In order to have full access of this Article, please email us on thedocumentco@hotmail.co.uk
Introduction:
Police responses to female victims of domestic, This dissertation will be focusing on domestic violence and how effective the police responses are to its victims, especially women. The ages recorded to suffer the most from this type of violence are between 15-44 years. The purpose of this dissertation is to record the effectiveness of police responses to female victims of either domestic or intimate partner violence. Thus, it is very important to take into account the effects of it. One such focus would be the battered women, who are prone to go through physical as well as long-term mental problems as a result of either domestic or intimate partner violence.
This requires a close scrutiny of the perception and the acquired sense of responsibility exercised by the police officers involved in dealing with such cases. The effects of perception and assumed responsibility are only visible where police shows high involvement; low levels of involvement or even medium levels do not result in any effective response. The purpose of focusing only on women is the overrepresentation of women in cases of domestic and intimate partner violence, and in no way of purpose to sideline the male victims of sexual violence who suffer at the hands of women.
Police responses to incidents of intimate partner violence against women are not only extremely helpful in reducing the rate of violence from occurring, but also play a vital role by symbolizing the society and in exhibiting disapproval (Holder, 2001). According to Brown (1984), “since domestic violence in particular tends to transpire in private environments, victims or witnesses of these assaults must generally call the police if the law is to be set in motion and symbolize society’s condemnation of violence”(p. 278). Intimate partner violence refers to any behavior or pattern of behavior within an intimate relationship, which is controlling, coercive, violent or abusive (House of Commons 2015). In 2013, the definition was expanded to include young people from the age of 16 and up who are also affected by IPV regardless of gender or sexuality (HMIC 2014).
An incident of intimate partner violence against women will be more heavily affected by the discretion exercised by a police officer than any other factor. In this article, we focus on how police officers perceive severity in cases of domestic violence and whether or not it has an effect on their level of personal responsibility. In case of an absence of mandatory laws to limit the prudence shown by the police who are in charge of intimate partner violence against women, there can be varied responses to the same incidents of intimate partner violence against women depending upon criteria that is not sanctioned law.
Violence Against Women Scholars (e.g. Avakame & Fyfe, 2001; Belknap, 1995; Hart, 1993; Robinson & Stroshine, 2005; Smith, 2000) state that conventional police responses can be characterized by a sudden sense of detachment, clemency, and attitudes that blame victims, that requires no real police involvement and a strong stance against making arrests, as domestic violence is mostly treated as a family or personal problem and not so much of a police issue (Buzawa & Buzawa, 1996).
Methodology:
This dissertation is based on extensive research and an insight into studies and researches carried out previously to find out the effectiveness of police responses to victims of domestic violence.
A social constructionist stance was adopted in order to meet my research objectives. The view adopted proposes that we continually build on knowledge that helps us to understand the relationship between the police and victims of domestic violence. Such interpretations occur against a backdrop of the shared understanding and practices of police responses to a crime such as domestic violence. In the view of Potter (1996: 5) police responses to victims are not ‘stable truths’ and can be “worked up, can fluctuate and can be strengthened or weakened by various procedures of representation”. Thus it was crucial to carry out a literature review in order to uncover previous truths about police responses to such individuals and accumulate and update the truth on police responses to domestic and intimate partner violence issues to match today’s reality.
Key Sources:
This dissertation commenced after a library-based research, which involved the collection and analysis of data conducted by other researchers, academics and government officials (Semmens 2011). Secondary analysis was advantageous for my dissertation because I did not need to gain training or skills to interview or survey victims on a face-to-face basis. The nature of the crime entails much sensitivity for victims. Thus, using data from secondary sources meant that I did not need to come into contact with participants who are vulnerable or at risk as this was trustingly carried out by reliable organizations through appropriately trained and skilled staff who work on the field. For example, the HMIC (2014) investigation into police responses to victims of domestic violence included online surveys, focus groups and one-to-one interviews. Every encounter with victims of domestic violence is likely to have been at the highest ethical form ensuring the safety of each individual. Another advantage of secondary analysis stemmed from the fact that raw data was gained from large sample sizes, representative of the population the research is aimed at, which is much more substantial as I would not have been able to carry out research on a large scale as such. This makes secondary data highly reliable as experienced researchers carry out the research and data is collected from a large pool of resources (Bryman 2008). Hence the research is subject to high standards of validity and quality control (Semmens 2011). Furthermore, secondary research is free from the limitations surrounding primary research, such as rejection, respondent bias, attrition and other respondent-based issues (Saranatakos 2005: 298).
