TY - JOUR
T1 - Policing Intimate Partner Violence
T2 - Attitudes toward Risk Assessment and Collaboration with Social Workers
AU - Ward-Lasher, Allison
AU - Messing, Jill
AU - Hart, Bill
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 National Association of Social Workers.
PY - 2017/7/1
Y1 - 2017/7/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Attitudes
KW - interdisciplinary collaboration
KW - intimate partner violence
KW - police
KW - risk assessment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85021783522&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85021783522&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/sw/swx023
DO - 10.1093/sw/swx023
M3 - Article
C2 - 28510707
AN - SCOPUS:85021783522
SN - 0037-8046
VL - 62
SP - 211
EP - 218
JO - Social Work (United States)
JF - Social Work (United States)
IS - 3
ER -