Assessing Social Risks of Battered Women

Excerpt: “Effective risk assessment must take into account the diverse social factors of a battered woman’s life that impact her choices and decisions, especially regarding her experiences of battering. Quite often, these social factors facilitate her safety. However, just as frequently they act as hindrances to securing the same. It is these factors that are of vital interest to the practitioner conducting risk assessment. We have named these invisible hurdles ‘social risks.’ They include external conditions, pressures, norms, and practices that exacerbate the dangers to a battered woman. Whether visible to outside observers or not, social risks are real and significant to the individual battered woman.”