Risk Assessment and the ODARA: Police Officer Perspectives and Experiences

Abstract The Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA) is an actuarial risk assessment tool that is effective at predicting risk of recidivism by offenders in intimate partner violence cases (IPV) and has been formally adopted as a risk assessment tool by police in New Brunswick. Training and implementation of the tool across Canada is mixed, however, and previous studies have shown that officers express varying opinions as to the usefulness of the tool. Previous studies relied on archival data to assess officer use of the ODARA. The present study used qualitative semi-structured interviews with N = 35 officers from three municipal police organizations within New Brunswick, Canada. Five overall themes were developed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Officers overall expressed positive (e.g., informs decision making, has legal impacts) and negative (e.g., not helpful for decision making, not sure why ODARA is being used) views toward the ODARA regarding its usefulness, impact on decision-making, as well as value or lack of value for the Crown or judges. Recommendations for improvement, insights on when officers use the ODARA and why, and views on training were also explored. Results highlight the need for intimate partner violence training and policy changes within police organizations to address police barriers to using risk assessment tools on scene, as well as concerns about the usefulness of such tools.