The “Golden Thread”: Coercive Control and Risk Assessment for Domestic Violence

Research on risk assessment for domestic violence has to date focused primarily on the predictive power of individual risk factors and the statistical validity of risk assessment tools in predicting future physical assault in sub-sets of cases dealt with by the police. This study uses data from risk assessment forms from a random sample of cases of domestic violence reported to the police. An innovative latent trait model is used to test whether a cluster of risk factors associated with coercive control is most representative of the type of abuse that comes to the attention of the police. Factors associated with a course of coercive and controlling conduct, including perpetrators’ threats, controlling behavior and sexual coercion, and victims’ isolation and fear, had highest item loadings and were thus the most representative of the overall construct. Sub-lethal physical violence—choking and use of weapons—was also consistent with a course of controlling conduct. Whether a physical injury was sustained during the current incident, however, was not associated consistently either with the typical pattern of abuse or with other context-specific risk factors such as separation from the perpetrator. Implications for police practice and the design of risk assessment tools are discussed. We conclude that coercive control is the “golden thread” running through risk identification and assessment for domestic violence and that risk assessment tools structured around coercive control can help police officers move beyond an “incident-by-incident” response and toward identifying the dangerous patterns of behavior that precede domestic homicide

Why training is not improving the police response to sexual violence against women: a glimpse into the 'black box' of police training

Innovative and timely, this collection of essays holds broad appeal to academics and practitioners, as well as students of criminology, criminal justice and law, and all those with an interest in feminism, justice, and inequality

Safe total intrafascial laparoscopic (TAIL™) hysterectomy: a prospective cohort study

This study directly compares total intrafascial laparoscopic (TAIL™) hysterectomy with vaginal (VH) and abdominal (AH) hysterectomy with regard to safety, operating time and time of convalescence. The study is a prospective cohort study (Canadian Task Force classification II-2), including data from patients of a single university-affiliated teaching institution, admitted between 1997 and 2008 for hysterectomy due to benign uterus pathology. Patient data were collected pre-, intra- and postoperatively and complications documented using a standardised data sheet of a Swiss obstetric and gynaecological study group (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Schweizerische Frauenkliniken, Amlikon/Switzerland). Classification of complications (major complications and minor complications) for all three operation techniques, evaluation of surgeons and comparison of operation times and days of hospitalisation were analysed. 3066 patients were included in this study. 993 patients underwent AH, 642 VH and 1,431 total intrafascial hysterectomy. No statistically significant difference for the operation times comparing the three groups can be demonstrated. The mean hospital stay in the TAIL™ hysterectomy, VH and AH groups is 5.8 ± 2.4, 8.8 ± 4.0 and 10.4 ± 3.9 days, respectively. The postoperative minor complications including infection rates are low in the TAIL™ hysterectomy group (3.8%) when compared with either the AH group (15.3%) or the VH group (11.2%), respectively. The total of minor complications is statistically significant lower for TAIL™ hysterectomy as for AH (O.R. 4.52, CI 3.25–6.31) or VH (O.R. 3.16, CI 2.16–4.62). Major haemorrhage with consecutive reoperation is observed statistically significantly more frequent in the AH group when compared to the TAIL™ hysterectomy group, with an O.R. of 6.13 (CI 3.05–12.62). Overall, major intra- and postoperative complications occur significant more frequently in the AH group (8.6%) when compared to the VH group (3%) and the TAIL™ hysterectomy group (1.8%). The incidence of major complications applying the standardised TAIL™ hysterectomy technique is not related to the experience of the surgeons. We conclude that a standardised intrafascial technique of total laparoscopic (TAIL™) hysterectomy using an anatomically developed special uterine device is associated with a very low incidence of minor and major intra- and postoperative complications. The direct comparison of complication rates with either vaginal or abdominal hysterectomy favours the total laparoscopic technique, and therefore, this technique can be recommended as a relatively atraumatic procedure. The operation times are comparable for all three techniques without any statistically significant differences. This technique for laparoscopic hysterectomy is shown to be equally safe when applied by experienced gynaecologic surgeons or by residents in training

Final UKRI-ESRC grant report: Responding to the Covid-19 domestic abuse crisis: developing a rapid police evidence base

The project aimed to provide timely empirical evidence on how Covid-19 and related lockdown measures has impacted domestic abuse recorded by police, and associated policing responses. This research was conducted in partnership with seven police forces in England, the Home Office, the College of Policing, and the National Police Chief’s Council. The project analysed all domestic abuse crimes reported to seven police services in England since the start of the pandemic (March 2020) until the end of April 2021. The difference in differences method and data from the two previous years (2018 and 2019) were used to test whether the introduction and lifting of lockdowns had a statistically significant impact on the volume and/or nature of domestic abuse coming to police attention during the pandemic. In addition, 73 officers from four police services were interviewed between June 2020 and June 2021 to triangulate the quantitative results with how officers experienced, made sense of, and responded to domestic abuse as the pandemic unfolded

Predicting δPMNS\delta^\text{PMNS}, θ23PMNS\theta_{23}^\text{PMNS} and fermion mass ratios from flavour GUTs with CSD2

