Gender and police response to domestic violence

ABSTRACT

The gendered profession of police, as well as domestic violence as a societal problem, is central to the discussion surrounding gender and equality and forms a strongly debated foundation of research. This paper presents empirical findings from the associations between gender and police response to domestic violence in Finland. The data is a rare combination of official police data and survey data from frontline police and includes 410 police emergency call-outs. The results indicate that the combination of a male victim and two male police officers is the least likely to result in the recording of an offence, arrest, or referral to support services. Findings are examined in comparison to prior research concerning police response to domestic violence, and implications for policy and practice are discussed. The study raises issues about gender and policing that should also be examined in other countries and jurisdictions in relation to policing domestic violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Police response
• domestic violence
• gender
• discretion

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism, Dr Noora Ellonen and Dr Juha Kääriäinen for comments on the earlier versions of this article, and Kari Pylväs, a colleague from the Police University College, for comments, proofreading and for help with the graphic design.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Interior, Administration and Development Department [SMD-no2014-1786]; Ministry of Interior, Police Department [SMD-no2014-2733].

Notes on contributors

Monica Fagerlund

Monica Fagerlund, MSSoc, is a PhD Candidate in the University of Helsinki, Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy, and a researcher at the Police University College of Finland. Fagerlund has been actively involved in conducting the latest Finnish Child Victim Survey, Police Barometers and research projects on policing domestic violence with funding from the Finnish Ministry of Interior and the European Union.