Police-reporting behavior and victim-police interactions as described by women in a domestic violence shelter
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-1999
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/088626099014012004
Abstract
Previous research has addressed the motivations of domestic violence victims to contact police and police responses to domestic violence calls. In a study of 498 women who entered a battered women's shelter, a questionnaire was used to elicit types of abuse they experienced, police contact, and police-victim interactions. Approximately 58% of victims called the police in response to physical, emotional, and other forms of domestic abuse; however, less than one fourth of the batterers were arrested. Batterers who physically abused their victims or used other forms of abuse such as sexual abuse or stalking were more frequently arrested compared to those batterers who used emotional abuse. The women arrested for domestic violence felt that they had acted in self-defense. These results suggest that the police response to domestic violence is variable and the majority of batterers, regardless of type of abuse, may not be receiving any legal or therapeutic intervention.
Rights Information
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, v. 14, issue 12, p. 1290-1298.
Scholar Commons Citation
Coulter, Martha L.; Kuehnle, Kathryn; Byers, Robert; and Alfonso, Moya, "Police-reporting behavior and victim-police interactions as described by women in a domestic violence shelter" (1999). Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications. 117.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/mhlp_facpub/117
