Understanding domestic violence and abuse: victim, suspect and crime predictors of police outcomes
Barbin, Arianna, Crivatu, Ioana, Davies, Kari, Horvath, Miranda and Spence, Ruth (2024) Understanding domestic violence and abuse: victim, suspect and crime predictors of police outcomes. Journal of Family Violence. ISSN 0885-7482 (In Press)
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Purpose: Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) cases remain under-reported and under-prosecuted in the criminal justice system (CJS), with researchers frequently having limited access to raw police data. Here, a range of factors relating to DVA offences occurring between 2018 and 2020 in one large English police force were described and measured. As part of the research, it was investigated if victim and suspect characteristics predicted outcome decisions, specifically charge rate, case attrition, and evidential difficulties despite victims’ support in pursuing the allegations. The number of offences meeting the DVA legal definition, and those falling outside that definition, were also explored. Methods: Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were performed to predict the relationship between demographic information and criminal history on three coded crime outcome categories (namely, ‘charge’, ‘victim does not proceed’, and ‘law does not pursue’). Results: The dataset included 198,617 crimes, and for 94.1% of them, the suspect was not charged. Relationship type, age, crime type, and the number of victim allegations predicted all three outcomes. For instance, being partners of the victim significantly decreased the chances of a charge compared to suspects who were not partners. Conclusions: The findings are in line with evidence from the literature which highlights all-time low charge rates for DVA and high levels of victim attrition. We argue that the influence of victim/suspect characteristics and DVA-related dynamics should be considered by police personnel and members of the CJS when assessing crime reports.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | domestic abuse, domestic violence, police outcomes, predictors, intimate partner violence, policing |
Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) |
Divisions: | Other Departments (Central units) > Research Directorate |
Depositing User: | Miranda Horvath |
Date Deposited: | 08 Jan 2025 10:41 |
Last Modified: | 08 Jan 2025 10:41 |
URI: | https://oars.uos.ac.uk/id/eprint/4547 |