Intimate partner violence (IPV) assessments rarely present as clean, single-domain problems. They are shaped by multiple overlapping layers of a person’s life and circumstances. The Spousal Assault Risk Assessment, Version 3 (SARA-V3) was designed precisely for this complexity. Its value, however, does not lie in the mere administration of the instrument, but in how its findings are integrated within a structured professional judgment (SPJ) framework.
The SARA-V3 is designed to characterize the risk an individual poses to a spouse, children, other family members, or related parties in terms of likelihood, imminence, and severity of future violence. The SARA-V3 therefore functions less as a scoring instrument and more as a clinical reasoning scaffold that supports case formulation, guides intervention and risk management planning, and enables evaluators to articulate risk in a manner that is meaningful and defensible for courts, supervision agencies, and treatment providers.