Constrained Sequential neutrino Dominance of type 2 (referred to as CSD2) is an attractive building block for flavour Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) because it predicts a non-zero leptonic mixing angle $\theta_{13}^\text{PMNS}$, a deviation of $\theta_{23}^\text{PMNS}$ from $\pi /4$, as well as a leptonic Dirac CP phase $\delta^\text{PMNS}$ which is directly linked to the CP violation relevant for generating the baryon asymmetry via the leptogenesis mechanism. When embedded into GUT flavour models, these predictions are modified in a specific way, depending on which GUT operators are responsible for generating the entries of fermion Yukawa matrices. In this paper, we systematically investigate and classify the resulting predictions from supersymmetric $\mathrm{SU}(5)$ based flavour models by fitting the known fermion mass and mixing data, in order to provide a roadmap for future model building. Interestingly, the promising models predict the lepton Dirac CP phase $\delta^\mathrm{PMNS}$ between $230^\circ$ and $290^\circ$, and the quark CP phase $\delta^\mathrm{CKM}$ in accordance with a right-angled unitarity triangle ($\alpha_\mathrm{UT}=90^\circ$). Also, our model setup predicts the quantities $\theta_{23}^\mathrm{PMNS}$ and $m_d/m_s$ with less uncertainty than current experimental precision, and allowing with future sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 46 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables; we provide neutrino RGE data tables at https://particlesandcosmology.unibas.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/particlesandcosmology-unibas-ch/files/RGrunning.zi

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on police recorded domestic abuse: empirical evidence from seven English police forces

The Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns have provided an unprecedented opportunity to study how such situational factors affect police recorded domestic abuse. This article presents findings from a large, representative study of the effect of the introduction and lifting of lockdowns on the volume and nature of domestic abuse recorded by seven English police forces within the first twelve months of the pandemic. The results suggest that lockdowns and the pandemic context did not the create the domestic abuse crisis, and that the crisis does not go away when lockdown restrictions lift. Lockdowns interact with and amplify underlying patterns of domestic abuse. Notable differences between police forces suggest that local contexts and local police force practices play a role, with implications beyond pandemic contexts

The validity of clinical diagnoses of dementia in a group of consecutively autopsied memory clinic patients

Background: Epidemiological studies show that up to 10 % of individuals aged 65 years and older suffer from dementia, most commonly from dementia of the Alzheimer Type (DAT) [1]. Clinicopathological studies are critical to our understanding of this disease and improving the accuracy of clinical diagnoses.Objectives: Our objectives were to examine the validity of clinical diagnoses of DAT, to determine the prevalence of different forms of dementia in this sample, and to investigate the relationship between age at death and polymorbidity.Subjects and method: Clinical data were available from 221 patients who had been examined at the Basel Memory Clinic between 1986 and 1996. From this population, 34 % (75 patients) were autopsied in the Department of Pathology, University Hospital Basel, and neuropathological examinations were additionally performed on 62 (83 %) of these patients. Clinical and neuropathological data were retrospectively compared.Results: 67.8 % of the neuropathologically examined patients received a definitive diagnosis of AD (Alzheimer's disease), vascular dementia (VaD) or mixed dementia (AD and VaD). AD alone or with other histopathological hallmarks of dementia was the most prevalent neuropathological diagnosis (63 %). VaD was deemed the only cause of dementia in only 4.8 % of patients. The sensitivity for DAT was 75.9 %, the specificity 60.6 %. Increasing age was associated with an increasing number of clinical and neuropathological diagnoses.Conclusion: The sensitivity and specificity of the clinical diagnoses of DAT found in our study are similar to previous reports (2-5). Older patients had more etiologies of their dementia than younger patients. This study reaffirms the need for internationally accepted criteria for clinical and neuropathological diagnoses, as well as further clinical-neuropathological investigations to further refine the clinical diagnostic proces

Policing by consent: understanding the dynamics of police power and legitimacy

This is the first of the country-specific European Social Survey topline results reports. Focusing on UK data from the Round 5 module entitled ‘trust in justice,' we link people’s perceptions of police legitimacy to their compliance with the law and their willingness to cooperate with the police and criminal courts. We also extend the existing literature by addressing wider forms of trust and people’s attachment to order and security. Framing the findings in the context of a long and rich history of policing by consent, we show the value of the European Social Survey in shaping public policy, practice and debate

A procedural justice theory approach to police engagement with victim-survivors of rape and sexual assault: Initial findings of the “Project Bluestone” pilot study

In England and Wales, public trust in the police has been damaged by a series of police failings in rape and sexual assault investigations, officer sexual offending and a police culture of misogyny. Feminist scholars have analysed why police investigations of rape and sexual assault cases rarely result in a charge,and documented the poor experiences many victim-survivors have of the police process. In this article, we outline how this scholarship may be integrated into procedural justice theory to advance our understanding of the impact of how officers engage with victim-survivors on their feelings of the status and value as survivors of sexual violence within the nation and society police represent, as well as on their trust in the police, and willingness to (continue) engaging with police, or report future victimisation. We present tentative evidence from the pilot study (“Project Bluestone”) in one English police force that suggests a feminist scholarship informed Procedural Justice framework is a promising tool for assessing and improving police practice in engaging with victim survivors of rape and sexual assault. The article concludes with directions for future research