Police are Influenced by Anchoring and Risk When Allocating Resources for Scenario-based Intimate Partner Violence Cases

Abstract

Sixty-six police officers were given four intimate partner violence (IPV) scenarios to rate for risk of future violence. At the start of the experiment, participants were provided with either a low-risk or high-risk “anchor” scenario of police attending an IPV incident. Next, participants were given three counterbalanced scenarios: high, medium, and low risk. Half the participants were given a structured professional judgment tool to guide their decisions. Participants given the low-risk anchor rated the following scenarios as being of greater risk than those given the high-risk anchor. Participants were consistent in identifying high-, medium-, and low-risk scenarios and the tool made no difference to these ratings. Participants were more confident in their higher risk judgments than their lower risk judgments. Officers distributed a disproportionately high amount of resources to the high-risk offenders and the results suggest that police officers can make decisions consistent with Risk-Need-Responsivity principles. However, anchoring effects and working in a context where violence is more severe and frequent has the potential to bias perceptions and make officers less sensitive to risk.

Assessing Police Attitudes Toward Intervention in Gender Violence: the Role of Training, Perceived Severity, and Myths About Intimate Partner Violence Against Women

“…Third, supporting Hypothesis 1c, our results showed that perceived severity of IPVAW was related to proactive attitudes towards intervention in IPVAW cases, which is in accord with prior research (Goodson et al, 2022;Gracia et al, 2008;Kebbell, 2022). Importantly, the tested mediation model confirmed that the perceived severity of IPVAW is the explanatory mechanism that underlies the negative relationship between IPVAW myths and proactive attitudes toward intervention in gender violence, confirming our Hypothesis 2.…”

“…Drawing from Banyard's bystander intervention model ( 2011), studies also have indicated that the perceived severity of IPVAW is an influencing factor in the decision-making process involved in providing help in gender-based violence episodes (Banyard, 2011;Gracia et al, 2008Gracia et al, , 2009. A cross-cultural body of research has indicated that perception of severity, urgency, or high risk in IPVAW cases promoted the allocation of additional resources in Australia (Kebbell, 2022), lesser legitimization, and higher credibility and service referral in the U.S. (Goodson et al, 2022), as well as preferences for actions regardless of the victim's wishes and stronger feelings of responsibility in Spain (Gracia et al, 2008). However, even though police officers tend to recognize and prefer greater involvement, nuances have been found concerning how they evaluate the severity of different IPVAW incidents (Gracia et al, 2008;Robinson et al, 2016).…”

“…Particularly, when they faced minor physical injury and psychological abuse (Tam & Tang, 2005). On the other hand, Kebbell (2022) identified the anchoring effect, finding that the level of risk with which police officers used to work within IPVAW events, conditioned Australian police officers' intervention.…”

“DV Fatigue”: Work Stress and Officers’ Attitudes and Performance at Domestic and Family Violence Incidents

“…Furthermore, repeated exposure to low-level violence may increase frontline officers' complacency and sense of futility in their role (Stark, 2012). An alternative interpretation may be that officers with more negative attitudes perceive DFV incidents as less severe which would align with the anchoring effects seen in Kebbell (2022).…”

“…Higher perceived severity of DFV is associated with lower endorsement of myths (i.e., beliefs that minimize or justify DFV) and a greater willingness to intervene (Serrano-Montilla et al, 2023). Conversely, the presence of anchoring effects and working in an environment characterized by more frequent and higher levels of violence can potentially influence perceptions and desensitize officers to the risks involved (Kebbell, 2022). Is therefore reasonable to expect a dose effect whereby the frequency of attendance at DFV and the level of violence encountered have an influence on officer stress, attitudes, and performance-although the directionality is uncertain.…”