Philosophy into Practice? Community Policing Units and Domestic Violence Victim Participation

• NCJ Number: 185734
• Journal: Policing Volume: 23 Issue: 3 Dated: 2000 Pages: 280-302
• Author(s): Amanda L. Robinson; Meghan S. Chandek
• Editor(s): Lawrence F. Travis III
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 23 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom
• Note: Earlier version of paper presented at the meeting of the American Society of Criminology, 1998, Washington, D.C.

Annotation

This study analyzed factors associated with domestic violence victim participation in police responses to domestic violence calls to determine if police units with a specific community policing philosophy performed better than traditional police units.

Abstract

The study was conducted in an area served by the Midwestern Police Department (MPD) in Michigan in a city with approximately 140,000 residents who were primarily blue collar, unionized laborers. Data were collected between September 1997 and January 1998 from domestic violence case summary forms filled out by police officers, police records on domestic violence calls, and a police official who confidentially provided information on responding police officer and detective characteristics. During the 5-month data collection period, 1,313 domestic violence complaints were reported to the MPD. Bivariate analyses were performed to assess the relationship among independent variables (disputant, police, and situational characteristics) and the dependent variable (victim participation). Findings indicated victim participation did not differ in terms of a community policing orientation. Rather, situational factors exerted the strongest effect on victim participation. Whether children witnessed domestic violence was more important than any other factor victims took into account when deciding to participate. Whether an arrest was made at the scene was another situational factor significantly related to victim participation. In general, whether to participate was a choice victims made in accordance with the nature of the domestic incident they experienced rather than in relation to the nature of the police involved in their cases. With respect to demographic findings, victim participation significantly decreased when the suspect was black and male police detectives had higher rates of victim participation than female police detectives. A correlation matrix of independent variables is appended. 86 references, 8 notes, and 3 tables