Approximately every 30 seconds a report of domestic violence/abuse (DVA) is made to the police across England and Wales. The implementation of a risk assessment by a responding officer, and their risk level decision can be pivotal for the immediate and future safeguarding of victims. Given its importance, inconsistencies in the RA process in frontline policing reported by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC, 2014 & 2017) raised serious cause for concern.

The DASH RIC is a risk assessment tool used by most police forces across England and Wales when responding to reports of DVA. In this seminar the presenter reports on the findings of his PhD research, which examined the implementation of the DASH RIC and police officer’s risk level judgements in response to domestic reports involving current or ex intimate partners. In discussing the findings and implications, he considers the importance of policymakers knowing how their instructions work in practice and of them having a better understanding of the conflicts that exist when officers make risk level decisions, if the inconsistencies in practice identified are to be reduced.

Paul Hargreaves is a Professional Tutor as part of the UCLan Policing Team within the School of Justice. He has been involved with the Connect Centre, School of Social Work, Care and Community, at UCLan in recent years working on various projects, which included an evaluation of a pilot DVA intervention service.

1Domestic Abuse Stalking Honour-based violence Risk Identification Checklist.