The police patrols and children experiencing domestic violence

Abstract

Using data from a study on police officers' encounters with domestic violence victims and a study on children experiencing domestic violence, this article examines how officers decide whether and how to communicate with children in emergency situations, and how children experience these encounters. Officers' views on such communication diverge; usually, communication is motivated by the need to determine next actions. Children recall little communication and describe officers as faceless, nameless and genderless. The authors argue for recognizing the preventive role of officers on emergency calls. Official policies and guidelines should formally acknowledge and clarify the importance of communication with children.

Violência Doméstica e Crianças em Risco: Estudo Empírico com Autos da Polícia Portuguesa

“…Partilhamos da opinião de que a polícia, como primeira entidade de contato com as situações de violência doméstica, poderá ter um papel vital na sinalização de casos de crianças em risco (Rollings & Taylor, 2008). Na verdade, os polícias são para muitas destas crianças os primeiros profissionais com quem elas têm contato quando a violência ocorre dentro de casa (Överlien & Aas, 2015). Isso impõe que os agentes de polícia reconheçam e discriminem os diversos níveis de necessidades dessas crianças, sendo que a informação e o treino sobre o risco da exposição da criança à violência doméstica poderá contribuir para promover as competências e a confiança dos mesmos na abordagem da criança nesses contextos (Richardson-Foster et al, 2012).…”

Emotional Intelligence: Challenging the Perceptions and Efficacy of ‘Soft Skills’ in Policing Incidents of Domestic Abuse Involving Children

“…Significantly less attention is given to developing 'soft skills' such as Emotional Intelligence (EI), to deal with the complexity of DA to ensure there is a focus on victim care and safety and to handle the 'emotional labour' involved in responding to these incidents (Hochschild 1983). For police officers, responding to DA incidents is perceived as being different from other forms of 'traditional' police work, with officers reporting a dislike of attending DA-related calls due to the potential for these events to trigger intense emotional reactions, compounded by their lack of training in how to recognise and manage these emotions (Överlien and Aas 2016).…”

“…There is some evidence to say that police intervention in DA may not always be a positive experience for children and in some instances can place children at even greater risk (Buckley et al 2007;McGee 2000;Mullender et al 2002;Överlien and Aas 2016;Richardson-Foster et al 2012). Unless they have been physically injured or are witnesses to DA, children can be perceived as outside the abuse by police officers and therefore the responsibility of other professionals, such as social workers (Richardson-Foster et al 2012).…”

“…It is apparent why this ability is at the heart of the police response to DA incidents involving childrenin a majority of cases the impact of DA is emotional/psychological which is not always visible. Furthermore, children are often too frightened to verbalise how they are feeling as this may put them at further risk (Överlien and Aas 2016). Emotional self-awareness, selfmanagement and social awareness enables the ability to create and maintain positive relationships with others and address issues such as DA at an interpersonal level.…”

“…The majority of child participants were aged between 8 and 20 years old. As previously stated, three studies investigated children's experiences of a range of agency responses to DA, while two focused solely on the police response (Överlien and Aas 2016;Richardson-Foster et al 2012). The EI constructs of emotional self-awareness, self-management and social awareness and a number of EI competencies were most evident from the findings which greatly impacted children's sense of visibility and safety, which is discussed under the following headings of self-awareness and self-management and social awareness and relationship management.…”