Investigating the Domestic Violence Case (US)

Overall General Course Goal(s):
1. The goal of this course is to provide officers with a comprehensive overview of issues surrounding Domestic Violence, including Safety considerations, and proper dialogue with victims of domestic violence.
2. A secondary goal is to probe deeply into dating violence and the comparisons between teen, adult and elderly individuals.
3. Third, this lesson will teach Officers how to respond, interview, identify and collect evidence in domestic violence situations.
4. Next, this course reviews Stalking, including behaviors, mentalities, reactions, and laws related to stalking and the law enforcement response.
5. Finally, this course describes methods of recognizing risk factors and types of elder abuse and civil liability.

Learning Objectives:
To understand the many aspects of domestic violence that are reported so that the appropriate response can be managed.
The learning objectives for this training are:

• Understanding the statistics of Domestic Violence, both in officers killed, and percentage of the U.S. population that are affected by it.
• Officer safety considerations
• Methods of gaining entry when on scene and investigating
• Threat Assessment, including conducting a lethality assessment.
• Domestic Violence and Elderly victims
• Dating and relationship violence of teens and adults
• The Power and Control wheel, the modus operandi of the offender
• Recognizing Strangulation
• Understanding Stalking and Counter-stalking

SUMMARY

Domestic Violence calls are one of the most dangerous calls which any officer must respond to, and they consume approximately at least 30% of an officer’s weekly calls for assistance. Officer should not take these calls casually but seriously. These calls are never “routine”. Research has shown that the first 1-2 minutes upon your arrival can be the most dangerous time period of the call. It has been found through research that these first few minutes are the most dangerous for responding officers, as most officers killed on domestic violence calls died on the approach to the location and half were killed getting out of their car.

This course is designed to provide officers with a comprehensive overview of issues surrounding Domestic Violence. Safety considerations are discussed, instructing students how to act as responding officers while staying safe.  Perpetrators will often use a variety of techniques against both the victim and officer, and these behavioral characteristics are detailed through the Power and Control Wheel.

The course also takes an in-depth look at dating violence and the comparisons between teen, adult and elderly scenarios. Officers will learn how to respond, interview, identify and collect evidence in these situations.  Stalking is addressed, regarding behaviors, mentalities, reactions, as well as laws related to stalking and law enforcement response.

Since domestic violence also relates to children, officers learn procedures for interviewing children, how children are used by batterers and domestic violence’s harmful effects on children. On the opposite end of the spectrum, domestic violence also affects the elderly. In addition, this course describes methods of recognizing risk factors and types of elder abuse, as well as how to respond and report it.  Lastly, civil liability issues are discussed.