NCJ Number
244921
Journal
Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 24 Issue: 5 Dated: September 2013 Pages: 601-625
Date Published
September 2013
Length
25 pages
Annotation
The purpose of the current study is to provide empirical data on officer-involved domestic violence (OIDV) cases.
Abstract
The problem of violence within police families has been increasingly recognized as an important sociolegal issue, but there is a lack of empirical data on what has commonly been referred to as officer-involved domestic violence (OIDV). There are no comprehensive statistics available on OIDV and no government entity collects data on the criminal conviction of police officers for crimes associated with domestic and/or family violence. Prior self-report officer surveys are limited by the tendency to conceal instances of family violence and the interests of officers to maintain a "code of silence" to protect their careers. The purpose of the current study is to provide empirical data on OIDV cases. The study identifies and describes cases in which police were arrested for criminal offenses associated with an incident of family and/or domestic violence through a content analysis of published newspaper articles. Data on these cases is presented in terms of the arrested officer, employing agency, victim, charged offense(s), and criminal case dispositions. The paper includes a discussion regarding OIDV and policy implications. Abstract published by arrangement with Sage Journals.