A Call for a Uniform Risk Assessment Tool for Victims and Wit ...

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Abstract

Most professionals in the realms of law enforcement, criminal justice, and social work spend vast amounts of time and resources on the protection of victims who experience interpersonal violence and/or domestic abuse. However, what of the victims and witnesses of non-domestic violent crimes? In the United States, major non-domestic violent crimes are defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) to include homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault where the perpetrator is either unknown or not well-known to the victim/witness. Virtually no current research has been performed in the United States assessing the importance of safety as it relates to victims/witnesses of non-domestic violent crimes. With the exception of domestic violence, there are no existing measures that address violent crime specifically. Furthermore, there are no empirically based risk/safety assessment tools that are utilized when assessing the safety of this group. This literature review is a call for a uniform risk assessment of the aforementioned group because this group’s safety is not only paramount to law enforcement, but is vital to the very safety of each individual and the community overall. It is of note that the focus, as it relates to the crime categories, and application of this review is germane solely to the United States.