Data, not gut instinct

Perhaps an argument with your partner got out of hand. And you’ve been trying to persuade yourself that it was “just a one-off”. But an uneasy feeling remains - as does a desire to talk to someone about what has happened. At the counselling centre, artificial intelligence (AI) is used to assess the situation and draws an alarming conclusion: you are at high risk. It’s no good trying to sugarcoat it any more - this unequivocal classification provides a good starting point for supporting you as a victim of domestic abuse. 

Data scientist Ba Linh Le works with statistics that allow decisions to be taken about whether or not a person is safe: together with her team, she has developed the “Lizzy” AI risk analysis tool. The 29-year-old is a co-founder of Frontline, a start-up that makes digital tools available to combat domestic violence. 

Such risk analyses are required by law in Germany 

On average, 15 women an hour experience violence at the hands of their partner in Germany. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, there were nearly 266,000 victims of domestic violence (in partnerships or the family sphere) in 2024 – a record figure for the third year running.  

“When victims seek help - be it from a counselling centre, a women’s refuge or the police – a risk analysis has to be conducted,” says Le. This is enshrined in the Istanbul Convention and the EU directive on combating violence against women. No standardised method has been defined, however. “Unfortunately, my sense is that this is still often done more by gut instinct than a data-driven basis,” says Le. 

“Lizzy” provides a series of questions that experts work through during interviews with victims, such as: “Does your partner choke you?” or “Does you partner have access to your bank account?” “The replies are then used to assess the risk to the person in question,” explains Le. Le and her team fed the AI with data from their own study of more than 7,000 respondents. Le says that “Lizzy”, unlike other methods, takes a holistic view of different forms of violence, allowing an accuracy rate of 80 percent when predicting the likelihood of future violence. A number of counselling centres are already using the model. 

Together with co-founder Babatunde Williams, Le developed the idea for “Lizzy” while still studying for her master’s degree; Frontline was then launched in 2023. In 2025, she made it onto Forbes’ “30 under 30” list. 

Le explains that she was a victim of domestic violence herself. “I already knew at the age of 17 that I wanted to make a contribution - to make a difference.” Her aim is for “Lizzy” to standardise the risk analysis process so as to make it more effective. “So far, Germany isn’t playing a pioneering role in the battle against domestic violence,” she says. “But I do see potential there.”