Extent of the Problem: How Widespread is Domestic Violence? (From Policing 'Domestic' Violence: Women, the Law and the State, P 111-152, 1989, Susan S M Edwards, -- See NCJ-121616)

• NCJ Number: 121620
• Author(s): S S M Edwards
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 42 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Police attitudes influence the reporting of offenses, thus skewing statistics on partner and spousal violence.

Abstract

Police methods of reporting and clearing up street crime, including domestic violence, are examined, focusing on the common practice that many offenses are not reported to police or recorded by them, thus skewing statistics on actual numbers of crimes committed. Additionally, because police have discretion in defining and classifying crimes, many crimes such as prostitution are listed as other crimes or misdemeanors. Crimes such as wife murder are reported and prosecuted, while cases such as wife assault are rarely reported by the victim and seldom recorded as crimes by the police, even though the women victimized by wife assault are likely to become victims of wife murder. American and British studies of police dispositions of domestic assault cases are discussed, with emphasis on examples of assault that were termed "no crime" by police. Until police record-keeping practices are amended to take note of domestic violence, the magnitude of spousal and sexual violence cannot be measured with accuracy.