Pathways to Police Contact for Spousal Violence Survivors: The Role of Individual and Neighborhood Factors in Survivors’ Reporting Behaviors

Abstract

Rational choice theory proposes that spousal violence survivors engage in a cost-benefit analysis when determining whether to contact the police in the aftermath of violence. Feminist intersectional frameworks contend that the perceived costs and benefits of police intervention differ among survivors based on their intersecting social identities. Normative theory further posits that it is not solely individual factors but also social norms derived from one's neighborhood context that may be related to reporting practices. Consistent with these perspectives, this study assessed the association between spousal violence survivors' sociodemographic, violence, and neighborhood characteristics and (a) police contact, (b) pathways to police contact, (c) motivations for contacting the police, and (d) motivations for not contacting the police. Data were drawn from the 2009 Canadian General Social Survey-Victimization main file, and included male and female survivors ( N = 890). Survivors most commonly contacted the police to stop the violence (89.4%) and most commonly did not contact the police because they did not believe it was important enough (35.3%). Results of multivariate regression analysis indicate that survivors who were visible minority, those who feared for their lives, and those who were injured were significantly more likely to self-report violence to police. Survivors were more likely to say the violence was not important enough to report if there was a police station in their neighborhood, and were less likely to say that violence was not important enough to report if they had experienced multiple incidents of violence. Implications for policing and criminal justice system engagement with spousal violence survivors are provided.

Comparing Conventional and Machine‐Learning Approaches to Risk Assessment in Domestic Abuse Cases

“…One is that we are only able to predict violent recidivism that is reported to police. Although more serious incidents of domestic abuse are more likely to be reported (Barrett et al 2017), we are unable to observe, and therefore to predict, violent domestic incidents that are not reported.…”

Policing Domestic and Family Violence

“…The Brisbane study reflects the outcomes of other studies in finding that it was usually the woman herself who called the police (Barrett, St Pierre and Vaillancourt 2011;Hamby 2014, 145) and women called for a variety of reasons (Barrett et al 2017;Barrett, St Pierre and Vaillancourt 2011;Leisenring 2012;Stewart, Mangan and Hannam 2013). Many of the Brisbane participants reported that police had been respectful towards them, listened to them, worked with them and followed up on their safety.…”

“…While women engaged a number of strategies in response to negative or inconsistent police responses, of most concern is that some women ultimately opted out of calling the police. This concern is reflected in other research that has shown that experiences with police have implications for the woman's decision about whether to call again (Barrett et al 2017;Goodman-Delahunty and Corbo Crehan 2015;Leisenring 2012;Li et al 2015). Research suggests that calling the police may help reduce future violence (Xie and Lynch 2017, 359).…”

“…Birdsey and Snowball (2013, 7) found that victims were more likely to call the police if they had a civil DFV protection order in place. Several studies have identified that victims of DFV call police for a variety of reasons, including wanting to have the abuser removed from the home, wanting police to arrest the abuser or send a message to him, and wanting to seek help for the abuser (Barrett et al 2017;Barrett, St Pierre and Vaillancourt 2011;Leisenring 2012;Stewart et al 2013). Research also indicates that victims express a variety of reasons for not reporting incidents of DFV to police, including fear of further violence, embarrassment or shame, feeling that the incident is not important enough and feeling that they will face discrimination from police (Barrett et al 2017;Birdsey and Snowball 2013, 6;Meyer 2011, 277).…”

“…For example, Xie and Lynch (2017) determined that reporting DFV to police may reduce recidivism. Other research has found that a victim's experience of engagement with police is an important factor in determining whether they will call the police again, with negative experiences reducing the likelihood that the victim will call in future (Barrett et al 2017; Goodman-Delahunty and Corbo Crehan 2015; Leisenring 2012). As previously noted, despite the importance of police in the response to DFV and the perspectives of survivors in informing appropriate responses (Kelly and Westmarland 2015, 117), there has been no recent exploration of DFV survivors' experiences of the police response to DFV in Queensland.…”