Crime Factors & Organizational Theory

Prevention is a key factor when reviewing criminal behaviors, especially those behaviors that can lead to grave harm or death. Understanding lethality factors surrounding intimate partner homicide (IPH) is crucial when working or studying intimate partner violence (IPV). An important website to monitor and review regularly is the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center. The organization reviews research, policies, and collaborations across the nation to assist with the forefront knowledge of prevention by providing training and assistance to various agencies. As their research has progressed, they identified the need for additional collaboration and have created a separate resource site (geigerinstitue.org) designed to assist in developing collaborative efforts in the prediction and prevention of intimate partner homicides.

The approach utilized in collaborative efforts focuses on the use of multiple partners to assist in prediction and prevention. The focus is framed around an incident in which a victim was killed by her husband who had been arrested but released early leading to the killing of the victim due to a lack of coordinated efforts to protect the victim. Multiple organizations were working toward the same goal of keeping someone safe but were not coordinated in a unified approach to protecting a victim. Due to the identified need for coordination models, research and guidance are provided surrounding multidisciplinary teams. Breaking barriers will further assist not only the organization to function better but provide a higher quality of prevention to victims at a high risk of being killed by their partner.