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Patterns of Police Reporting Amongst Victims of Partner Abuse: Analysis of the SCJS 2008/09

Sarah MacQueen Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. Patterns of Police Reporting Amongst Victims of Partner Abuse: Analysis of the SCJS 2008/09. Paul Norris School of Social and Political Science. Research Aims. Key research question:

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Patterns of Police Reporting Amongst Victims of Partner Abuse: Analysis of the SCJS 2008/09

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  1. Sarah MacQueen Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research Patterns of Police Reporting Amongst Victims of Partner Abuse: Analysis of the SCJS 2008/09 Paul Norris School of Social and Political Science

  2. Research Aims Key research question: ‘Which factors are associated with whether victims report partner abuse to the police?’ Why? • Relative lack of quantitative research and analysis on how and why victims of partner abuse come to report their abuse to police Raises methodological and substantive questions: • Can research question be addressed with survey data? • Will patterns found in data match those in the wider literature on more general crime reporting behaviour?

  3. Methodological questions:Survey methodology • Drew on secondary analysis of Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2008/09 to produce generalisable findings (much existing domestic violence research qualitative) • Ongoing debate around whether surveys are appropriate for capturing experiences of domestic violence • Issues of complex causality and contextualisation • Sensitivity of topic • Issues of definition and acceptance • Recall issues • Steps taken within SCJS overcome these issues • Self completion questionnaire for partner abuse questions • Term ‘partner abuse’ not used in questionnaire

  4. Methodological questions:Focus on the SCJS 08/09 • Sampling frame • Draws solely on private households, exclusion of temporary or communal accommodation • Structure of questionnaire • Self-completion questionnaire not completed by all survey respondents, over 60s and those in most deprived neighbourhoods least likely to complete • Reference period • Overcome recall difficulties by focusing detailed questions on incidents within ‘last 12 months’ or the ‘most recent’ incident • Not representative of victim experience of continuum of abusive behaviour over time • Question wording “Did the police come to know about the most recent incident when your partner or ex partner did these things to you?”

  5. Methodological questions:Diminishing Sample

  6. Methodological questions: Identifying explanatory variables Key variables identified in previous research as significantly associated with victims of partner abuse (and other crime) reporting to the police : • Indicators of severity (physical and psychological harm) • Repeat victimisation • Children present during the abuse • Older victims (curvilinear) • Female victims • Social classification • Perception of police and criminal justice system • Neighbourhood characteristics • Partnership status at time of incident • Income • Ethnic minority • Abuser being under the influence of drugs or alcohol • Victim being under the influence of drugs or alcohol • Use of a weapon

  7. Predicting Whether or Not Police Informed About Partner Abuse: Selected Variables Individual characteristics • Age • Gender • Disability • Attitude to criminal justice system (general and local) Household/ structural characteristics • Social classification • Household tenure • Living with abusive partner (never, at time of incident, at time of incident and still is) Offence characteristics • Did children see or hear most recent incident? • Types of abuse and number of incidents • Effects of abuse

  8. Predicting Whether or Not Police Informed About Partner Abuse:Results * (p≤.05) ** (p≤.01) , N=320

  9. Predicting Whether or Not Police Informed About Partner Abuse:Results * (p≤.05) ** (p≤.01) Fit statistics: Nagelkerke’s adjusted R² .49, Hosmer-Lemeshow .457, -2LL 126.96 (p=<001, compared to intercept only model -2LL 193.752) N=320

  10. Outcomes and Concluding Comments • Number of limitations with questionnaire and dataset hinder the explanatory power of the model… • …but led to debate and discussion on amending the partner abuse elements of the SCJS questionnaire • High proportion of victims of partner abuse are excluded from discussing their experiences within the SCJS • However, analysis has produced interesting results, reflecting expectations, and relevant to current debates

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