Culturally competent intimate partner violence risk assessment: Adapting the danger assessment for immigrant women

Abstract

Despite the growing population of immigrant women in the United States and their greater vulnerability to intimate partner violence (IPV), there are no culturally competent instruments to assess the risk of homicide and future violence among abused immigrant women. The current study modifies the Danger Assessment (DA), a risk assessment instrument aimed at identifying victims of IPV who are at risk for lethal violence by an intimate or ex-intimate partner, for use with immigrant women. A secondary analysis was conducted with 148 immigrant women who participated in a longitudinal risk assessment study. The 20 original DA items and an additional 12 risk items were tested using relative risk ratios for their association with any or severe IPV at a follow-up interview. Predictive validity was tested with the receiver operating characteristic curve. Results indicate support for a revised Danger Assessment for Immigrant Women (DA-I) consisting of 26 items. The DA-I predicts any and severe IPV at a nine-month follow-up significantly better than the original DA and women's predictions of risk. The DA-I is a culturally competent risk assessment that can be used to assess the risk of reassault and severe IPV to assist immigrant women with safety planning. © 2013 National Association of Social Workers.