The purpose of this study is to document the relationship between physical abuse during childhood and family violence among a group of police officers from the Baltimore Police Department in the United States. Analyzing data from the Police and Domestic Violence in Police Families in Baltimore, Maryland, 1997-1999, this study found a positive…

Women represent a relatively small percentage of known violent offenders, a disproportionality in offending that increases as the severity of the crime increases. The exception is intimate partner homicide where some studies find U.S. rates of offending by women approach those of men. Although the literature makes clear that significant gender…

This study tests two hypotheses regarding factors affecting arrest of the perpetrator in domestic violence incidents. Black's relational-distance thesis is that the probability of arrest increases with increasing relational distance between perpetrator and victim. Klinger's leniency principle suggests that the probability of arrest is lower for…

Social scientists remain unsure as to whether divorce acts to alleviate domestic violence or whether ex-spouses become the targets of the displaced violence. Using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System and the Census, this study investigates the relationship between the divorce rate and the domestic crime rate. The study…

Relatively little research explaining prosecutors' charging decisions in criminal cases is available. Even less has focused on charging decisions in domestic violence cases. Past studies have also relied on restrictive definitions of domestic violence, notably cases with male offenders and female victims, and they have not considered prosecutors'…

Researchers examining court dispositions and domestic violence recidivism have argued that disposition effectiveness varies by offender characteristics. We extended this research with analyses of 3,662 persons arrested for misdemeanor assaults on intimates in Hamilton County, Ohio. The incidence, prevalence, and time to rearrest are examined for…

Dual arrests in family violence cases have increased following passage of proarrest laws. This study examined the relationship between officers' perceptions of their departmental policies and arrest outcomes. Each officer was given 1 of 6 hypothetical scripts that varied as to whether the wife only was injured or the wife and husband were injured.…

Prior research into factors predicting arrest in domestic violence cases is limited in three regards: (a) no examination of whether mandatory arrest policies are associated with increased risk of arrest across multiple jurisdictions; (b) little consideration of whether police organizational characteristics influence arrest in such cases; and (c)…