FEMALE ON MALE DOMESTIC ABUSE

Female on Male Domestic Abuse

Female on Male Domestic Abuse

Chapter 1: Introduction

Background of the Study

In the last several decades, there has been a dramatic shift in the legal response to domestic abuse. While once treated as a private matter best dealt with in the home, in the 1980s a variety of forces coalesced to result in legislative and policy changes that emphasised a criminal response to domestic abuse (Buzawa and Buzawa, 2003). These forces include the women's rights movement, social science research, and a series of lawsuits that held police accountable for failure to protect. As a result, many jurisdictions adopted policies that aimed to reduce the discretion of criminal justice officials by specifying arrest and prosecution as the preferred (or even mandatory) response.

These formal approaches are heralded by many feminists, victim advocates and scholars as a great advance in the criminal justice system's response to domestic abuse. A formal response is seen to send a message that domestic abuse is a crime that will not be tolerated by society (Stanko, 1992). It can protect the victim from retaliatory abuse from her abuser by taking the decision to arrest and/or prosecute out of her hands (Goolkasian, 1986). Finally, criminalising domestic abuse encourages the legal system to treat abuse between intimates in the same manner as abuse between strangers (Stark, 1996).

Problem Statement

In recent years the issue of local and central influence over police policy and practice in England and Wales has returned to the political agenda. Fuelled initially by the Citizen's Charter of the early 1990s (a policy initiative intended to bring the consumer of public services into the implementation process), it was followed concurrently by Best Value Performance Plans1, decided according to Central Governments' National Policing Plan2; Community Safety Partnerships3; and the publication of the first National Policing Plan for England and Wales (Home Office, 2002). Despite any public perception of local accountability and control, the influence of central government over local police policy and practice had increased dramatically during this time. At the same time issues associated with policing domestic abuse continued to maintain a high profile, through the requirement for the police and local government to include measures to reduce domestic abuse in their respective performance plans (see for example Devon Domestic Abuse Partnership Business Plan, 2004/2006), the publication of the British Crime Survey Domestic Abuse Report (Walby and Allen, 2004), and media coverage indicating an increased emphasis on issues relating to domestic abuse in England and Wales, from London to the more rural areas of Devon (BBC, 2004a,b).

Purpose of the Study

In this study, we examine the determinants of satisfaction with the police among a sample of domestic violence victims by directly exploring their expectations of police and opinions about police performance. Other research that is relevant to the discussion is highlighted in the next section. We then go on to describe our theoretical framework and the current policy context within which our study is set.

Significance of the Study

It is argued that formalised interventions are problematic ...