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Utah officials recommend pairing lethality screening with ODARA risk tool to inform pretrial and treatment decisions
Summary
State criminal justice stakeholders told the Judiciary Interim Committee that Utah's Lethality Assessment Protocol has helped connect victims to services but should be paired with an actuarial offender tool, the ODARA, to inform pretrial and sentencing decisions.
State public safety and court officials told the Judiciary Interim Committee that Utah's Lethality Assessment Protocol (LAP), implemented statewide in 2023, has improved victim referrals but is not designed to be used alone for pretrial or sentencing decisions about alleged offenders. They recommended pairing victim-focused screening with an actuarial, offender-focused instrument known as the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA) where appropriate.
The background: Dr. Michelle Leslie, director of the domestic violence board (DVOT) under the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ), described DVOT's multi-stakeholder work to examine risk assessment and management for intimate partner violence. Tanner Jensen, director of the Statewide Information & Analysis Center (SIAC) with the Department of Public Safety, explained that law enforcement officers submit LAP assessments from scenes 24/7; SIAC analysts return background information to officers and to partners within minutes.
The LAP: Jensen said Utah has collected roughly 24,000 LAP…
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