This article consists of 24 pages and 8886 words.
In order to have full access of this article, please email us on thedocumentco@hotmail.co.uk

Introduction:

 

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. Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence The purpose of this dissertation is to record the effectiveness of police responses to female victims of either domestic or violence of close partners. Thus, in a substantial manner, it is essential 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 females in conditions of domestic and sexual violence and additional criminal activities, and for no purpose of the method to sideline the male victims of sexual violence who suffer at the hands of women.

Police responses to the cases of sexual violence by partners in cases of females are not merely 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 motionand 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 womenwill 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 limitthe prudence shown by the police who are in charge ofintimate partner violence against women, there can be varied responses to the same incidents of intimate partner violence against womendepending upon criteria that is not sanctioned law.

According to thoughts presented in Violence Against Women Scholars, conventional police responses can be characterized by a sudden sense of detachment, clemency, and attitudes that blame victims (e.g. Avakame& Fyfe,2001; Belknap,1995; Hart,1993; Robinson &Stroshine, 2005; Smith, 2000), that does not require an original police case affirmation and a strong stance against the criminals such as making arrests, as violence of domestic is mostly treated as a family or personal consequence and it has no involvement of police and regulatory bodies (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 those individuals that have gone through domestic violence is supposedly involved 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 effectual nature of police outcomes to home 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 household violence and police handlings. In a similar manner, 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 to specifically three divisions:
(a) “Meditative policies”, the process involving police actions that play 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 discrete facilitations to police officers.
(c) “Mandatory arrest policies” make an arrest a compulsion in case of any recorded incident ofintimate partner violence against women, even in offenses that are not so serious (Egan, 1999).

Jordan (2004) in his research gives a summary of the primary research form scrutinizing options of the forces towards domestic negative actions against women: what are the elements which affect the assistance that influenced women 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).

Furthermore, Robinson and Chandek in (2000) found various…