Once domestic violence is identified by the screening protocol, the evaluator then gathers the information needed to assess the imminent risk, if any, that the DV perpetrator poses to the adult victim or to the children or others.54 Gathering as much information from the parties 55 and existing records at this initial assessment, the evaluator considers certain factors of the specialized DV risk assessment, with a focus on those which indicate imminent danger. This check for imminent danger is an abbreviated form of the comprehensive lethality assessment (see Section Four). Evaluators should be well grounded in how to do the full DV lethality assessment before embarking in doing an assessment of imminent danger.
For the assessment for imminent danger, the questions to ask the adult victim (and in certain situations the DV perpetrators as well) are as follows:
1. “Do you think you? your partner? the children? are in imminent danger? If yes, how so? Who poses the imminent danger to whom? What gives you that impression? Do you think anyone else is in danger?”
2. What is the DV perpetrator’s current access/contact with the adult victim? with the child? “what is your access with the other adult?” “what is each parent’s current access to the child?”
3. Was anyone injured or harmed in any of the previous incidents? Who? How? When? Medical attention provided?
4. Was anyone in danger of physical harm, during the domestic violence incident(s) (e.g. DV perpetrator threatening with weapons or driving recklessly, the child being held when the domestic violence perpetrator attacks, or the child attempting to intervene in the assaults).
5. Inquire as to whether the DV perpetrator engaged in any of the following and if so when?
• Suicidal threats or attempts?
• Threats or attempts to kill/injure the adult, child or other? • Substance abuse?
• Displays of, threats to use, or use of a firearm or other weapon? • Evidence of untreated psychosis or mental health disorder?
54 Sometimes even in the course of parenting evaluations, DV perpetrators make either veiled or direct threats towards others
(court personnel, victim advocates, evaluators, treatment providers, and evaluators) involved in the case. Evaluators should consult with the other professionals in the case about duty to warn/protect.
55 Sometimes the evaluator has a positive screen for DV from just one parent interview and there would be a safety check first
with that one parent. This would then be followed up with the standard screening protocol and assessment of imminent danger with the second parent.
• extremely obsessive and controlling toward the partner and/or children (such as constant surveillance of the victim, stalking, repeated and harassing telephone calls to the victim, or as evidenced by violations of protection orders or other court orders, etc).
6. Also assess if the adult victim has any issue that would significantly compromise capacity to carry out a safety plan (psychosis, substance abuse, etc).
7. If the adult victim or perpetrator has answered affirmatively questions related to imminent danger for anyone, ask “What protective steps have you taken for yourself? For the children?” ‘Are you or anyone in danger now?
Sample Interview Format for Imminent Danger Safety Check: 1. Frame this portion of the DV assessment:
With either adult victim or DV perpetrator: “We have been talking about you and your partner’s way of “fighting” when in conflict (use vocabulary of the client: “fights,
conflicts, arguing”). You said how sometimes it gets physical. We are going to talk some more about that. For some families, this physical fighting gets dangerous. That may or may not have happened during this fighting. But before we go any further, I just want to check on your well being and the well being of the entire family.”
2. Direct Questions:
“Do you (adult victim? the perpetrator?) think you? your partner? and/ or the children are in imminent danger? If yes, how? Who poses imminent danger to whom? What is gives you that impression? Are you in danger now? “
3. DV Episode Description:
Another approach is to ask the parent to describe in detail the worse DV incident (i.e. time when an adult used or threatened to use physical force against person or property in fight (argument) with the partner. Listen for indicators of high risk situation. Ask question such as: “When did it happen? Describe what happened?” “Do you feel it is dangerous now?” “If so, what gives you that impression?
4. Follow up inquiry to 2 or 3 above:
Either approach of items 2 or 3 can be followed up by brief, specific questions about use of weapons, threats of suicide, dangerous types of assaultive behavior, serious injuries, presence of children during the episode, stalking, the most recent episode, and worse episode. Another indicator of dangerousness is asking about the perpetrator’s history of violence against other/previous/new partners. Some perpetrators will escalate to and beyond the level of violence they used in another relationship. For example, they may not have used a weapon in this relationship; but used a weapon in a previous relationship. Often the current adult victim knows the information because the abusive partner makes references to it as a way to threaten the current partner (“you know what I am capable of…do as I say”).
5. Ask each party about their safety planning.
If the client has answered affirmatively to imminent danger, ask “What protective steps have you taken for yourself? For the children?”, “Are you in danger now?” Adult
victims use a lot of informal protective strategies (e.g. having children stay with safe caregivers during particularly stressful times, etc) and these protective strategies are not always evident in questions about getting protection orders or calling the police or reporting to CPS (see appendix on questions about adult victim help seeking). Gathering information later about the use of informal protective strategies would be revisited in the specialized DV assessment because an understanding these becomes relevant to understanding which parent is able to be protective of the children and what specifics may be needed in the parenting plan recommendations.
6. Listen, and when danger is indicated, respond with brief safety planning and referral.
At this stage of the specialized DV assessment it is helpful not to minimize when parties report danger. In domestic violence cases, the parties tend to minimize immediate danger rather than over report it, even in parenting evaluations. Be conservative and take reports of imminent danger seriously. Calmly focus parent on safety planning for that day, week (see section below) and make a referral to a specialist for on going safety planning. If one or both parents report danger then, the evaluator should again review their procedures to increase safety for all during the evaluation process. Further
assessment will allow the evaluator to sort out how the issue of risk and danger fits into the comprehensive DV assessment, the parenting evaluation, and parenting plan.