Assessing adult victims of interpersonal violence

The assessment of the impacts of interpersonal violence on the client is an important therapeutic process that is likely to improve the quality of care provided by the clinician. Such assessment must, however, be based on an understanding of the logical consequences of violence on the victim's psyche. Additionally, the evaluator must be aware of the theoretical orientation, item content, intended use, and normative data available for the instruments used in any evaluation process. Based on available clinical and research data, trauma-specific measures are likely to be more helpful in providing relevant clinical information on the psychological status of victims of violence than are more generic measures of psychological distress.