Qualitative data was gained through using ‘keyword’ searches on online sources and library catalogues such as Locate and Google Scholar. From this I was able to elicit e-books, journal articles and governmental papers, which helped me to identify a sufficient breadth of references relevant to exploring the effectiveness of police responses to domestic violence (Gash and Gash 2000). Academic journals are necessary to conduct thorough research that is up to date, as I wanted to grasp what was known in field of domestic violence and police handlings. At the same time, I could contribute to the accumulation of knowledge without regurgitating somebody else’s research as I had a general awareness of existing literature. Governmental papers and reports assure credibility as mentioned earlier, and online sources were used with caution, excluding any sources, which lacked academic credibility such as Wikipedia. Some books may take time to publish and so may not be as up to date as hoped thus, combining data from journal articles and government publications strengthened my research.
Some implications arose along the way in cases where some government documents were not accessible due to being moved or removed. Consequently, this was overcome by finding the necessary information via other academically reliable sources. Overall, I deemed secondary research as most appropriate to fulfil the expectations surrounding my research, in the constraints of an undergraduate dissertation such as the time limitation I was bound by (Bryman 2008).
Key Themes:
The methodology can be divided into two key themes;
– police actions
– victim perspectives
These key themes will be elaborated upon using literature reviews and previous studies in order to give a factual backing to my argument.
Reflective Review:
Police responses in the cases of domestic violence can be narrowed down into three categories (Egan, 1999):
(a) “Meditative policies”, in which police plays the role of a facilitator/mediator, encouraging dialogue and giving suggestions in order to reach peaceful terms of settlement or simply being present till the offender has cooled down and the situation has become dissolute
(b) “Pro-arrest policies”, in which offenders are taken into police custody allowing full discretion to the officers
(c) “Mandatory arrest policies” make an arrest a compulsion in case of any recorded incident of intimate partner violence against women, even in offenses that are not so serious.
Jordan (2004) in his research gives a summary of the empirical research scrutinizing police responses towards domestic violence against women: what are the factors that influence the help that victims seek, how the arrests come into order, and the subsequent effectiveness of the arrests made by law enforcement agencies (Sherman, 2005; Sherman et al., 1992).
Futhermore, Robinson and Chandek in (2000) found various sets of variables that had an impact on the decisions of arrest dealing with domestic violence:
-“characteristics of victims, offenders, and police officers” (gender, experience).
-“Attitudinal variables,” (victim preferring arrest or the perception of the officer that assumes the victim will drop charges or is not cooperative).
-“Situational variables,” (weapons, incidence of the incidents, repetition of the violence and the role of additional witnesses).
Managing the Literature:
After gathering an overview of the issue of intimate partner violence and the relationship with the police, I used the Boolean method of combining words like AND/OR to narrow my search. For example, ‘domestic violence’ AND ‘police responses’ and ‘intimate partner violence’ OR ‘domestic violence’ AND ‘police responses’ (Rau 2004). Once I was able to focus my work further, I used the snowballing technique to obtain more data from the reference lists of the texts that I read. I excluded any references that did not include the keywords ‘legal response’ OR ‘police’ OR ‘police response’. This is because the topic of domestic violence is a wide and complex issue going beyond the police and so the aim was to keep the research focused on the criminology aspect. Generally, the snowballing technique was beneficial for the research as it did not consume extensive time and allowed me to gage relevant and reliable material.
Critical Literature review:
This literature review will critically investigate how effective the police response to domestic/intimate partner violence is. The police are often the first point of contact to victims of violence, acting as the gatekeepers between the victims and the Criminal Justice System (Robinson and Stroshine (2005).
A research was done by Sun et al. (2011), exploring a comparative study while checking how effective police responses are in cases of domestic violence and what are the predictors that shape different views.
The following data was collected from over a thousand students in both China and US, conducted in two cities of each country, Beijing, Hong Kong, Newark and Delaware as well as Detroit, Michigan, The main focus of the study was to record and compare the different attitudes of both the Chinese and American citizens towards proactive police response in cases of domestic violence. The research was based around two research questions:
“(a) What are the general patterns of Chinese and American citizens’ perceptions of domestic violence?
