Domestic Violence: Firearm Seizures & Lethality Assessments: Enhancing the Police Response

Abstract

Over the years, thousands of women have been murdered by their intimate partners. In response, innumerable preventative programmes and evaluative studies have been conducted to combat and mitigate the occurrences of this heinous crime. Nonetheless, a review of the literature reveals relatively few programmes and studies focused on the role of police in conducting structured assessments pertaining to the potential lethality for the individual circumstances of repeat victims of domestic abuse. In addition, firearm removal programmes also appear to be underutilised by police agencies. This paper offers recommendations for enhancing police procedures related to protecting women from the most severe forms of domestic violence, especially those involving firearms because they tend to be the most fatal. It is the position of this paper that law enforcement agencies should encourage officers to seize prohibited DV offender firearms as well as conduct some degree of risk assessment to help identify those women most at risk of serious bodily injury or death as a result of a DV attack. This paper also asserts that police officers should conduct some form of victim lethality assessment when responding to repeat domestic violence calls because these assessments are designed to detect certain conditions in a DV victim's environment that are indicative of a potential fatal outcome. In support of these positions, this paper reviews academic literature, scholarly studies, federal programmes, and at least one municipal law enforcement effort that employed firearm removal and lethality assessment. This paper concludes that such a programme can be effective in reducing domestic violence homicides. Research has demonstrated there are significant lethality indicators that may predict when certain women are more at risk of being killed by their abuser. In addition, danger assessments can enhance officers handling DV situations if they are given the additional tool of conducting these on-scene lethality assessments. With relatively little training, officers can be apprised of lethality indicators and be provided a list of questions that can direct their attention to the more lethal DV cases while simultaneously educating victims regarding their risk of a fatal outcome. If one life is saved, it would certainly be worth implementing such programmes.