Assessing the risk of severe domestic violence: The importance of survivors’ predictions.

Abstract

The findings of this study contribute to the discussion about the best method for predicting the recurrence of severe domestic violence. The findings are from a secondary data analysis comparing the accuracy of 177 domestic violence survivors' predictions of reassault to risk factors supported by previous research. The survivors' predictions were associated with recurrence of severe violence in a bivariate analysis. These predictions also added significantly to the accuracy of established risk factors in two multivariate equations predicting severe reassault within a 4-month period. Although not all of the survivors made accurate predictions, this research supports the use of survivors' predictions as an important element that should be included in risk prediction.