The Response of Law Enforcement to Violence and Abuse - Not All Victims Who Seek Police Attention Are The Same

Investigators Robert Apsler, Michelle Cummins, and Steven Carl speculate that the female victims who seek police aid are very likely the most frightened women, and that they are seeking assistance to prevent future instances of abuse. In "Fear and Expectations: Differences among Female Victims of Domestic Violence Who Come to the Attention of Police" (Violence and Victims, vol. 17, no. 4, August 2002), they reviewed police officers' interviews of ninety-five consecutive victims who came to the attention of a police department in a suburb of Boston.

The study participants had either contacted the police department via telephone or by personal appearance at the police station to request intervention in a violent intimate partner dispute. Police officers administered a standardized questionnaire that included questions about the severity of the abuse victims had experienced, their level of fear, and their expectations about the future. About half the victims were living with their abusers at the time the incident occurred.

Apsler, Cummins, and Carl found that just onequarter of respondents said they were very afraid of their abusers. Another 6% were fairly afraid, 12% said they were slightly afraid, and 36% claimed they were not at all afraid of their abusers. Taken together, these latter two groups accounted for nearly half of participants reporting little or no fear of their abusers.

The results were similar in terms of participants' expectations of future abuse. Apsler, Cummins, and Carl found that just 21% of victims thought future abuse was very likely, and well over half of women surveyed said future abuse was not at all likely or only slightly likely. These findings challenge long-standing beliefs that the victims who tend to come to the attention of the police are those who most fear future abuse.

Interestingly, there were no statistically significant relationships found between victims' expectations of future violence and whether they lived with their abusers, had children under eighteen years old, or were able to support themselves financially. A less surprising result was that victims' expectations of future abuse strongly influenced their desired future relationships with their offenders. A strong majority of the participants (90%) who thought future abuse was fairly or very likely wanted to permanently separate from the offenders. In contrast, only about half of the women who thought further abuse was not at all likely wanted permanent separations.

The researchers concluded that the differences between victims of domestic violence and their varied expectations when seeking police attention point to a need for law enforcement agencies to offer a variety of police responses tailored to individual victim's needs. For example, they suggested that mandatory arrest of victims' aggressors might not be helpful as a universally applicable strategy for all victims, especially women who do not fear further abuse. On the other hand, very fearful victims might be reassured and experience greater security if police maintained regular, ongoing contact with them following the incident. Apsler, Cummins, and Carl added that police follow-up might also send a powerful message to perpetrators—that they are under surveillance and that future violations will not be tolerated.