Identifying and Assessing Risk Dr Jane Monckton Smith

Identifying and Assessing Risk Dr Jane Monckton Smith

Domestic homicide risk triad Abuser psychology High risk markers Trigger

Abuser psychology • Has a history of abuse in this or any other relationship • Shows repetitive, obsessive, or compulsive behaviours • Desire to control the life of their partner or focus for the abuse • Inability to accept challenge • Not acting in their own best interests

Mental Illness • Same high risk markers are often observable: • Threats to kill or commit suicide • Excessive jealousy • Obsessive, repetitive or compulsive thoughts or behaviours • Excessive focus on the victim (could be mother, father, wife…) • Fear of abandonment • Irrational thoughts about the victim

High risk markers

High risk markers • Threats to kill or commit suicide • Victim is fearful • Use of violence including sexual violence • Coercive control • Violence escalating in intensity or frequency • Stalking • Surveillance • Excessive jealousy • Violence which directly threatens life eg. Strangulation, choking, drowning, suffocation, stabbing, shooting

Coercive control • Is a course of conduct designed to limit the freedoms and choices of the victim • Control is often maintained through fear of the consequences of taking independent action • Violence is only one form of control

Triggers

Triggers • Estrangement – actual, planned or imagined • Financial or business crisis • Loss of control of the focus for abuse

Domestic homicide risk triad Abuser psychology High risk markers Trigger