(b) Are Chinese and American citizens’ attitudes toward police response influenced by similar or different factors? “
Data collection:
A survey questionnaire in English was distributed at four universities during the fall of 2009, consisting of a 100 items, and then translated into Chinese by IPACJ researchers. Focusing mainly on the method of double translation (Brislin, 1970), the Chinese survey had to be translated back to its original language (English) by a Chinese scholar and once this was completed, inconsistency was measured or ruled out by comparing two English versions. Minor alterations were made to increase comparability between the Chinese and English surveys. To test the validity of the surveys and its comprehensiveness, they were tested on a sample of both Chinese and American students during the spring and summer of 2009. The faculty members were taken into confidence and the IPACJ took their consent to survey their students and results were collected by the members of IPACJ themselves, faculty members or student assistants. It was made clear, that the nature of the survey was solely voluntary and that any student who did not wish to participate would not be penalized or have to face any negative consequences in the event of nonparticipation. Students were able to complete the survey in 15 to 20 minutes. High response rates were recorded in all sites due to the classroom setting. The sample consisted of 652 Chinese and 729 Americans students. To ensure accuracy, validity and reliability, incomplete surveys and those with missing information were struck off, leaving a final sample of 1117 students, from which 568 were Chinese students and 549 American students.
The results showed that the inclusion and exclusion from the sample did not have any impact or influence on the respondents as there was no apparent difference between them and exclusion from the sample did not affect the results.
Variables: dependent and independent variables
The dependent variable was measured using two scales, the respondents’ attitudes and perception towards traditional and proactive responses of the police officers in the case domestic violence. Traditional responses were recorded on a scale by summing the answers of all four items: (a) domestic violence should not be dealt with by making arrests; (b) police involvement in domestic violence cannot solve the issue at hand; (c) social services and workers are more likely to succeed in resolving cases of domestic violence as compared to the police (d) domestic violence is a personal matter and in case of police involvement, it is taking away from their responsibilities to deal with actual crimes. Proactive responses were recorded through the use of five items (a) it’s a duty of police officials to respond to cases of domestic violence; (b) empathy and understanding of the victim’s problem are essential for the police to exercise; (c) offenders of domestic violence should be penalized and brought before the law; (d) police should use mandatory arrest policy to arrest the offender even if the victim disapproves (e) its rudimentary for the police to guide the victims to relevant sources of for help. All items could be answered using similar response options consisting of 4 items, (1) disagree strongly (2) disagree (3) agree and (4) agree strongly. The higher the score, the greater was either the traditional or proactive response to police involvement in cases of domestic violence.
There were four categories in which the independent variables divided, “demographic characteristics, gender roles and violence perception, experiencing domestic violence, and place of residence.”
Demographic characteristics entailed, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and place of birth. Dummy variables included, gender, ethnicity and place of birth represented 1, female, minority and belonging originally from an urban area. There were three items belonging to the socioeconomic status factor, highest level of education of the father and the mother (from 1⁄4 illiteracy to 7 1⁄4 graduate or professional degrees) and household income The item of household income was further divided into eight categories, “less than 1,000RMB/month” to 8 “15,000RMB/month and above” for Chinese respondents and from 1, “less than $20,000/year” to 8, “$140,000/year and above” for Americans. There was an equivalent measure between the incomes measured in both the US and Chine, keeping in checks the average levels of income and consumption in both the countries. Confirmation by the use of factor analysis rendered the socio-economic status factor as correct, all the three items were represented on a factor with an eigenvalue of 1.93 that explained 64% of the variance.
