Spousal Violence against Women: Preventing Recurrence

15/04/2008

New Report from the Institute for Health for Health Economic

This report was prepared in response to a request from the Alberta Mental Health Board to conduct a critical appraisal of the literature on the validity and reliability of various risk assessment instruments for predicting recidivism and lethality for male spousal violence offenders.OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE

This report was prepared in response to a request from the Alberta Mental Health Board to conduct a critical appraisal of the literature on the validity and reliability of various risk assessment instruments for predicting recidivism and lethality for male spousal violence offenders.

The objectives of this report are:

1. to identify studies that evaluated various risk assessment instruments, and to assess the research evidence on their reliability and validity, with an emphasis on inter-rater reliability and predictive validity, in predicting male-to-female spousal violence recidivism and lethality in those males who had contact with the police system; and

2. to identify and assess studies that compared the predictive validity of two or more risk assessment instruments.

Studies that focused on female-to-male spousal violence, child abuse, or elderly abuse; on predicting onset rather than recidivism of spousal violence; and on the victim’s perception of risk were beyond the scope of this report.

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