Intimate partner violence continues to be a societal problem in the United States. In 2015, 806,050 intimate parnter violence victimizations occurred in the United States at a rate of 3.0 victimizations per 1,000 persons 12 years of age or older (Truman & Morgan, 2016). In 41% of those intimate partner violence victimizations, victims suffered serious injuries (Truman & Morgan, 2016). In 2007, 14% (or 2,340 victims) of all homicides involved intimate partners (Catalano & Snyder, 2009). As our understanding of intimate partner violence has increased over the years, certain characteristics of intimate partner violence relationships have been identified as predictors of increased dangerousness or lethality.

For 2015, 54% of nonfatal intimate partner violence incidents nationally were reported to the police (Truman & Morgan, 2016). The police often serve as the first contact with victims of intimate partner violence and have a unique opportunity to identify these risk factors for increasingly dangerous or potentially lethal levels of intimate partner violence. Early identification is seen as one pathway to connect the victim to supportive services and intervene with the offender and possibly prevent future severe harm or death. In order to assist in early identification, risk assessments have been developed specifically for cases of intimate partner violence and some of these tools were created with police officer use in mind. One such risk assessment is the Idaho Risk Assessment of Dangerousness (IRAD), developed by the Idaho Coordinated Response to Domestic & Sexual Violence and funded under the Grants to Encourage Arrests program.