Cooperative actors in domestic abuse and their association with prosecution: implications for the criminal justice system

Abstract

Suggestions to increase prosecution rates in domestic abuse cases often focus on improving victim cooperation and evidence gathering. This study explores the impact of persons involved in abuse investigations by modelling five variables (victim cooperation; witness cooperation; presence of children; suspect admission; and presence of physical evidence) across 540 cases of domestic abuse. The presence of physical evidence, as well as victim and witness cooperation, all increased the likelihood of a charge against the suspect. However, suspect confession often resulted in a police caution, meaning no successful charge. The implications of these findings to improve investigation and prosecution are discussed.

Keywords

Domestic abuse intimate partner violence suspect charging victim engagement

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Almond

Canter

(2007) Youths who sexually harm: a multivariate model of Behavisour. Journal of Sexual Aggression 13(3): 217–233.

Barlow

Walklate

(2018) Policing intimate partner violence: the ‘golden thread’ of discretion. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice 1–10. DOI: 10.1093/police/pay001.

Barrett

Hamilton-Giachritsis

(2013) The victim as a means to an end: detective decision making in a simulated investigation of attempted rape. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling 10(2): 200–218.

Belknap

Hartman

Lippen

(2010) Misdemeanor domestic violence cases in the courts: a detailed description of the cases. In: Garcia

Clifford

(eds) Female Victims of Crime: Reality Reconsidered. Columbus: Prentice Hall, pp. 259–278.

Birdsall

Kirby

McManus

(2017) Police-victim engagement in building a victim empowerment approach to intimate partner violence cases. Police Practice and Research 18(1): 75–86.

Callaghan

Joanne

Sixsmith

, et al. (2015) Beyond ‘witnessing’: children’s experiences of coercive control in domestic violence and abuse. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 33(10): 1551–1581.

Carey

Solomon

(2014) Impossible choices: balancing safety and security in domestic violence representations. Clinical Law Review 21(1): 201–254.

Cook

Goodman

(2006) Beyond frequency and severity: development and validation of the brief coercion and conflict scales. Violence Against Women 12(11): 1050–1072.

Cowling

(2018) Domestic abuse: majority of controlling cases dropped. BBC News, 4 December 2018. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46429520 (accessed 28 April 2020).

10.

Crown Prosecution Service (2017) Victims and witnesses. Available at: www.cps.gov.uk/victims_witnesses/reporting_a_crime/decision_to_charge.html (accessed 20 June 2019).

11.

Davis

Smith

Taylor

(2003) Increasing the proportion of domestic violence arrests that are prosecuted a natural experiment in Milwaukee. Criminology and Public Policy 2(2): 263–282.

12.

Dawson

Dinovitzer

(2001) Victim cooperation and the prosecution of domestic violence in a specialised court. Justice Quarterly 18(3): 593–622.

13.

Dawson

Holton

(2014) Police charging practices for incidents of intimate partner violence in Canada. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 51(5): 655–683.

14.

Douglass

Ray

Hasel

, et al. (2016) Does it matter how you deny it?: the role of demeanour in evaluations of criminal suspects. Legal and Criminological Psychology 21(1): 141–160.

15.

Dutton

Goodman

(2005) Coercion in intimate partner violence: toward a new conceptualisation. Sex Roles 52(11-12): 743–756.

16.

Eigenberg

Kappeler

McGuffee

(2012) Confronting the complexities of domestic violence: a social prescription for rethinking police training. Journal of Police Crisis Negotiations 12(2): 122–145.

17.

Elkin

(2018) Domestic abuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2018. Office for National Statistics. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/domesticabuseinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2018 (accessed 19 August 2019).

18.

Ellis

Jenkins

Smith

(2015) Evaluation of the introduction of personal issue body worn cameras (operation Hyperion) on the isle of wight: final report to Hampshire constabulary. Report, University of Portsmouth, UK, February.

19.

Ellison

(2002) Prosecuting domestic violence without victim participation. Modern Law Review 65(6): 834–858.

20.

Fanslow

Robinson

(2010) Help-seeking behaviours and reasons for help seeking reported by a representative sample of women victims of intimate partner violence in new Zealand. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 25(5): 929–951.

21.

Felson

Messner

Hoskin

, et al. (2002) Reasons for reporting and not reporting violence to the police. Criminology 40(3): 617–648.

22.

Field

(2018) Discovering Statistics Using IBM Statistics (5th edn). London: SAGE.

23.

Hamby

Weber

Grych

, et al. (2016) What difference do bystanders make? The association of bystander involvement with victim outcomes in a community sample. Psychology of Violence 6(1): 91–102.

24.

Hare

(2006) What do battered women want? Victims’ opinions on prosecution. Violence and Victims 21(5): 611–628.

25.

Hartley

(2001) ‘He said, she said’ the defense attack of credibility in domestic violence felony trials. Violence Against Women 7(5): 510–544.

26.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) (2017) A Progress Report on the Police Response to Domestic Abuse. London: HMICFRS.

27.

Hines

Douglas

(2009) Women’s use of intimate partner violence against men: prevalence, implications, and consequences. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma 18(6): 572–586.

28.

Home Office (2018) Crime outcomes in England and Wales: year ending March 2018. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/729127/crime-outcomes-hosb1018.pdf (accessed 19 August 2019).

29.

Hoyle

(1998) Negotiating Domestic Violence: Police, Criminal Justice, and Victims. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

30.

Hoyle

Sanders

(2000) Police response to domestic violence. British Journal of Criminology 40(1): 14–36.

31.

