Expert comment Last updated 03 September
The UK’s primary domestic abuse risk assessment tool is under renewed scrutiny after Jess Phillips, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, said it does not work.
And now a university expert in domestic violence has added to those concerns.
Dr Sarah Pemberton, Associate Professor in Criminology at Birmingham City University, claims that the Domestic Abuse, Stalking, and Honour-Based Violence questionnaire, (DASH), fails to reflect the lived realities of victim-survivors from the global majority.
“Academics in the field widely agree that the tool fails to capture the complexity of domestic abuse and does not prevent the kind of harm it is designed to avert - harm that is often life-changing and, in some cases, life-ending,” said Dr Pemberton.
“One of the biggest problems is that risk is dynamic and changes over time. Therefore, DASH only provides a snapshot, overlooking critical context such as life histories and cultural nuance.
“For victim-survivors from the global majority, the tool often fails to reflect their lived realities. And even the best-designed checklist can only ever be as effective as the practitioners using it.
“Some argue that DASH was never properly evaluated prior to its formal adoption and that it has been very poor at identifying high-risk victim-survivors and perpetrators of domestic abuse.”
According to Dr Pemberton, the College of Policing (COP) introduced an alternative tool to DASH in 2022 - the Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment (DARA) - to better identify coercive control.
Yet despite COP recommending that its frontline officers adopt DARA, she says a BBC Freedom of Information request found that more than half of police forces still use DASH.
Dr Pemberton argues that, despite advancements in artificial intelligence, no tool will ever be effective in isolation. She also advocates for more effective training.
“According to recent research, it was found wide variation in how practitioners understood domestic abuse, leading to inconsistent use of the DASH risk assessment,” she said.
“This means that cases assessed as low risk may be highly dangerous, with consequences we sadly know all too well.
“Whatever tools we design, refine, or replace, women will continue to die at the hands of partners or ex-partners unless we address the root causes of violence against women and girls. Screening tools may have a role, but they will never be enough on their own.”