The Power of Attitude: The Role of Police Culture and Receptivity of Risk Assessment Tools in IPV Calls

Police agencies are implementing risk tools in the case management of calls involving intimate partner violence (IPV). The successes of such strategies are reliant on police officers attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions of both risk tools and IPV. Our study focuses on how police view the importance of risk assessment in IPV cases using survey data, collected from police officers (N = 169) in the province of New Brunswick. The survey questionnaire contains over 160 questions, including a series of open-ended questions that ask police officers to describe the limitations and challenges to using risk assessment tools in IPV service calls. Using this qualitative data, we show that the support and resistance among police officers can be explained by both progressive and traditional attitudes towards police investigation techniques fostered in police culture. We conclude by discussing how training and understanding of assessment tools might help resolve the negative perceptions and attitudes.