A lethality assessment form is an 11-question yes/no screen that a responding officer reads to a domestic violence victim at the scene to gauge the risk of being killed by an intimate partner. You answer each question out loud, the officer records your responses, and the score decides whether you are placed in the high-danger category and connected immediately to an advocate by phone. The tool was developed from research by Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell, first implemented in Maryland, and is now used in more than 30 additional states.1National Institute of Justice. How Effective Are Lethality Assessment Programs for Addressing Intimate Partner Violence?
The 11 Questions on the Form
The Lethality Screen for First Responders is read to the victim exactly as written. Your answers are recorded as yes or no, with no paraphrasing by the officer.2Federal Bureau of Investigation. Domestic Violence Lethality Screen for First Responders
- Has he/she ever used a weapon against you or threatened you with a weapon?
- Has he/she threatened to kill you or your children?
- Do you think he/she might try to kill you?
- Does he/she have a gun or can he/she get one easily?
- Has he/she ever tried to choke you?
- Is he/she violently or constantly jealous or does he/she control most of your daily activities?
- Have you left him/her or separated after living together or being married?
- Is he/she unemployed?
- Has he/she ever tried to kill himself/herself?
- Do you have a child that he/she knows is not his/hers?
- Does he/she follow or spy on you or leave threatening messages?
How the Form Is Scored
The first three questions carry the most weight. A “yes” to any one of them automatically places you in the high-danger category and triggers the referral protocol. If you answered “no” to all three, the score then counts your answers to questions 4 through 11: four or more “yes” responses in that group also triggers the protocol.2Federal Bureau of Investigation. Domestic Violence Lethality Screen for First Responders
The officer also keeps discretion to initiate the protocol even when the thresholds are not met. If the situation looks dangerous based on training and observation — injuries that do not match the account, a victim too afraid to answer, visible property destruction — the referral can still go through. The screen is a floor, not a ceiling.
How the Form Is Filled Out at the Scene
Officers administer the screen within minutes of separating the victim from the abuser. The conversation happens somewhere private: a patrol car, a neighbor’s porch, a separate room. The officer reads each question word for word and marks yes or no. Start to finish, the screen takes fewer than five minutes.
Answer honestly, and answer the question that was asked. The form is not asking for your full history or for proof. It is asking whether a specific fact is true right now or has been true in the past. If a question does not quite fit your situation, say so, and let the officer record the answer that most accurately reflects what you have experienced. Officers are trained not to paraphrase, which means your answers go in as given.
You do not have to produce documentation to answer yes. The screen records your account. Any supporting facts — photos, medical records, prior police reports, saved messages — matter later, in protective order and criminal proceedings, but they are not required to complete the form.
What Happens When the Score Is High
If the screen places you in the high-danger category, the officer makes what is called the “lethality call.” The officer dials a local 24-hour domestic violence hotline or advocacy program from the scene, briefly explains the situation to the advocate who answers, and then hands you the phone.1National Institute of Justice. How Effective Are Lethality Assessment Programs for Addressing Intimate Partner Violence? That handoff is the point of the whole protocol. It replaces the older practice of leaving a pamphlet behind.
On the phone, the advocate begins a safety plan. The conversation covers where you can go that night, whether emergency shelter is open, and what legal protections are available. The advocate can explain how to request an emergency protective order, which in many states a responding officer or magistrate can issue the same night, sometimes without the victim appearing before a judge.3Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 19.2-152.8 – Emergency Protective Orders Authorized Duration varies by state, from a few days to several weeks.
Research on the program found that about 62 percent of high-risk women had spoken to a counselor by the end of the intervention period. Participants were significantly more likely to remove or hide a partner’s weapons, obtain formal domestic violence services, build safety strategies with friends and family, and secure some form of protection against their partner.1National Institute of Justice. How Effective Are Lethality Assessment Programs for Addressing Intimate Partner Violence?
Filling Out an Assessment Without Police Involvement
You do not need to call 911 or wait for an officer to be screened. The National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) operates around the clock and can walk you through the same risk factors, help you with safety planning, and connect you to local shelters. If you cannot safely place a call, you can text START to 88788 or use the chat feature at thehotline.org.
Local domestic violence programs — the same organizations that officers call during the lethality protocol — also take walk-ins and direct calls. Many of them offer the full 20-item Danger Assessment, which is the longer, weighted-scoring tool the 11-question screen was built from. The full version was developed by Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell in 1986 with input from survivors, shelter workers, and law enforcement, and it is designed for use by trained advocates and clinicians in a confidential setting where you have time to think through your answers.4VAWnet. Danger Assessment Advocates at these programs can also help you obtain a civil protection order, find emergency housing, and plan next steps whether or not police have ever been involved.
Before you call, it helps to think through the 11 questions above so you can speak to specifics: the most recent incident, dates, injuries, threats, access to weapons, any history of strangulation, stalking behavior, and whether you have recently separated or are planning to.
How the Score Is Used in Court
A completed lethality assessment occupies an uncertain place in court proceedings. Officers and advocates routinely use the score to support requests for emergency protective orders, and in some states, such as Montana, courts can consider lethality or dangerousness assessment results when deciding whether to release or detain a defendant.5Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Lethality Assessment Research and Findings But the yes/no format has limited standalone value as courtroom evidence. One state review put it this way: “answering yes or no in an assessment has varied applications with limited sufficiency in court.”
In family court, a high-danger score does not by itself change a custody outcome, though the facts behind the questions — threats, weapons, strangulation, stalking — are exactly what judges weigh when deciding whether custody or unsupervised visitation with an abusive parent is safe. Judicial guidance recommends that children not be placed in the custody of an abusive parent unless the court finds adequate safety provisions for both the child and the at-risk parent.6National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. A Judicial Guide to Child Safety in Custody Cases
One study found no statistically significant relationship between a victim’s danger level on the Danger Assessment and whether a permanent protection order was granted, which suggests some judges may not be factoring lethality data into these decisions even when it is available.7National Library of Medicine. Assessing Danger – What Judges Need To Know If you are heading into a custody or protection order hearing, bring the documented facts behind your answers — specific incidents, dates, injuries, and police reports — rather than relying on the score alone.
If you recognize your situation in the 11 questions, that recognition is itself worth acting on. The screen exists because victims with these risk factors face measurably greater danger than other domestic violence victims, even though most will not be killed.8California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Domestic Violence Lethality Risk Assessment for First Responders You can start the conversation with an advocate today without waiting for anyone else to decide the situation is serious enough.