Police Reports on Domestic Incidents Involving Intimate Partners: Injuries and Medical Help-Seeking

• NCJ Number: 186653
• Journal: Women & Health Volume: 30 Issue: 1 Dated: 1999 Pages: 1-13
• Author(s): Mary M. Duncan Ph.D.; Catherine D. Stayton MPH; Charles B. Hall Ph.D.
• Editor(s): Jeanne M. Stellman Ph.D.
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 13 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article’s objective is to increase knowledge of partner abuse injury and help seeking, through a new source of data, police records.

Abstract

Identify the types and circumstances of injuries suffered by a population that seeks assistance, not necessarily from health care providers, and to begin to identify factors that may influence victims to seek or refuse medical care. This study reviewed police reports during corresponding periods in 1996 and 1997 (476 records). Complainants were injured in 17.4 percent of all incidents, 90 percent of those injured were women. Hispanics were more likely to be injured than non-Hispanics. The likelihood of injury decreased with each year of increasing age. Only 20.5 percent of those injured consented to medical care. Police reports provide information on partner abuse injury that supplements hospital surveillance and household surveys. References