Assessing Violence Risk Among Female IPV Perpetrators: An Examination of the B-SAFER

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global problem and onein which frontline assessment and management falls primarilyto police. Although IPV is often conceptualized as a male-perpetratedcrime, evidence substantiates female IPV perpetrationand increased arrest rates, raising important issues for police. Thisarticle examines police use of the Brief Spousal Assault Form for theEvaluation of Risk (B-SAFER; Kropp, Hart, & Belfrage, 2005, 2010),a violence risk assessment tool for IPV. The B-SAFER was used toassess and manage 52 women arrested for IPV. When comparedto Belfrage and Strand (2008), who examined men arrested forIPV in the same sample, women possessed fewer risk factors. Riskfactors were related to summary risk judgments, although differencesexisted between genders and risk judgments were not relatedto management recommendations. Results suggest that risk factors,in addition to those in the B-SAFER, are required to assess risk forfemale IPV.