Effective Police Intervention Programs on Victims of Domestic Violence - Essay Example

Running Head: Police Intervention Proposal Effective Police Intervention Programs on Victims of Domestic Violence [Client’s Name] [Affiliation] Abstract A review of the related literature on the existing police intervention programs directed towards the victims of domestic violence shows that significant gap between what the victims need and what the police interventions provide. The review found out that victim-directed police intervention programs are limited to keeping the aggressor away from the victims which include arrest and detention of the aggressor, relocating the victims to safer locations, and providing routine security. There is nothing that indicates long term and sustainable police intervention programs directed at victims of domestic violence. The research aims to understand whether or not police intervention programs directed at victims of domestic violence are effective by conducting a phenomenological research survey on stratified sample population on their perception towards the effectiveness of the existing police intervention programs and policies. The stratified population is consist of 150 participants in for each of the following: (a) victims of domestic violence, (b) police officers handling cases of domestic violence, and (c) third parties who have experienced the horrors and traumas of domestic violence. Introduction Too much time, money and effort were spent on reducing the statistics on domestic violence as government and non-government agencies work together to educate households, implement human rights awareness drives, penalize individuals guilty of domestic violence, and institute multisectoral programs to eliminate domestic violence to no avail; the statistics for domestic violence in America and around the globe still see significant growth each year (Davies, 1998; Wooldredge & Thistlethwaite, 2002). This tells something significant is amiss; that every effort made were directed to the wrong root causes, or probably the driving force behind each effort are the wrong reasons. This paper will evaluate the two most common police intervention programs and policies directed towards the victims of domestic violence, namely (a) routine security and safety relocation and (b) arrest and prosecution of offenders. The need to evaluate these police intervention programs directed towards the victims of domestic violence stems from the fact that despite police efforts to contain and control the spread of domestic violence, the statistics indicates that domestic violence is still common. The first part of the paper is a literature review on the existing police intervention programs directed towards the victims of domestic violence. The second part of the paper will discuss the approach of the research including the research hypotheses, the research questions, and data acquisition methodologies. Review of Related Literature Domestic violence is loosely defined as a violent confrontation between and among family members characterized by physical, sexual, and psychological harm directed towards the other individual (Abbot & Williamson, 1999). Physical violence involves mauling (Dutton et al, 1991) and severe physical contact resulting to wounds, bruises, and physical trauma (Shephard, 1992). According to Bennet (1997), sexual abuse or harassment occurring in the domestic setting between spouses, between parents and children, and between siblings constitutes domestic violence. Psychological trauma stemming from physical and sexual violence or traumatic experience occurring at domestic settings is within the contextual definition of domestic violence (Maxwell et al, 2002). Existing policies on domestic violence target both the aggressors and the victims. Some of the most common intervention programs practiced by various government and non-government agencies in Australia include medical responses, the Duluth Model (Pence & Paymar, 1993), law enforcement, safety planning, and counseling programs for both the victims and the offenders (Cramer, 1999). Understanding the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of existing policies aimed at victims of domestic violence to address the issue requires a multi-sectoral understanding. However, there are no strong evidences that would support the efficiencies of these policies. On the contrary, occurrences of domestic violence are growing at steady but alarming rates not only in Australia but around the globe as well (OSI, 2002). Before going in detail, it is necessary to know that domestic violence is caused by a variety of factors including socio-economic stressors, psychological domicile-related problems that eventually find their way to aggression and violence. Research has shown that domestic aggression and violence can be solved by using the psychological treatment approach (Cadzow et al, 1999; 50) where aggressors and victims are subjected to professional help. Psychological treatment deals with the internal issues surrounding aggressive behaviors at home. It was shown that that offenders that have high stakes in the family or community where they come from plays a vital role in the recidivism of domestic offenders (Shephard, 1992). Despite all this, there is nothing to indicate that police intervention programs come into play when it comes to the prevention and potential elimination of domestic violence. The best way to root out domestic violence is to prevent them from occurring in the very first place. But doing so requires systemic change processes which are too immense and too expensive to implement and sustain. Systemic efforts in preventing domestic violence could mean an ideal society where all domestic stressors like unemployment, inflation, mortgages, and all forms of vices – both legal and illegal – must be removed from the society. This further implies that individuals must also be ideal and could stop themselves from committing simple sins such as display of aggression and temper. Police Intervention Programs Domestic violence is one of the most common issues faced by police forces around the world (Wooldredge & Thistlethwaite, 2002; 45). Because of the prevalence of domestic violence, numerous studies were performed both by the government and non-government social institutions on the elements surrounding the violence in the domestic setting and how the police force could meddle with the issue and aid in the cessation of the issues pertaining to domestic violence. There is strong evidence that indicates that police intervention has deterrent effects on domestic violence (Felson et al, 2005). The power of the police to arrest and detain individuals reported to have committed or are about to commit domestic violence places strong restraints on their aggressive behaviours. Thus, whenever there are police patrols on the area, or when their potential victim has the chance to inform the police authorities about threats of domestic violence, domestic violence almost always stops even before things get out of hand. An explanation for this outcome is aggressors in a potential domestic violence perceive their actions as having serious criminal implications in the face of a third party – in this case, the police (Dutton et al, 1991). Another explanation is aggressors typically believe that the presence of police officers is already a form of punishment and so they refrain from doing violence. In most cases, police force rely too much on the legal controls imposed by legislative authorities to prevent, deter, or solve issues relating to domestic violence (Wooldredge & Thistlethwaite, 2002; 56). These controls are defined by law are too broad to alienate the root cause of the issues which render the very legal doctrine behind the police intervention programs irrelevant (Cramer, 1999). Some of them do not even address the issues or if they do, they no longer are applicable in the present scenario or they could even yield graver results (Sherman et al, 1992). This gives the idea that police interventions directed to victims of domestic assaults are no longer applicable and if they still are, there are a lot of areas that they do not effectively