There were four attitudinal variable in the second group. The first variable, concept of accepting domestic violence as a crime, this was measured using a single item, simply asking the respondents whether they agreed or not to the statement- “Domestic violence should be viewed as a crime.” Response ranges were restricted and to the point, from, (1) strongly disagree to (4) strongly agree the same response category was used for all other items used in the attitudinal scales. The second variable was definition of sexual abuse, this was measured using a scale including three items, asking the respondents if they consider it abuse if a couple were seen doing the following (a) sex against will or imposed sex/sexual activities; (b) involved in sexual activities with another person (not partner) and (c) always seen accusing the partner of adultery or having affairs with another. The third variable, tolerance or acceptability towards violence, was quantified using four items (a) in case of insults, violence is acceptable; (b) in a situation where partner cheats or commits adultery, violence is permissible (c) minor fights between couples including physical harm should be accepted by the society (d) If a wife is always arguing and refuses to be reasonable then a husband is permitted to hit her.” The fourth variable, male dominance, was measured by summing up three items in which the respondents were asked if they agreed to the following statements, (a) A father to be more dominant and authoritative while bringing up children; (b) There are several jobs that should be offered to men over women (c) A woman should not be as liberated as men or hope to be treated equally. The last variable, the way gender equality is perceived, was also summed up using three items, (a) there is no problem of discrimination against women in the US anymore (b) society has evolved overtime and men and women do not have the issue of equal opportunities, both can excel equally (c) it is not easy to comprehend why social women’s groups are still complaining of social limitations of opportunities for women and their expectation to achieve as much as or more than men is restricted.
The third group, personal experience with domestic violence, consisted of two variables that were used to measure the respondents’ knowledge of the victim and/or the offender in domestic violence. Two questions were asked to the respondents: (a) Do you know of anyone personally who has been victimized in domestic violence? (b) Do you personally know anyone who has been arrested in the case of intimate partner violence?” Positive responses were coded as 1. The last group was locality, this included a set of dummy variables to represent the four sites of research: Beijing, Hong Kong, Newark, and Detroit. In the regression analysis that was carried out, Beijing was chosen as the reference group.
Policing domestic violence: Two key variables
In the following passages, there will be a detailed analysis and comparison between responses recorded from the students in the US and China.
– Traditional vs. proactive police Response in the U.S.
By tradition the US police is more likely to exercise discretionary powers in dealing with cases of domestic and intimate partner violence. Intervention was not used in most cases. In situations when they chose to intervene, mediation and neutrality were preferred. They chose to advice and use dialogue to solve matter rather than making arrests.
The research showed that laws did not have a great impact on the police response or arrests in the case of domestic violence (Dugan, 2003). Research revealed mixed results on the issue of whether police handled domestic violence cases differently as compared to non-domestic violence incidents. Some studies revealed higher arrests made in cases dealing with violence between family members and/or relatives as compared to strangers (Bell, 1985; Feder, 1997; Hotaling and Buzawa, 2001), a rather contradiction to the previous study where we saw lower bystander or police intervention in cases of violence between partners and relatives as compared to strangers (Buzawa et al., 1996 Eigenberg, et al., 1996, Fyfe et al., 1997, Sanders, 1988).
Studies on police non-coercive actions revealed that, police rendered assistance to victims of domestic violence as compared to the victims of non-domestic violence ,(Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1994; Sun, 2007). In addition, there was a willingness shown by the police officers to solve the matters of domestic violence through mediation rather than arresting offenders as they were not willing to complicate matters keeping in mind the threat involved and a likelihood of the victims being (e.g., Ferraro, 1987). Thus, it is quite evident that despite of the existence of mandatory polices on arrests, officers chose to use discretion in the matters of domestic violence, (Buzawa and Buzawa, 2003; Miller, 2000).
To further comprehend attitudes of police officials in reference to cases of domestic violence, there are two defined categories of variables, traditional and proactive. Traditional response deals with preferences that support no police involvement and endorse a passive response to the incidents of domestic violence i.e. officers with traditional attitudes do not approve of police involvement in dealing with domestic violence, viewing involvement and arrest as useless in resolving personal/private affairs. They consider police responses in domestic violence cases as tasks that are not crime related and are best to be resolved by third parties/or individuals (social workers, NGOs)
Proactive response on the other hand, involves attitudes that have a positive approach towards police response in cases of domestic violence. They support the need for aggressive actions that are backed by pro-arrest policies.
Officers who have a proactive approach see domestic violence as an act of crime and fully understand that officers need to intervene and sympathize with the victims. They favor the policy of making arrests regardless of the preferences of the victims, (Chu and Sun, 2010).
– Responses to domestic violence in Asian societies
Here the focus is on the responses recorded from the survey carried out amongst the college students in China to carry out a comparative study between responses recorded in Chin and the US. Domestic violence is characterized as a salient problem that has been highlighted by the global trend of activism supporting recognition of domestic violence and its possible eradication, such as Mainland China, (Parish et al., 2004; Xu et al., 2001), Taiwan, (Chen, 1999), and Hong Kong, (Tang, 1994, 1999).
