Violence between intimate partners or ex-partners: Do the data that come to the attention of the police allow patterns of domestic violence tending towards reoccurrence to be identified?

This research analyses the contributions made by the assessment and management of risks of a conjugal nature in a police context. ln recognition of the diversity of the types of behaviour that violence between (ex-) intimate partners represents, two lines of research are proposed. The first involves a quantitative and Qualitative methodology. lt focuses on analysing the police files of 75 victims and perpetrators· of non-lethal domestic violence (frequent cases,·mild ta moderate severity) handled by Neuchâtel police stç1tions between August 2008 and the end of October 2011, as well as on the use of data from a questionnaire completed by these victims. The question asked here is whether the criminal prosecution authorities are able ta predict, on the basis of the information that they have, or appear ta be able ta have, a recurring behaviour of a conjugal nature within the 24 months following the recording of a first act of violence (1). The content of the police files will be analyzed from this angle (Research Question A), as will the answers provided by the victims ta a questionnaire (Research Question B). The contribution of ratings and other tests to achieve this aim will be examined (Research Question C), as will the use of a specially created multi-source test (combination of information contained in the police files and in the questionnaires completed by the victims) (Research Question D). The second line of research uses a qualitative methodology. lt focuses on the analysis of the police files of 13 victims and perpetrators of spousal homicide (rare cases, extreme severity) that occurred between August 1993 and December 2010 in the canton of Neuchâtel. The question asked (E) concerns the lessons that can be learned from the retrospective analysis of these cases of committing the act from the angle of risk assessment and management. Numerous results that promote the correct interpretation by the police of the risks associated with a situation are discussed