Stalking, Intimate Partner Abuse, and the Police

Abstract

Stalking and intimate partner abuse (IPA) are two criminal problems that often come to the attention of the police. While there are many similarities between intimate partner stalking and IPA and many refer to intimate partner stalking as a variant of IPA (Logan, Leukefeld, and Walker, 2000), there may be differences in these cases, particularly at the point that they come to the attention of the police. These differences may have important implications for how the police respond and/or are able to respond. Using a sample of 1440 domestic disturbance reports from a large police department in the western United States, this study explores the differences and similarities between these two populations including a discussion of how these problems impact arrest with an end goal of aiding police in the appropriate response to these two criminal problems and adding to the literature on stalking in the context of intimate partner abuse and intimate partner abuse. Ultimately, both differences and similarities were found. Implications are discussed.

The Nexus Between Intimate Partner Violence and Stalking: Examining the Arrest Decision

“…Second, previous stalking behavior was not a correlate of arrest (RQ2). This finding contradicts Melton’s (2012) study findings. One explanation may be the difference in measures used to operationalize stalking.…”

“…First, results demonstrated that nearly one in five incidents, or 19.3% of the total incidents, included previous stalking (RQ1). This estimate falls in line with existing research among family violence incident reports from other police agencies (Melton, 2012; Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). The IPV case file data used for the current study did not have a formal indicator for stalking behaviors.…”

“…Despite differences in presenting conditions, law enforcement outcomes did not differ substantially across cases with and without stalking behaviors, including tagging evidence, suspect arrest, or felony charge. More recently, Melton (2012) used 1,140 police-classified heterosexual IPV incident reports to assess the extent of stalking and predictors of arrest. Overall, 27.9% of incidents had evidence of at least one stalking behavior.…”

A Sign of the Crimes: Examining Officers’ Identification of, and Arrest for, Stalking in Domestic Violence Complaints

“…This study found that when officers identified stalking behaviors in DV complaints, arrests for stalking were likely to follow. Indeed, of the cases in which officers identified stalking behaviors (40.9%, n ¼ 94), 62% resulted in an arrest for stalking (see Figure 1), which is substantially larger than arrest estimates established in prior studies (Melton, 2012;Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000;Woodroof, 2010). While this estimate is not based on a random sample of all DV complaints in RI, it provides a strong starting point to explore how officers handle stalking complaints.…”

A Sociological Investigation of Awareness and Causes of Intimate Partner Violence in Nigeria: A Survey of Agege, Lagos State

“…Bukhari [2010], strongly protested that the structure of the state, state law and the courts are far away from being unbiased, and because of their close linkage to culture and custom, reflect the leading ideology of the time. Historically, Intimate Partner Abuse was viewed as a private matter in which the Criminal Justice System had little interest and took no action unless the violence resulted in serious injury or death [Melton, 2012]. Letourneau et al [2012] discovered from their findings that mothers affected by domestic violence are confronted with negative attitudes and ineffectual practices within convoluted bureaucratic Criminal Justice System, leaving many feeling re-victim.…”