Johnson

Dai

(2016) Police enforcement of domestic violence laws: supervisory control or officer prerogatives? Justice Quarterly 33(2): 185–208.

32.

Kelly

(2009) ‘I’m a mother first’: the influence of mothering in the decision-making processes of battered immigrant Latino women. Research in Nursing & Health 32(3): 286–297.

33.

Kirby

(2013) Police Effectiveness? Implementation in Theory and Practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

34.

Liang

Goodman

Tummala-Narra

, et al. (2005) A theoretical framework for understanding help-seeking processes among survivors of intimate partner violence. American Journal of Community Psychology 36(1-2): 71–84.

35.

Lifschitz

(2004) Battered women syndrome and prosecution of domestic abuse and rape cases. Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law 5(1): 149–165.

36.

McCormick

Cohen

Ashton

(2018) Modifying the ‘how’ of an arrest: reducing the interacting effect of childhood exposure to intimate partner violence and parental arrest. Police Practice and Research: An International Journal Epub ahead of print 3 January 2019. DOI: 10.1080/15614263.2018.1555479.

37.

Menaker

Cramer

(2012) The victim as witness: strategies for increasing credibility among rape victim-witnesses in court. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice 12(5): 424–438.

38.

Millar

Devaney

Butler

(2018) Emotional intelligence: challenging the perceptions and efficacy of ‘soft skills’ in policing incidents of domestic abuse involving children. Journal of family violence. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10896-018-0018-9 (accessed 30 April 2020).

39.

MOPAC (2019) Beneath the numbers: an exploration of the increases of recorded domestic abuse and sexual offences. Mayor of London Office for Policing and Crime. Available at: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/201902_beneath_the_numbers_-_an_exploration_of_the_increases_of_recorded_domestic_abuse_and_sexual_offences_v1.pdf (accessed 19 August 2019).

40.

Morrow

Katz

Choate

(2012) Assessing the impact of police body-worn cameras on arresting, prosecuting, and convicting suspects of intimate partner violence. Police Quarterly 19(3): 303–325.

41.

Myhill

Johnson

(2015) Police use of discretion in response to domestic violence. Criminology & Criminal Justice 16(1): 3–20.

42.

O’Neal

Tellis

Spohn

(2015) Prosecuting intimate partner sexual assault: legal and extra-legal factors that influence charging decisions. Violence Against Women 21(10): 1237–1258.

43.

Peled

Gil

(2011) The mothering perceptions of women abused by their partner. Violence Against Women 17(4): 457–479.

44.

Peterson

Bialo-Padin

(2012) Domestic violence is different: the crucial role of evidence collection in domestic violence cases. Journal of Police Crisis and Negotiations 12(2): 103–121.

45.

Porter

(2018) Prosecuting domestic abuse in England and wales: crown prosecution service ‘working practice’ and new public managerialism. Social & Legal Studies 28(4): 493–516.

46.

Rauma

(1984) Going for gold: prosecutorial decision making in cases of wife assault. Social Science Research 13(4): 321–351.

47.

Regoeczi

Hubbard

(2018) The impact of specialised domestic violence units on case processing. American Journal of Criminal Justice 43(3): 570–590.

48.

Rhodes

Dichter

Kothari

, et al. (2011) The impact of children on legal actions taken by women victims of intimate partner violence. Journal of Family Violence 26(5): 355–364.

49.

Robinson

Cook

(2006) Understanding victim retraction in cases of domestic violence: specialist courts, government policy, and victim-centred justice. Contemporary Justice Review: Issues in Criminal, Social, and Restorative Justice 9(2): 189–213.

50.

Robinson

Pinchevsky

Gutherie

(2018) A small constellation: risk factors informing police perceptions of domestic abuse. Policing and Society 28(2): 189–204.

51.

Robinson

Smith-Lovin

Tsoudis

(1994) Heinous crime or unfortunate accident? The effect of remorse on responses to mock criminal confessions. Social Forces 73: 175–190.

52.

Sechrist

Weil

(2018) Assessing the impact of a focused deterrence strategy to combat intimate partner domestic violence. Violence Against Women 24(3): 243–265.

53.

Sleath

Smith

(2017) Understanding the factors that predict victim retraction in police reported allegations of intimate partner violence. Psychology of Violence 7(1): 140–149.

54.

Stark

(2012) Looking beyond domestic violence: policing coercive control. Journal of Police Crisis and Negotiations 12(2): 199–217.

55.

Starmer

(2011) Domestic violence: the facts, the issues, the future. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology 25(1-2): 9–15.

56.

The Prosecution Team (2011) The Prosecution Team Manual of Guidance for the Preparation, Processing and Submission of Prosecution Files. UK: The Prosecution Team, ACPO and NPIA.

57.

Trepiccione

(2000) At the crossroads of law and social science: is charging a battered mother with failure to protect her child an acceptable solution when her child witnesses domestic violence. Fordham Law Review 69(4): 1487–1522.

58.

Tyler

Fagan

(2008) Legitimacy and cooperation: why do people help the police fight crime in their communities. Ohio States Journal of Criminal Law 6(1): 231–276.

59.

UNISON (2018) Drop in criminals facing court as police lack resources to investigate. Available at: https://www.unison.org.uk/news/ps-data/2018/08/drop-criminals-facing-court-police-lack-resources-investigate/ (accessed 4 February 2019).

60.

Westmarland

Johnson

MacGlynn

(2018) Under the radar: the widespread use of ‘out of court resolutions’ in policing domestic violence and abuse in the united kingdom. The British Journal of Criminology 58(1): 1–16.