NCJ Number
177163
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 38 Issue: 1 Dated: February 1999 Pages: 42-53
Date Published
1999
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This is an evaluation of the first year of operation of an English police domestic violence unit (DVU).
Abstract
Since overall changes in crime rates are largely independent of the work of the police, the level of crime is not in itself a measure of police performance. Where policing is a response to victimization, a more appropriate measure would be the level of repeat victimization. The article evaluates the first year of a police divisional DVU which operated in response to calls to domestic incidents. In the first year of operation of the Merseyside DVU, repeat calls to domestic incidents declined in the division, while those in six other divisions increased. However, this pattern did not hold when "all calls" was the measure, so that a potentially beneficial effect would have been missed. It is difficult to draw conclusions about the future of DVUs from this limited evaluation. Further evaluation is necessary and repeat calls may be preferable to all calls as a measure of performance. Figures, tables, notes, references