Providing Support to Victims: Police Officers’ Service Referral Provision and Advocate Involvement in Domestic Violence Incidents

Abstract

Limited research has investigated police service provision and advocate involvement in domestic violence (DV) incidents. This study used a stratified random sample of 368 cases from an urban police department to assess police officers’ decisions to provide service provision and to involve an advocate in formally-reported DV incidents. Multivariate binary logistic regression models revealed decreased suspect age and presence of physical abuse significantly increased service referral. Advocate involvement significantly decreased when the victim and suspect were married, when the suspect used alcohol and/or drugs, and when there was physical evidence present in the case. Alternatively, suspect weapon use, victim injury, and service referral by police increased later advocate involvement. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

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).…”

“…For example, In the U.S., 12.8 percent of the total patrol officers in local police and sheriff departments were women, with an estimated average increase of 4.5 percent per decade (Poteyeva & Sun, 2009). In Spain, non-official data point in the same direction (police forces are around 7%-12% female; Gómez, 2021). Consequently, we assume that our sample reflects society at large and, therefore, we only controlled for the gender and year of experience effect in this study.…”

Impact of Children’s Presence on Police Responses to Domestic Violence Call Situations

“…While provision of victim supports was low (i.e., 10% of cases), Swerin et al (2018) also found that children’s presence during IPV-arrest incidents increased the odds of police providing supports/referrals to the victim. In contrast, Goodson et al (2022) found just over 70% of victims were provided with service referrals by police, although children’s presence had no impact on service referral provision. Hatten and Moore (2010) recommended a pamphlet with victim services information be created to ensure supports are offered to every victim after they found that police were less likely to contact victim services depending on situational characteristics (e.g., victim substance use, male victim).…”

Police Response to Latina Immigrant Intimate Partner Violence Victims: A Qualitative Analysis

“…It is also noteworthy that embedded advocates were involved in only about half of the cases in this sample. The importance of service referral and advocate involvement cannot be understated as this has the potential to mitigate trauma, facilitate victim cooperation, and enhance IPV case processing (Goodson et al, 2020(Goodson et al, , 2021Camacho & Alarid, 2008). Resource provision may be particularly important for Latina immigrant IPV victims because they have encountered increased barriers and significant impediments from social and justice entities (Ammar et al, 2005;Menjívar & Salcido, 2002;Raj & Silverman, 2002;Sokoloff & Dupont, 2005).…”