A recent study carried out in Mainland China revealed, 37.2% of the married couples experienced violence during the course of their marriage, 18.9% of the husbands assaulted their wives, and 3.3% of the wives battered their husbands,”(Pan, 2004, cited in Wang, 2003).
Another study, carried out in rural China to quantify the issue of domestic violence showed, married peasant women were subject to “psychological, physical, and sexual violence at a rate of 58.1%, 29.7%, and 16.7%, respectively,” (Zhao et al, 2006). The study carried out in Hong Kong had similar findings: intimate partner violence was reported to have increased three times over a period of nine years. “Among those cases in 2008, 80% involved female victims and 60% involved physical abuse,” (Social Welfare Department, 2009).
China, has no legal policy that deals with the issue of domestic violence however some provinces and cities have legally passed statutes in order to regulate policies dealing with domestic violence, (Hu, 2003). However, by law, the protection offered for victims is under the ‘Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China.’ The 2001 amendment gave recognition to the term “domestic violence” in law (Zhang and Lee, 2003).
Domestic violence policing is slightly different from the approach used in Mainland China. The approach used in Hong Kong involves relevant professionals from various sectors of the country, e.g., health, social, and legal services in handling cases of domestic violence through the relevant roles and tasks of these professionals, (Working Group on Combating Violence, 2004).
The role of the Police is also somewhat more proactive as compared to that in Mainland China, the tasks stipulated in the ‘Procedural Guidelines for Handling Battered Spouse Cases,’ require the police officers arriving at the scene of the crime (a) Offer immediate protection to victims and children from the intended attack (b) ensure victims will not be threatened or subject to any act of similar violence in the near future (c) support aggressive action towards the offender and take note of all the committed offenses (d) immediately write a ‘Domestic Incident Notice,’ to the alleged offenders; and (e) provide the victims with appropriate social support (NGOs) with accommodation and basic needs while also referring the offenders to relevant organizations that deal with cases of domestic violence.
The guidelines further specify rudimentary tasks on the officers’ gender, making it a compulsion of two police officers, both of each gender to be involved in dealing with the incident. Under the stated tasks the officers are bound to give a copy of the ‘Family Support Service Information Card,’ to both offender and the victim that entail the contact details of relevant legal and social service departments. Police officers are also permitted to make referrals under certain circumstances without permission both the victim and/or the offender.
Gaps in Literature:
Research, however, pays less attention to the mentioned variables affecting the decisions of arrest and their influence in measuring or quantifying police involvement in cases of domestic violence and/or intimate partner violence, from medial responses (facilitating) actions imposing law and order (submission of a crime report, pressing charges, or taking into custody) be it the victim’s wish or at the sole discretion of the police officials. Despite the fact that research has deduced a positive correlation between the victims’ interaction with the police and the severity of the incident (Bachman & Coker, 1995; Johnson, 1990), there is little analysis on the officers’ evaluation of the severity of the incident and how it has an effect on the responses of intimate partner violence against women.
There is some good literature here, and you make some interesting points. However, the discussion feels confused and unfocused: I suggest that you have your introduction paragraph, and limit other subheadings to your two key themes of police actions and victim perspectives. This would allow you to stay on track and not drift away from the question. You could potentially have a closing paragraph to try and summarise your points. A significant part of the chapter focuses on one study only, you need to cut this down and be more concise. Overall this is a start, but take note of the other comments.
Contextual Analysis:
Drawing from the ideas mentioned above, in this article we have analyzed how the perceived severity of an incident can have a subsequent sense of willingly exercised social responsibility on police involvement to the incidents of domestic violence.
Three levels of police involvement are analyzed;
(a) Low: mostly neutral responses, police plays the role of a facilitator and advisor.
(b) Medium: law enforcement actions may be taken up only at the request of the victim.
(c) High: mandatory and unrestricted actions (i.e. law enforcement actions, such as submitting a crime report, pressing charges, or making an arrest that have been stated by the law regardless of the victims’ preferences).
To further examine the levels of police involvement, this article can help in testing the following hypotheses:
1) Higher the assumption of the severity of incidents, the greater the level of police involvement.
2) Higher the willingness to show personal responsibility, the greater the level of police involvement.
