Summary
This report describes the development of a risk assessment tool to be used by criminal justice professionals in spousal abuse cases. The tool, called the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (B-SAFER), was developed and pilot tested with six police agencies in Canada, and in two jurisdictions in Sweden. The results of quantitative empirical analyses on Canadian and Swedish data are presented along with qualitative feedback received from police officers in Canada. Overall, the results were encouraging, suggesting that the B-SAFER tool includes relevant risk factors present in spousal assault cases and that the tool can be coded easily by police officers in the course of routine investigations.
Contents
1. Project overview. -- 2. Overview of risk assessment. -- 3. Development of the B-SAFER. -- 4. Pilot testing. -- 5. Conclusions and recommendations. -- 6. References. -- Appendix A. B-SAFER form used for pilot test. -- Appendix B. B-SAFER user manual / by P. Randall Kropp, Stephen D. Hart, Henrik Belfrage. -- Appendix C. B-SAFER victim interview. -- Appendix D. Post-test B-SAFER form.