Police Handling of the Mentally Ill in Domestic Violence Situations

Abstract

This article provides a systematic test of the reasoning underlying officers' decisions to civilly commit or arrest hallucinating suspects of domestic violence. Police officers ( N = 257) read hypothetical scripts that manipulated three conditions (the suspect's mental state, antagonism or cooperativeness between disputants, and presence or absence of victim injury) and responded to questions about their inferences and responses. Findings indicate that mentally ill husbands were not more likely to be arrested, but officers who blamed the victim or held stereotypic views supportive of the use of violence were less likely to arrest. Police officers who believed that mental hospitals typically accepted violent persons, perceived that severe harm to the victim was likely if the suspect remained in the home, and regarded the suspect as cooperative with them were more likely to seek civil commitment.