study, 172 adult female survivors of IPV seeking temporary protective orders (TPOs) were administered Campbell's Danger Assessment and provided extensive feedback (e.g., graphs showing how their risks compared with other IPV survivors) on their risk for being killed or seriously injured by their partners. They were also provided information on strategies to reduce their risks which had empiricle support for their efficacy. This intervention group and 178 historical controls recruited from the same legal clinic sites were surveyed within a week of getting their TPO and 6 months later.