Danger to Police in Domestic Disturbances - A New Look

• NCJ Number: 102634
• Author(s): J Garner; E Clemmer
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 7 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: National Institute of Justice Research in Brief, November 1986

Annotation

Although police officers face risks in responding to calls regarding family violence, other police assignments are far more dangerous, and the danger to police in domestic violence calls has been overstated.

Abstract

Previously, data on all disturbance calls have been interpreted as being solely or mainly domestic disturbances. In fact, domestic disturbances make up only a small part of the general disturbance category. Only about one-third of the police deaths previously reported as being due to domestic disturbances actually resulted from this source. In addition, further analysis of FBI data and data from seven independent studies show that robbery calls are consistently the most dangerous in terms of officer deaths. The finding that domestic disturbance calls pose much less risk to officers than previously believed should free police managers to explore alternative ways to deal with these assignments and better to meet the needs of the victims of this violence. Tables, notes, and 42 references.