Also, demographic controls, (gender, age and years of experience as a police officer) are used and may be related to the result of the findings, we deduced that female police officers are less willing to arrest offenders as compared to their male counterparts (Robinson & Chandek, 2000), this difference in attitude and approach is said to be present because the female officers are more open to preferences of the victims than following the mandate. Robinson and Chandek’s review further explores, how the older and more experienced officers were more likely to make fewer arrests as compared to the new recruits.
Jordan (2004), in his review speaks about the likelihood of intimate partners being arrested by the police is less as compared to non-intimate partners involved in violence. It further explores that those victims who are perceived to have created the trouble themselves or been the initiators in the violence are less likely to receive help, (Lerner, 1970, 1980; Weiner, 1980). These victim-blaming attitudes lower the levels of police involvement as well as social responsibility to intervene and neutralize an act of violence or assault (Buzawa & Buzawa, 1996).
Police responses can be altered by or may be dependent upon the assumed intensity of all or only a certain distinguished type on incidents of intimate partner violence against women, e.g. if police classifies intimate partner violence against women incidents or offenses only when it is marked by severity, intensity or repetition of violence then it is likely that minor offenses against women in relationships (domestic or intimate) may be characterized as permissible.
Since the 1970s, there is a global trend of increased domestic/intimate partner abuse of women. This has led to a universal outcry for the protection of female rights and abolition of the methods of violence used to undermine women. The move towards a legal action in the US that would be consistent in nature against domestic violence was greatly influenced by the findings from a research conducted in Minneapolis (Sherman and Berk, 1984), involved legal notices and actions taken up by victims of domestic violence against the police departments that refused help or did little and legislations that made policies initiating governmental, was held in Beijing in 1995 and applauded as a victory in the perception of Chinese women perceptions and gave rise to activism against domestic violence and sexual assault (Zhang, 2009, p. 70).
Another research was carried out to measure bystander intervention and the results showed an acceptance of violence between partners than that between strangers. Bystanders were more likely to intervene when the incident involved two strangers rather than two intimates (Shotland & Straw, 1976). Studies have revealed that bystander intervention diminishes as soon as it is established that the offender and the victim share some form of a relationship, it is automatically perceived as a personal matter (couples, spouses, other family relations, Levine, 1999; Shotland & Straw, 1976). Likewise, incidents that have been classified as “not severe enough,” will face a low police involvement response (Gracia, 1995, neutrality if the victims seek for it). Article further explores the adherence of police officers to personal responsibility and how that has an effect on their responses to the incidents of domestic violence. Psychosocial research on helping behavior (Batson, 1998), explores that a number of factors, namely, relationship of the offender and victim, belief that puts the blame only on the victim, and the principles of personal space and privacy have a diminishing effect on bystander intervention reducing the likelihood of help being extended.
Moreover, Psychological factors have not been paid attention to when measuring types of police responses. In a case where there are no compulsory arrest policies that may in anyway limit the discretionary powers of the police, e.g. a case in Spain, where a study was carried out to record police responses (such as nonintervention mediation, laying charges, or arrest), a noticeable factor was the full discretionary powers of the police that were in no way limited by any compulsory policies, research gauged that there were different sets of variables that acted as agents in molding police responses or having an influence on them, mainly focusing on their decision or willingness to arrest.
Taking into account the victim of domestic or sexual abuse and also keeping in mind the bystanders, the response of the police with regards to incidents of intimate partner violence against women (e.g. neutrality, adjuration, or taking into custody) is very crucial, as it highlights the social attitudes toward tolerance and acceptability and also defines the threshold through which a particular act is to be considered criminal or not, and how the act of violence will be dealt with (Brown, 1984; Gracia, 2004; Holder, 2001). The way police responds to the cases of intimate partner violence against women is highly significant in molding a social environment (whether tolerant or not) as it not only have a lasting impact on the victims’ attitude towards the police and but also for their own well-being. Research has shown that positive police responses have a major impact on the victims; perception about self which motivates them to seek marshaling of the law, results in high levels of satisfaction with the police, and increasing their likelihood of contacting the police in the need for help (Apsler, Cummins, & Carl, 2003; Brandl & Horvath, 1991; Brown, 1984; Chandek, 1999; Martin, 1997). Likewise, negative responses are a factor in the victims’ disillusionment and refusal to report incidents of intimate partner violence against women (Erez & Belknap, 1998; Felson, Messner, Hoskin, & Deane, 2002; Hoyle, 1998; Wiehe, 1998).
