RT Article
T1 Pathways to Police Contact for Spousal Violence Survivors: The Role of Individual and Neighborhood Factors in Survivors’ Reporting Behaviors
JF Journal of interpersonal violence
VO 36
IS 1/2
SP 636
OP 662
A1 Barrett, Betty
A1 Peirone, Amy
A1 Cheung, Chi
A1 Habibov, Nazim
A2 Peirone, Amy
A2 Cheung, Chi
A2 Habibov, Nazim
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/174736469X
AB Rational choice theory proposes that spousal violence survivors engage in a cost–benefit analysis when determining whether to contact the police in the aftermath of violence. Feminist intersectional frameworks contend that the perceived costs and benefits of police intervention differ among survivors based on their intersecting social identities. Normative theory further posits that it is not solely individual factors but also social norms derived from one’s neighborhood context that may be related to reporting practices. Consistent with these perspectives, this study assessed the association between spousal violence survivors’ sociodemographic, violence, and neighborhood characteristics and (a) police contact, (b) pathways to police contact, (c) motivations for contacting the police, and (d) motivations for not contacting the police. Data were drawn from the 2009 Canadian General Social Survey–Victimization main file, and included male and female survivors (N = 890). Survivors most commonly contacted the police to stop the violence (89.4%) and most commonly did not contact the police because they did not believe it was important enough (35.3%). Results of multivariate regression analysis indicate that survivors who were visible minority, those who feared for their lives, and those who were injured were significantly more likely to self-report violence to police. Survivors were more likely to say the violence was not important enough to report if there was a police station in their neighborhood, and were less likely to say that violence was not important enough to report if they had experienced multiple incidents of violence. Implications for policing and criminal justice system engagement with spousal violence survivors are provided.
K1 Law Enforcement
K1 Policing
K1 Intimate Partner Violence
K1 Spousal Violence
DO 10.1177/0886260517729400