Police Responses to Woman Battering: Victim Advocates' Reports *

Abstract

Most of the research on police responses to battered women has been conducted by surveying or observing the police or by using forms completed by the police. This study takes a unique approach by using data collected by advocates for battered women in two agencies in a large metropolitan area of the United States. In 1992 shelter (refuge) workers and workers at a women victims' hotline agency developed a one-page form to be filled out by advocates for woman battering calls they received in person (not over the phone). The forms were specifically designed to assess the reasons why the police were called and what was their response. Two-hundred-and-fifty-nine forms were completed and provide the data base for this study. The study found that the police responses (both positive and negative) differed according to which victim advocacy agency was involved, whether the responding department was the major urban department (which had a pro-arrest policy) or one of the surrounding smaller departments (without pro-arrest policies), whether a threat of violence was a reason why the police were called, and whether a weapon was involved. The remaining three reasons why the police were called rarely impacted on their responses; that is, whether a reason the police were called included a sexual assault, property damage, or a violated TPO/TRO. Notably, whether a (non-sexual) physical assault was a reason the police were called was never related to any of the police responses.