Assessing Police and Protective Order Reports of Violence: What is the Relation?

• NCJ Number: 208882
• Journal: Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 16 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2001 Pages: 602-609
• Author(s): Susan D. Harris; Kamille R. Dean; George W. Holden; Matthew J. Carlson
• Editor(s): Jon R. Conte
• Date Published: June 2001
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Testing two hypotheses, this study examined the amount of agreement existing between police and victim reports of the frequency and severity of domestic violence.

Abstract

Prior research examining the amount of agreement between perpetrator and victim reports of family violence has generally found little agreement between the two sources. However, little research has examined or assessed the accuracy of police reports of domestic violence. The purpose of this study was to examine the amount of agreement between police and victims’ reports of domestic violence. Two hypotheses were tested. First, it was expected that physical violence would be more likely to be recorded by both police and victims than verbal violence or menacing behavior. Second, it was expected that there would be some measure of agreement between the two sources, police and victims, with respect to frequency of physical violence. Data were obtained from court records of protective order applications and police reports gathered from the files of the Austin, Texas Police Department. The most common type of violence recorded by the police was physical violence, and victims also reported more physical violence than verbal or menacing behavior. The results confirmed both hypotheses with physical violence most likely to be reported by both victims and police officers. Overall, the study demonstrated that these two sources, police and victims, have some measure of agreement. References