Targeted Interventions for High-Risk Domestic Violence Victims
The Crime Lab studied targeted approaches to identify high-risk domestic violence victims, conduct outreach, and provide resources to lower the risk of experiencing future harm.
Challenge
Domestic violence accounts for 50% of female homicides in the U.S. The criminal justice system – with which the majority of domestic violence homicide victims initiate contact in the years leading up to their deaths — may be uniquely suited to intervene and prevent the escalation of this violence. Identifying these victims, however, remains a needle in the haystack problem, as the vast majority of these victims will not go on to be homicide victims.
Opportunity
Using a rigorous quasi-experimental research design, the Crime Lab found that targeted approaches to identify high-risk victims and intervene rapidly and persistently lowers the likelihood of homicide for victims at high risk of future harm.
Project overview
Identifying domestic violence victims at high risk of future harm is one possible way to reduce female homicides, half of which are precipitated by domestic violence. Targeted approaches — which attempt to identify high-risk victims and intervene effectively — offer a potential solution but have not been rigorously evaluated. We study this approach in Chicago, where domestic violence victims gauged to be at high risk by prosecutors are selected for additional outreach as well as prosecutorial and advocacy resources. Using a rigorous quasi-experimental research design, we show that this approach rapidly and persistently lowers the likelihood of homicide for victims at high risk of future harm. Additionally, we compare how efficiently prosecutors target this resource relative to a standard machine learning algorithm that predicts homicide risk.
Year Started
2019 – present
Topics
Project Leads
Ashna Arora
Research Director
Zubin Jelveh
Assistant Professor, College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland
Working Paper: Targeted Interventions for High-Risk Domestic Violence Victims
This working paper shows that targeted interventions can lower the likelihood of homicide for high-risk domestic violence victims.
The Impact of Specialized Prosecution on the Safety of Domestic Violence Victims
The Crime Lab’s Ashna Arora presents “The Impact of Specialized Prosecution on the Safety of Domestic Violence Victims” as a part of the Niskanen Center’s webinar series on responsible prosecution.