Intimate Partner Violence and Controlling Behaviors: Women’s Barriers of Contacting the Police

• In Event: 033 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 13. Gender and Sexual Violence

Abstract

A study of 2,369 women investigated whether certain types of intimate partner violence (controlling behaviors, physical assault, stalking, threats), along with health/mental health factors and reasons of not contacting police, affected a victim’s contacting police about such violence. With data from the National Violence Against Women Survey, linear regression results were obtained linking police contact positively to non-sexual types of violence, to injury, and to posttraumatic stress disorder (also to ethnicity, age, income, employment, and marital status). Results showed contact was associated negatively with fearing perpetrator; mistrusting police; complying with norms; denying violent behavior’s occurrence; and fighting back against perpetrator. Implications for social work intervention and training of police officers are noted.

Authors

• Tyrone Chiwai Cheng, University of Alabama

• Celia C. Lo, Texas Woman's University