After having gathered substantial evidence by using variables such as demographic, social, and cultural factors, it is safe to say that these variables play a key role in altering responses of the citizens’ as the preference of police response by the citizens is based majorly on the demographic factors and cultural and social norms that vary from US to China.
While many studies have been conducted to assess numerous issues related to the policing of domestic violence, there is a sheer lack of empirical evidence examining the factors that affect the perceptions of citizens to police response on domestic violence. The predictors or indicators that have a very huge impact on shaping these perceptions can be classified into groups:
“demographic characteristics, social attitudes toward violence and gender roles, experience with domestic violence, and locality. “
Demographic characteristics:
The background of the citizens may affect the perceptions that shape opinions. These characteristics include, gender, ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status (SES), and place of birth. As gender is one of the characteristics, several studies have shown how women are more prone to support harsher responses of police on the issues of domestic violence as compared to men, e.g. (Breci and Murphy, 1992) conducted a research and found that both men and women were in favor of a response by the police, women, however, were more likely to support the mandatory arrest policy as compared to men. Similar results were recorded by studies based on data collection from the general population (Edwards, 1987; Robinson, 1999) as well as a study on college students, (Perrott et al., 1997). However, there was comparatively smaller number of studies that did not find differences in opinion based on gender differences (Stalans, 1996).
The study mentioned earlier, compares attitudes of Chinese and American citizens’ towards the subsequent actions taken up by the police in the matters of domestic violence. Although, extensive studies have been carried out in order to address the issue of domestic violence and intimate partner assault, two concerns are mostly overlooked and not paid much attention to. First, there is not enough empirical evidence in the matter of how citizens would respond to the police responses or prefer to see them respond in cases of domestic violence. Few studies have assessed domestic violence issues from an international, comparative perspective, particularly citizens’ preferences for police response. As the differences in the responses of Chinese and American citizens’ preferences for police actions are unknown. A cross-national study that uses comparative measures to conduct analysis will contribute more towards a better and more in-depth understanding of the geographic, cultural, social, and legal differences that impact and influence citizens’ attitudes towards police response.
A comparative study shows that the Chinese police officers do not favor proactive responses when dealing with domestic violence at present, as did their American counterparts in the 1970s. When they choose to respond, the responses mainly include verbal interrogation and a rather neutral stance than actively making arrests and dealing with the incidents using a proactive approach (Liu, 2004). Like the police officials in America in the 1970s, most officers consider domestic violence to be a private matter. They refuse to see such matters as a responsibility of the police and in most cases do not to file complaints lodged by the victims. Police interrogation and criminal investigation is only started when the case involves serious injuries or death (Hu, 2003). The traditional response to domestic violence is mainly due to the citizens’ choice of relying on other sources or institutions to resolve the issue. When inquired about the sources of reliance, most victims chose family members followed by a reliance on close friends in the neighborhood and lastly some cases revealed that victims felt helpless (Cao, 2006). Most Chinese do not consider the police as credible or legitimate source to seek help from in matters of domestic violence.
The study analyses attitudes of citizens’ and police officers in U.S towards police involvement in domestic violence cases and can be classified using the traditional and proactive responses. That said, some citizens are in favor of the traditional response while others are supportive of the proactive response while dealing with matters of domestic violence. The differences recorded in the responses can be accounted for on the basis or experimental, social, cultural and demographic factors.
There were two reasons for the research to choose college students as its sample space.
1) College students are not immune from the problem of partner violence; in fact, studies have shown a higher incidence of intimate partner violence amongst college students with prevalence rates ranging between 20% and 50% (Bryant and Spencer, 2003; Shook et al., 2000; Straus, 2004).
2) College students are the future of a country, they will act as catalysts to develop policy reforms in line with domestic as well as intimate partner violence, in both the nations.
This study is representative of attempts to empirically compare and contrast records of Chinese and American citizens’ perceptions and attitudes towards police response in cases of domestic violence. Major findings are, firstly, there were distinguishable patterns displayed by the Chinese students on the attitudes towards policing of domestic violence as compared to the results recorded in the US through surveys carried out amongst students in both the countries. Noticeably Chinese students both in..
Recent Comments