NCJ Number
169407
Journal
Criminology Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Dated: (August 1997) Pages: 455-473
Date Published
1997
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This research tests the theory that police treat men who beat their wives less punitively than other offenders.
Abstract
Recent studies of police response to violence in which men attack women with whom they have a history of shared intimacy have not addressed the issue that inspired research in the first place: the "leniency thesis" that police treat men who beat their spouses less punitively than other violent offenders. In addition, research examining the deterrent effects of various police treatments of misdemeanor domestic violence is not responsive to complaints that abused women are denied protection of law when they have been victims of serious, felony-grade abuse by their spouses. Results of the study reported here confirm the leniency thesis. In addition, the article concludes that the practices and results reported by research conducted in progressive police jurisdictions that volunteer to participate in studies of police response to violence against women may not be generalizable to the great majority of U.S. police agencies that have not welcomed such study. Notes, tables, references, appendix