02/05/2026
What is the DANGER ASSESSMENT? READ this post to find out and then share away to help educate others. As a non-profit organization, raising awareness and educating the local communities is important to us here at Heartland! 🌻💜
Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell, PhD, MSN, BSN, RN, FAAN is currently a professor at John Hopkins University School of Nursing.
-Early in her career she worked at an inner-city high school in Ohio where she was working with students of color and lower socioeconomic status. When looking at the mortality tables to see what the biggest health problem was for these young women, she saw that the number one cause of death for black women 18-25 at the time was homicide. A couple years later a former student of hers, that had a baby in high school, had been murdered by her boyfriend and father of the baby.
-Intimate partner homicide became the focus of her career and thesis topic. There were already tools designed to measure risk of domestic violence reoccurrence, but Dr. Campbell wanted a way to determine which abused women were at risk for losing their lives. Most adults don’t like being told how to interpret their own lived events, so Dr. Campbell created a tool for women to see for THEMSELVES how much risk they face. The DANGER ASSESSMENT was created and eventually funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to be validated through an 11 city study.
“The Danger Assessment helps to determine the level of danger an abused woman has of being killed by her intimate partner.”
-There is a scoring algorithm that can be used to calculate four levels of danger: variable, increased, severe and extreme.
-NOW, The Danger Assessment is used in 48 states and nine foreign countries. There’s also now a modified version for LAW ENFORCEMENT to be trained on to utilize ON-SCENE to identify victims at the highest risk of intimate partner homicide (IPH) and near-lethal assault. This helps with safety planning. -Ellis County, KS law enforcement (police and sheriff) has officers that are trained to utilize this lethality assessment! ✅💪🏻
If or when law enforcement doesn’t or can’t properly enforce protection orders, no contact orders or restraining orders it increases lethality (risk) for victims. The offender/batterer/perpetrator of domestic violence will likely start to feel more brazen or that they’re “getting away with” or pulling one over on the law enforcement professionals - becoming more bold in their abuse tactics. Their behavior becoming more erratic and dangerous. Proper response to DV incidents and utilization of tools like The Danger Assessnent help victim and community safety. Community advocates, courts, and criminal justice staff members working together and communicating effectively is the best way to keep communities and victims safe.
-Most women are at more risk when they’ve left or are in the process of leaving their intimate partner.
-On average, 3 incidents are reported before offenders are charged with domestic violence.
-Up to 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse their children.
-Every 44 minutes another child witnesses domestic violence
-The most common sentence for domestic violence is probation
-Anger Management, Couple’s Counseling, Religious events/gatherings do NOT properly address domestic violence offender behavior (They’re all helpful and have their place, but don’t address root causes of battering behavior)
SOURCES:
American Journal of Nursing
Arizona gov
Lippincott Nursing Center
Soul Works Therapy and Wellness
VAWnet
Heartland Rural Counseling Services Inc. has a staff member certified in Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell’s Danger Assessment Tool💜 and that has extensive training working with domestic violence batterers and incarcerated individuals.
