Predictive Analytics and Risk Assessment: A Logical Response to Intimate Partner Homicide

Predictive analytics has been around for a long time, oftentimes used interchangeably with descriptive analytics and data mining. It is commonly used in the realms of marketing, retail, education, health care, and law enforcement, among others. Conceptually, predictive analytics refers to a set of technologies that uncovers relationships and patterns within large volumes of data used to predict behavior and events. Specifically, it involves the use of data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data (Wiley, 2013). In the realm of criminal justice and its response to intimate partner homicide (IPH), predictive analytics can lead to the construction of risk-assessments (a.k.a. lethality assessments). In its simplest form, predictive analytics is forward-looking, using past events to anticipate future behaviors