offending population||Public health organizations; domestic violence coalitions; schools and educators; medical professionals|
|Peers and neighbors of at-risk individuals||Ongoing||Getting peers and neighbors to call the police if they learn of domestic abuse||Educate these groups about the importance of calling the police to reduce the violence||Public health organizations; domestic violence coalitions; educators|
|Injured women and men||During medical care||Screen the injured for domestic violence; raise awareness of available services; provide medical care||Engage the medical profession and link medical professionals with appropriate referral organizations||Medical professionals|
|Individual incident||During||Violence cessation||Stop the violence; identify primary aggressor; accurately identify abuse history||Medical and public health professionals|
|Immediately after incident||After; ongoing||Prevent revictimization||Assist with victim safety; develop tailored strategies for victim and offender based on risk/physical violence history; increase focus on high-risk offenders; ensure victim is linked with needed resources; increase focus on high-risk victims; ongoing monitoring||Domestic violence victim advocates, victims’ friends and family, shelters, victim services, criminal justice system, treatment services|
Graded approaches to both victim and offender can be effective ways to reduce revictimization. British researchers conducted several evaluations and found that significant reductions in repeat victimization are achievable. The key to reduction is that, at each level, police (and others) must focus equal attention on the victim and the offender. The victim and the offender must know about the actions police have and will take in relation to each other. Graded approaches must be applied quickly because the highest risk period for further assault is within the first four weeks of the last assault.
Under a graded approach victims are assigned to one of three follow-up response levels based on the following:
† Incidents other than domestic violence are reviewed because they may be indicators of escalating aggressiveness (Hanmer et al. 1999).
Each of the three levels to which a victim is assigned requires some follow-up. There is in an increase in the variety and intensity of safety measures used to protect the victim and to restrict the offender from rebattering if the offender’s violence and criminal history indicates he is at an increased risk to re-offend. Evaluations of graded approaches found reduced domestic violence calls and increased time intervals between violence. The methods to protect the victim or deter the offender can include a variety of situational crime prevention opportunity blocking mechanisms, such as the following:
†† With a victim’s permission, neighbors, relatives, friends, or all three are asked to look out for the victim and immediately call if the offender returns.
† To view the 25 techniques of situational crime prevention, see www.popcenter.org/25techniques/ in the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. Click on a particular technique to view its description.
Tailoring police responses to particular offenders based on the seriousness and frequency of their offenses has been successfully applied in the context of conventional crime and may be as useful for dealing with domestic batterers.†† This is likely because much domestic violence is committed by repeat and chronic offenders who may be particularly vulnerable because they often are under various forms of legal supervision due to past offending.
†† See Kennedy, Waring, and Piehl (2001) for a description of the pulling levers/focused deterrence application in the homicide context, and Spelman (1990) for a discussion of repeat offender programs. See Kennedy (2002) for a discussion of the application of the approach to domestic violence.
According to Buzawa and Buzawa, “The criminal justice system must develop the capabilities to identify those batterers for whom normal deterrence can be effective, perhaps the majority in terms of numbers