DANGER ASSESSMENT

What is the Danger Assessment?
The Danger Assessment (DA) was originally developed by Co-Investigator Campbell (1986) with consultation and content validity support from battered women, shelter workers, law enforcement officials, and other clinical experts on battering. The first portion of the measure assesses severity and frequency of battering by presenting the woman with a calendar of the past year. The woman is asked to mark the approximate days when physically abusive incidents occurred, and to rank the severity of the incident on a 1 to 5 (1=slap, pushing, no injuries and/or lasting pain through 5=use of weapon, wounds from weapon) scale. The calendar portion was conceptualized as a way to raise the consciousness of the woman and reduce the denial and minimization of the abuse, especially since using a calendar increases accurate recall in other situations (Campbell, 1995; Ferraro et al., 1983). In the original scale development, 38% of women who initially reported no increase in severity and frequency, changed their response to “yes” after filling out the calendar (Campbell, 1986; Campbell, 1995).

The second part of the Danger Assessment is a 20-item instrument which uses a weighted scoring system to count yes/no responses of risk factors associated with intimate partner homicide. Some of the risk factors women are asked about are whether or not their partner owns a gun, their partner’s employment status, whether or not he has ever threatened to kill the woman, etc. The training module, offered on this website, provides training on how to score the tool and offers score interpretations and recommendations for the different score levels.

Who should be trained to use the Danger Assessment?
The challenge for those who encounter abused women is to identify those with the highest level of danger. For 25 years, the Danger Assessment, developed by Jacquelyn C Campbell, PhD, RN, has been used by law enforcement and health care professionals, and domestic violence advocates.

Benefits of Certification
After successfully completing the post test for the Online Training Course or a live seminar, you will be certified in using the Danger Assessment. You will be able to download a certificate with your name on it, a results page that you can copy and use to put in case files for documentation, and the scoring system worksheet which includes the scoring system’s danger level interpretation, personalized with your name, to more accurately determine the level of danger your victim is in.

Training and Certification
If you have not attended one of Dr. Campbell’s live seminars or teleconferences, you can complete the online training program (Option A). The online training program will provide you with all the content Dr. Campbell presents in her training programs.

Now Available! Updated and Validated Scoring System & Individual Certification

Option A - $125 - Purchase the online training course, posttest, certification and scoring system

Option B - $25 - Purchase the posttest, certification and scoring system only.
This option is for users who attended a Live Training session. Users must select the date of the Live Training session.

Download the Danger Assessment

Includes the Instrument, Permission & References