Escalation assessment
- Five sequential, plain-English questions
- Produces a stage from 1 to 7, with reasons
- No score, no tick-box total
- Direction of travel tracked over time
Our approach to risk
Professional judgement is the product. Not the score.
Safe Circle Pro structures and evidences the worker's judgement. It shows where a case sits on the escalation timeline and why, and it never tells you a person is safe.
Why we built our own
We don't embed DASH.
Most case management systems embed the DASH checklist. DASH is a copyrighted tool, and a reworded near-copy carries the same problems. So we built our assessment independently, from published research.
The evidence has moved on too. Police in England and Wales replaced DASH with the College of Policing's DARA in 2022, after research found that structured professional judgement agreed more closely with expert assessments than a scored checklist.
The escalation timeline
Seven stages, from history to planning.
Our primary assessment is built on Professor Jane Monckton-Smith's eight-stage domestic homicide timeline. Five plain-English questions walk the worker through it and place the case at a stage from 1 to 7, with the reasons recorded.
Stage 1HistoryPatterns of control or abuse in previous relationships.
Stage 2Early relationshipIntensity, fast commitment, early possessiveness.
Stage 3Controlling relationshipCoercive control becomes the pattern of the relationship.
Stage 4TriggerSomething threatens that control: separation, a new partner, money, a court date.
Stage 5EscalationControl intensifies: stalking, threats, increased frequency or severity.
Stage 6Change in thinkingA shift towards a decision: revenge, or 'if I can't have them'.
Stage 7PlanningPreparation: getting access, a weapon, isolating the victim.
Grouped for the dashboard, never by colour alone. Stages roll up into four groups, each with its own shape and label: Low (1–2), Moderate (3–4), High (5) and Critical (6–7).
Low, stages 1–2- Moderate, stages 3–4
High, stage 5
Critical, stages 6–7
Two instruments, one position
The stage leads. The score is there when partners need it.
MARACs, police and commissioners still work in scored thresholds, so both instruments are offered side by side. The escalation stage stays the case's actual risk position.
DASH-compatible scored assessment
- Our own, independently written questions
- DASH-style scoring with a configurable threshold
- For compatibility with MARAC and partner thresholds
- The score drives nothing on its own
What else the model watches
Signals the research says matter.
Non-fatal strangulationFlagged as a key predictor. It has been a standalone offence since 2022.
Direction of travelRising, stable or falling between assessments, so escalation isn't invisible.
Suicide following abuseTracked as a distinct outcome alongside homicide risk, in line with Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews.
Sources
The research behind it.
- Monckton-Smith, J. (2020). Intimate partner femicide: using Foucauldian analysis to track an eight stage progression to homicide. Violence Against Women, 26(11).
- College of Policing. Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment (DARA), adopted by police forces in England and Wales from 2022.
- Domestic Abuse Act 2021, section 70: non-fatal strangulation and suffocation offence, in force from June 2022.
- Home Office. Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews (formerly Domestic Homicide Reviews).
Get started
See the escalation assessment in action
Open a demo and work a case from the first conversation to a recorded stage and a MARAC referral. Every case and person in it is invented.
Prefer to talk first? Send us a message and we reply within two working days.
