Police Services to Battered Women

Abstract

This article summarizes the experiences of 146 battered women recruited on a voluntary basis from southeastern Wisconsin. The sample differs from any previous study of wife beating in that all subjects were free of violence for at least 1 year prior to the interview. The victim perspective on police behavior derived from reports of 276 contacts between these women and police officers allows us to identify concerns associated with police demeanor, inadequate use of nonlegal “helping profession” intervention techniques, reluctance to arrest the suspects, and inconsistency of response among calls. The results of the Milwaukee study are consistent with a new model for the training of police officers that integrates training in verbal helping behavior with education about the situation of battered wives and an increased emphasis on the desirability of arrests where that action has been requested by the victim of a domestic assault. Such a training program has already been developed by the Women's Resource Network.