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The Domestic Violence Inventory (DVI) is an established and widely used domestic violence offender test. The DVI-Short Form was developed to meet the needs of high volume testing programs, the need for a reading impaired offender test and the requirements for a quality alternative to the DVI for retest purposes. In other words, Risk & Needs Assessment, Inc. (Risk & Needs) wanted to meet the needs of the entire domestic violence offender assessment community.

Some courts, probation departments, counselors, treatment agencies and health care professionals do high volume domestic violence offender testing. In these settings, staff time (administration, scoring, interpreting and report writing) is of particular concern. The DVI-Short Form reduces these times by 30 to 45 percent.

Some courts now mandate domestic violence offender assessment and treatment, as warranted. Others offer diversion programs. These programs usually involve large numbers of offenders. The DVI and the DVI-Short Form meet many of these assessment needs.

Approximately 20+ percent of domestic violence offenders are reading impaired (not illiterate). In these settings, a shorter test is desirable. The DVI-Short Form has been read to groups of reading impaired offenders in a timely manner.

Many domestic violence offender evaluators want a quality "retest instrument" with reliability, validity and accuracy comparable to the DVI. They don’t want to have to use the MAST or other inferior tests. DVI-Short Form scales correlate impressively (p<.001) with comparable DVI scales.

Ninety-one percent (91%) of Risk & Needs' focus group of domestic violence offender evaluators wanted a shorter version of the DVI for many of the reasons cited above. All participants expressed a preference for the DVI, but identified situations (cited above) that warranted consideration of the DVI-Short Form.

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