Recommendation 6

HM Government · verbatim extract Deferred

The College of Policing’s Evidence Based Guidelines highlight that risk assessment should be seen as an investigative exercise based on using ‘professional Curiosity and excellent Communication to identify Clues’ (the ‘3Cs’). Risk assessment tools should be viewed as aids to assist in investigation but cannot provide definitive question sets for every abusive scenario. Police responders and investigators need to use their skills and knowledge to investigate vulnerability and risk, using risk assessment tools to support their professional judgement. Confidently and accurately identifying HBA may best be achieved through understanding of underlying behaviours and threats than through questions on a risk assessment. Police forces are adopting the Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment (DARA) following recommendation by the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Research by the College of Policing and Cardiff University has suggested the existing honour-based violence risk identification, assessment and management model DASH – is less suited to first response. The question set for DARA was established and refined following research and evaluation that is publicly available in the National Police Library . A key aim of the DARA is to help victims disclose and officers better identify coercive or controlling behaviour. As HBA is frequently underpinned by coercive control, a greater focus on these abusive behaviours will help officers to identify risk. The decision not to include questions referencing HBA in DARA was discussed with practitioners and academic experts. The College concluded that there should not be specific questions because: some victims do not identify with terms such as ‘honour’; a question or questions specifically referencing HBA would not be applicable to the vast majority of domestic abuse victims, and when such questions are included in risk assessments officers can become cynical about it being a ‘tick box exercise’; and coercive or controlling behaviour underpins much domestic abuse and HBA and behavioural questions can be operationalised effectively across the majority of cases. Officers are prompted to consider HBA when detailing their general assessment of the threat posed to the victim at the end of the DARA. Forces who tested the DARA did not report any significant impact on recorded cases of HBA. The Home Office will continue to engage with the College of Policing on this. Recommendation 5 (Page 21)