As bereaved families and advocates urge action on intimate partner violence following a surge of deaths in Nova Scotia, many have spoken about the importance of prevention.
Xylia Fraser, the shelter manager of Chrysalis House, a women’s shelter in Kentville, recently told CBC News that her team has seen an increase in cases they deem high-risk since 2020.
Chrysalis House staff use a 20-question assessment to gauge the risk of violence a woman is facing. Fraser says the results of those assessments have become more serious since the onset of the pandemic.
“They’re becoming much more severe and they’re coming to the police’s attention, victim services’ attention because [of] their severity,” she said.
The assessment Fraser mentioned can predict danger with a degree of certainty, in the hopes that families or couples who are struggling can be identified early before violence turns deadly.
It was developed in 1986 by Jacquelyn Campbell, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore.
It includes a checklist of 20 questions that is usually completed with the female victim, and assesses her risk of being killed by the male partner.
Some of the questions include points like whether the male partner owns a gun, whether he is violently and constantly jealous, or whether the victim has ever tried to commit suicide.
Immediate interventions for risky cases
For approximately two decades, Nova Scotia police and Crown prosecutors have been using a tool called the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA).
It’s a 13-question checklist that evaluates the risk that a male offender will repeat an assault on his partner.
ODARA was developed by a team led by Zoe Hilton, a professor of psychiatry and research chair at the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in Penetanguishene, Ont.
It’s meant to be used before an in-depth assessment is possible, perhaps in a busy police station or emergency room. The idea is to get immediate interventions for the riskiest cases.
“It means that interventions can begin, support can begin, vigilance can begin at a very early stage in identifying a situation involving domestic violence,” Hilton said.
The 13 questions include whether the victim was confined during the incident, whether the accused has ever violated bail, parole, probation or a no-contact order, or whether the victim was pregnant during the attack.
The researchers found nearly three-quarters of men who scored seven or more points went on to commit another assault on their partner.
Hilton says research has also linked high ODARA scores to the potential for offences against other people, as well as their partners.
High-risk cases
All police agencies in Nova Scotia use ODARA, including the RCMP. Halifax Regional Police use it for all domestic violence calls, even those where no charge is laid.
According to a provincial spokesperson, cases that score seven or more are flagged as high-risk.
That means agencies like police, transition houses and victim services will share information with each other and monitor for red flags like a breach of conditions or an upcoming court case.
At their discretion, agencies can also flag cases that score lower than seven as high-risk.
A person does not have to be charged for the case to be designated high-risk.
Dolly Mosher, the co-ordinator of victim services with Halifax Regional Police, explained in a recent interview that she also pays special attention to cases that score a five or six.
“I assign them to a caseworker because we feel like it’s one call away from being high-risk,” she said.
Mosher says if Halifax police caseworkers think the woman could be in danger, they will try to assess that with the Jacquelyn Campbell Danger Assessment.
“And if we do a danger assessment with her and it’s over 18, then we’ll classify it as high-risk,” Mosher said.
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Police called more often before charges
Recent research from the University of Calgary took a different approach to see if violence could be predicted.
It was led by Lana Wells, an associate professor with the university’s faculty of social work. She also sat on the expert panel advising Nova Scotia’s 2022 action plan to prevent domestic violence.
Her team analyzed information provided by the Calgary Police Service that spanned from 2009 to 2019.
“A lot of the research in Canada around this area usually looks at men who’ve been charged and … how to prevent the recidivism or how to prevent it from happening again,” she said.
Wells said her team wanted to find predictors that could be used to prevent violence from escalating to charges.
Wells tracked 934 cases where a charge related to domestic violence was laid.
In 73 per cent of those cases, before the charge was laid police were called to a home, sometimes for a different criminal charge and sometimes for what she terms a “domestic violence encounter.”
“So what [domestic violence encounter] means is there was a call put in for conflict, there’s something happening in that home, but maybe there wasn’t enough to charge … at that time,” Wells said.
Only 27 per cent of the cases Wells studied had no police interactions.
Wells also found these police interactions happened more often leading up to a charge of domestic violence.
“What didn’t happen was any kind of resources or supports for that family or for the perpetrator,” Wells said.
“That’s what we’re trying to really bring attention to: that we can and do have opportunities to intervene earlier.”
New research out of Calgary found that in the past decade, nearly 73 per cent of men charged with domestic violence in the city had a prior history with the Calgary Police Service. Lana Wells, an associate professor in the faculty of social work at the University of Calgary, led the report. She is currently leading Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence, a primary prevention research hub focused on stopping violence before it starts.
Wells says she thinks this indicates a need for more resources such as counselling and education campaigns to support men and boys to be in healthy relationships and learn to manage conflict and regulate emotions.
“It’s critical because boys model after men in their lives, and it’s critical that the men are teaching young men how to be in healthy relationships.”
Wells said although her research was based on numbers from Calgary, her research partners in Ontario are reporting similar findings, and she believes they apply across Canada.
The Nova Scotia minister in charge of the Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Leah Martin, told CBC News there is “always more work to be done until it’s not an issue here at all,” but added she is proud of the work the province is doing in this area, which includes programs to reach school-age boys from grades 9 to 12.
“I do feel the change is happening and I’m encouraged by that,” she said.
A spokesperson for the province’s Justice Department wrote to CBC News that help is available for victims of intimate partner violence, and said it is “important for men to understand there are supports.”
More information about those supports can be found at nsdomesticviolence.ca, as well as through the women’s, men’s, and all-genders helplines that are staffed 24 hours a day, and can be accessed by calling 211.
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