Social Work Expertise and Domestic Violence Fatality Review Teams
editDomestic violence fatality review teams (DVFRTs) are community-based, interprofessional initiatives developed to improve community services and coordination for victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and to prevent IPV-related fatalities based on in-depth reviews of recent local cases of IPV homicide and suicide (Hobart, 2004; Wilson & Websdale, 2006). DVFRTs are proliferating across the United States, and social workers in varied employment settings are ideal members. DVFRT goals are aligned with social workers’ goals of eliminating service gaps that prevent those most vulnerable from obtaining critically needed help. However, DVFRTs are rarely mentioned in social work literature. Searches of Social Work Abstracts (in all fields) using the key words “fatality review” and “homicide review” did not yield any results related to IPV or DVFRTs.