What the Danger Assessment Already Told Us
A domestic violence risk-assessment tool built in 1986 already weighted firearm ownership as one of its two highest-scoring questions. New Chicago reporting showing domestic homicides down this year while firearm-related injuries climb raises a harder question: whether the gap sits in identifying risk, or in acting on it once it’s identified.
The Period After Leaving
Ohio's newest domestic violence fatality count found that in nearly half of cases reviewed, the victim was leaving or had already left the relationship. For those who get out and survive, especially parents, new research on post-separation coercive control argues the danger does not resolve so much as change venue, moving from the relationship into family court.
Why Some Coercive Control Cases Stall
Two years after New South Wales criminalized coercive control, police have recorded 682 reports but only 42 charges. This post looks at what ABC News reporting suggests is behind that gap, including the law's intent requirement, police training, and the push to add recklessness. It then reads those findings against Erin Sheley's 2021 Duke Law Journal analysis of why an offense like the one in England and Wales would face due process problems in the United States, and the fraud-based alternative she proposed. It closes with the kind of documentation that gives a fact-finder something to weigh in these cases.
Meeting the Standards
Colorado’s domestic violence laws have procedural distinctions, but research demonstrates the importance of supporting the family while safeguarding the child; systems failing to hold the perpetrator accountable; and systems that retraumatize the family. The research and the statutes are answering different questions. One asks what gets documented and what standards should be applied. The other asks what happens to a family once they enter a courtroom. Colorado has made real, concrete progress on the first question. The international literature is a reminder that progress on the first does not settle the second, and that settling it may not be possible in an adversarial legal system under the Constitution.
Not All Homicide Is Sudden
National data shows domestic violence deaths rising even as overall homicide rates fall. Two decades of research, from Jane Monckton Smith's eight-stage homicide timeline to Jacquelyn Campbell's risk-factor studies, maps the pattern behind individual cases and what judicial, legal, and mental health professionals should be watching for.