Police Referrals to Shelters and Mental Health Treatment: Examining Their Decisions in Domestic Assault Cases

Abstract

This article examines how husband's mental state, antagonism between the disputants, and victim injury affect officers' inferences and referral decisions to battered women shelters and outpatient mental health centers. Husband's mental state and victim injury affected officers' inferences, whereas antagonism did not. Referrals to outpatient mental health treatment were influenced by perceptions of the wife's credibility and the disputants' control over their actions. Referrals to battered women shelters were influenced by the presence of injuries, officers' perceptions of the wife's intent to fight and argue, the husband's responsibility for the violence, and officers' age.