Assessing the Risk of Future Psychological Abuse: Predictingthe Accuracy of Battered Women's Predictions

摘要

Building on a handful of studies demonstratingbattered women's accuracy in assessing their risk of beingphysically reabused, this study examined how accuratelyvictims assess their risk of future psychological abuse.Participants' ratings of the likelihood that their partnerwould engage in controlling/dominance behaviors or effortsto humiliate/degrade them in the coming year and theirreports 18 months later of whether this had actuallyoccurred were used to create a four category version ofaccuracy (true positive, false positive, true negative, falsenegative). Victims were more likely to be right than wrongin their assessments of risk; PTSD symptoms, the recencyof physical violence, and the degree of stalking andpsychological abuse in the relationship predicted member-ship in the four accuracy categories. These findings overlapconsiderably with those examining victim accuracy in predicting physical abuse and inform ongoing debatesabout the value of incorporating victims' insights into riskassessment efforts.