Monday, 2:30 p.m., Zoom conference at the Norderstedt women's shelter. Topic of discussion: current status of the case of Anna S., a resident of the women's shelter. Representatives from the police, job center, women's shelter, women's counseling center, and youth welfare office will be present at the conference.
Anna S. fled from Saxony to a women's shelter in Schleswig-Holstein with her two children due to massive physical and psychological violence as well as a death threat.
The women's shelter, together with the woman, analyzed her risk situation using the standardized risk assessment tool Danger Assessment (DA) and, due to the high score and classification as a high-risk case, reported the incident to the responsible police department. Within a week, the police invited the relevant agencies to a case conference. At this conference, the agencies involved shared their experiences and knowledge about the perpetrator and developed protective measures for Ms. S. and her children.
Women repeatedly experience that violence doesn't stop after a separation. Ex-partners stalk, threaten family and friends, try to exert pressure on the women through their children, send threatening messages, and make the women feel unsafe in various ways. Some perpetrators even disregard police or court-ordered restraining orders. Measures to prevent or limit these individuals from committing acts of violence are virtually nonexistent.
This means that, as a rule, women have to flee their familiar surroundings, losing their jobs, their personal networks, and contact with supportive family or friends. Children affected by the violence are separated from their friends and torn from school, daycare, and their entire familiar environment. This escape, often to a women's shelter, cannot and should not be the only option. Cases of domestic violence have increased in Schleswig-Holstein in recent years, and every woman killed is one too many.
In January 2024, Schleswig-Holstein therefore introduced the so-called high-risk management (HRM) system as an “orderly, systematic, binding procedure (…) with joint risk assessment, joint action planning and joint monitoring to prevent serious targeted violence”1. A high-risk case exists when there is a concrete danger of a homicide or serious violence being committed.
This followed several years of discussion and development of the procedure, to which the governing factions of Schleswig-Holstein had committed themselves in their → coalition agreement 2022: "To detect femicides, we will establish a standardized and binding high-risk management system across the board."
The development of the procedure was explicitly interdisciplinary, involving various experts, and compiled into a guideline. "The guideline is a recommendation for action to ensure a uniform understanding of terminology and a standardized approach, and at the same time serves to promote understanding, transparency, and awareness of the practices of those involved in high-risk management."[1]
The basis for assessing a risk is the standardized risk analysis using the Danger Assessment Scale (DA), whose questions enable those affected to realistically assess their risk and which should only be administered by trained professionals from the police or women's support organizations. If a certain score is reached, the police, possibly in consultation with the regional KIK coordinator (KIK: Cooperation and Intervention Concept for Domestic Violence), invite potentially involved institutions to a case conference.
Without the consent of the victims of violence, only public authorities such as the police, youth welfare office, firearms authority, social psychiatric service, or job center may be involved. With the consent of the victims of violence, women's counseling centers, women's shelters, child protection services, migration counseling services, etc., may be involved.
In addition to the principles of case conference work, the guideline describes possible measures from the disciplines of women's support organizations, police/law enforcement, the judiciary (family courts, criminal prosecution, proceedings in cases of self-harm or harm to others), youth welfare offices, and perpetrator intervention programs. Each institution can only act within the framework of its own legal jurisdiction and area of responsibility and is not bound to one another.
However, the commitment to a joint approach and this interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial because while an individual assessment from one specialist agency may sometimes appear unremarkable, a comprehensive overview can provide valuable indications of a high risk, and coordinated measures within the network can offer better protection. The work of the police and the training and awareness-raising of their officers are of particular importance. For example, specially trained investigators are deployed, and key contact persons in the relevant directorates receive training.
The goals of the police intervention here are:
- Prevention of serious acts of violence, including homicide, through immediate and consistent intervention.
- Identifying vulnerable individuals and individuals with potential danger
- effective victim protection and fast, effective victim assistance
- Consistent implementation of measures to avert the danger and hold the person with the potential danger accountable.
- Improved cooperation and better information exchange with the participating network
- Creation of a security concept
High-risk management is not a rigid procedure, but a proactive system that evolves with the situation of the woman affected by violence. After one year without any further incidents (not a single report from any discipline), a case conference is held to review the woman's removal from high-risk management.
In addition to case conferences, there are also three to four structured expert exchanges per year in the regions between the aforementioned institutions, in which processes and structures for cooperation are improved. At the state level, the process is also accompanied by an interdisciplinary expert exchange with representatives of the institutions and ministries.
One year after its introduction, the state police recorded 9.360 cases of domestic violence in 2024, of which 432 were classified as high-risk cases. Based on these figures, the development of a unified strategy is of paramount importance.
In March of this year, the Ministry for Social Affairs, Youth, Family, Seniors, Integration and Equality in Schleswig-Holstein published an evaluation report. The report concludes that the issue has received greater attention from the various participating institutions and that faster networking has been facilitated. Nevertheless, further consultations are needed: The questionnaire used should be reviewed or adapted in light of current research findings, options for action regarding residency issues should be expanded, and those affected should be more involved in the planning of measures. The issue of digital security and consistent protection through the concealment of one's location should also be included.[2].
Women's support organizations welcome the introduction of electronic ankle bracelets, based on the Spanish model, as another important component of the support system. In Schleswig-Holstein, the state parliament passed a law at the end of March 2025 to better protect victims of domestic violence and stalking through the use of electronic monitoring, along with other amendments to the state administrative law.[3], adopted, which expands measures for protection against domestic violence in the state administrative law.
According to this law, individuals can be required to wear an ankle monitor if another person's physical integrity, life, liberty, or sexual self-determination is "concretely endangered by an attack of considerable intensity or impact" (§ 201c LVwG). Monitoring will be carried out in cooperation with the Joint Electronic Monitoring Center of the German States (GÜL) in Hesse. Furthermore, it is now permitted for police to share the data of the perpetrator of domestic violence with relevant counseling centers for perpetrators. Data of minor children involved in the household of the person at risk may also be shared with child and youth counseling centers – however, these counseling services still need to be established/expanded.
Women's shelters in Schleswig-Holstein view the introduction of the HRM (Human Resource Management) as a positive step towards improving the protection system for vulnerable women. However, it must also be noted that significant components are still missing or require further development.
- Intensification of work with perpetrators and more consistent restrictions on perpetrators, since the main burden of protection still lies with women.
- Comprehensive and continuous training for family court judges and youth welfare office staff on domestic violence and high-risk proceedings
- continued training and awareness-raising for the participating police departments
- adequate provision of women's shelter spaces or nationwide expansion of barrier-free women's shelter spaces
- Securing the transition: Further promoting housing projects – to free up shelter spaces and ensure a sustainable exit strategy
This article was originally published in the FHK specialist information 2025 on the topic of (high) risk management and protection against violence appeared.
Authors:
Andrea Gonschior, Women's Shelter Rendsburg, Coordination Office LAG of Provider-Based Women's Shelters
Marion Gerdes, Head of Women's Shelter Norderstedt
[1] Guidelines for high-risk management in cases of domestic violence, published by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Youth, Family, Seniors, Integration and Equality of the State of Schleswig-Holstein
[2] Report of the State Government – Minister for Social Affairs, Youth, Family, Seniors, Integration and Equality: Report on the implementation of the expansion of high-risk management, 12 March 2025
[3] Law for the better protection of victims of domestic violence and stalking through the use of electronic monitoring of residence and further amendments to the State Administrative Law of 26 March 2025
Quality recommendations
Current women's shelter statistics
