This course introduces law enforcement personnel to effective, evidence-based strategies for policing domestic violence in a way that improves officer safety, increases victim safety, and seeks offender accountability regarding crimes of intimate partner violence. Using empirical research findings as a foundation, this course will expose officers to four types of intimate partner violence batterers. The course will reveal how each batterer type developed differently responds differently to criminal justice interventions. It will discuss what evidence-based actions officers can take to increase the likelihood the victim will cooperate with the prosecution process and leave the relationship for good. It will reveal the factors that increase the likelihood an officer will be assaulted at the scene, and the factors correlated with officer survival of assaults at these calls. It will address how to use information and physical evidence to help determine which party was the primary aggressor. Finally, it will discuss how to present documentation of the incident in a manner that best increases the chances for prosecution and conviction. This course is appropriate for any law enforcement personnel, including probation officers and prosecutors, who deal with cases of intimate partner violence.

Course Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, the attendee will be able to describe:

• The nature and prevalence of intimate partner violence today
• The greatest officer frustrations about handing domestic violence calls
• The four psychological types of intimate partner batterers
• The different circumstances under which each batterer type offends
• The different ways each batterer type responds to justice system interventions
• The factors that increase the odds a victim will support batterer prosecution
• The factors that increase the odds a victim will leave the abusive relationship
• The factors that increase the odds a victim will be killed by the abuser
• The 5 factors that best predict an assault on an officer at a DV call
• The special characteristics of fatal assaults on officers at DV calls
• The factors correlated with surviving an OIS situation at a DV call
• How wound analysis can be used to help determine primary aggressor
• How testimony and ancillary information can be used to determine primary aggressor
• How reports should be worded to increase prosecutions and convictions
• What evidence helps increase the likelihood of prosecution and conviction