cover. Victim-directed policies on domestic violence are mainly focused on the safety planning, medical intervention, and counselling programs (Sherman et al, 1992). Safety planning involves relocating the victims to other locations and 24/7 protection if the threats posed by the aggressors are serious and life-threatening. Medical interventions and counselling programs address the physical and psychological treatment of the victims to ensure that they are stable enough to rebuild their lives after the traumatic experience they have gone through. Police intervention programs directed at victims of domestic violence, however, are limited in effect and influence when it comes to effecting change particularly in preventing domestic violence from happening. Most of the police intervention programs address the recurrence of domestic violence but nothing of sort is directed to the occurrence of violence (Maxwell et al, 2002). Police interventions to domestic violence are typically limited to arrest and prosecution. According to Davies, Smith & Nickles (1998; 446), prosecuting offenders in cases of domestic violence lead to a stressful situation for the family which in turn deters the very purpose of rehabilitation for domestic violence offenders. There are no police intervention programs that prevent domestic violence. As was established earlier, the failure of these social policies to root out the main causes of domestic violence increases its occurrences. Unless the social policies on the prevention and elimination of domestic violence involving the police force is focused on the victims, the police force could not effectively improve on the issue. Research Questions The discussion highlights the gap in the literature concerning the effective police intervention programs directed at victims of domestic violence. It is further established that efforts made by the government through its various agencies are in vain simply because there is a mismatch between the need (which should be directed towards the victims) and the solution (the existence or non-existence of police intervention programs directed at the victims of domestic violence). The paper aims to answer the following questions: (a) Are there existing police intervention programs directed towards the victims of domestic violence? (b) How do the victims perceive the appropriateness of these police intervention programs in meeting their needs? (c) How do police officers perceive the effectiveness of their intervention programs in rooting out the cause of domestic violence? (d) Are there necessary revisions or modifications required in the existing police intervention policies? Hypotheses Central to the research is the definition of the gap between intervention programs and policies and the actual need of the victim as there seems to appear a mismatch between the problems and the existing solutions. The research questions are formulated in order to understand the existence and the extent of the gap between police intervention policies on victims of domestic violence and the actual needs of the victims. From these research questions, the following hypotheses are derived. Ha: = Police intervention programs directed at victims of domestic violence are effective. Ho: = Police intervention programs directed at victims of domestic violence are not effective. Research Objectives The goals of this paper are to (a) identify the problems of the existing police intervention programs in addressing the real and actual needs of the victims of domestic violence, (b) evaluate the existing theories on crime management, public policies, criminal recidivism, stress management and counseling, and other appropriate social theories as they apply to the problem under consideration, and (c) propose a better alternative(s) to the existing programs. Sources of Data and Information It is important for the paper to understand all the aspects of the gap between the existing police intervention programs and the actual needs of the victims of domestic violence. This paper will evaluate qualitative data pertaining to the subject. To gather the research data and information, the paper will employ a combination of survey and questionnaire approaches. The paper will also perform a literature review on human development, criminal profiling, criminal management, and other related literature to establish strong theoretical foundations on the outcome of the research. Evaluation Subject and Evaluation Design There are at least three types of people that can determine the effectiveness of the police intervention programs and existing policies to aid the victims of domestic violence. These are the victims of domestic violence, the police officers handling cases of domestic violence, and third-party observers that have witnessed the horrors and trauma of domestic violence. It is essential for the paper to grasp their perceptions towards the existing police intervention programs and their reasons for such belief in order to address the perceived needs and inadequacies of these police intervention programs. Hence, the paper will be using a quasi-phenomenological approach in the interview and questionnaires sent to the participant. The evaluation design of this paper will mainly be a combination of qualitative/anthropological as the paper will focus on the phenomenology of the subject and the subjective interpretations of the participants of the research and comparative evaluation since the paper will discuss both the established theories and the actual needs derived from the survey results. The paper also expects to observe absolute impartiality in the acquisition, discussion, and interpretation of data and information from the participants which is a major characteristic of a scientific evaluation strategy. The research will use a cross-sectional stratified survey. The survey questionnaires that will be used in the research will be distributed to three types of randomly selected respondents – (a) the policemen handling cases of domestic violence, (b) the victims of domestic violence, and (c) third parties who have had experience, or were exposed to domestic violence. Each stratum will receive a different set of questionnaire and interview questions to take into account their different world views towards the effectiveness of the existing police intervention programs directed at victims of domestic violence. Particularly, the assessment for the victims will be focused on how the police intervention programs were able to address their needs of safety and protection; the assessment for the police officers will be focused on their perception about the comprehensiveness of the interventions they perform to deter the occurrence of domestic violence in their immediate neighborhood; and the assessment for the third party observers will be focused on providing a semi-objective opinion on their perception of the appropriateness of the police intervention programs in addressing the needs of the victims of domestic violence. Population and Sample The choice of the stratified population of the study is quite obvious since all three of them are directly involved with police intervention programs and social policies involving the police force directed at victims of domestic violence. One hundred and fifty (150) respondents for each category will be randomly chosen (a total of 450 respondents) whose names will be taken from the local police office (for police officers handling domestic violence), police reports, and other public sources of data and information (for victims of domestic violence and the third parties exposed to such violence). The research will be focused on three Australian regions (please feel free to change and specify these regions as you see fit). Data Analysis The questionnaires that will be handed out to the respondents must be reliable and internally valid in order to gather objective and unbiased results. The paper will use a modified Perceived Environmental Quality Indicators (PEQI) for its questionnaires which has been verified for internal consistencies (Hyman, 1980). PEQI is originally designed to assess the preferences of the public on their state of environment. The paper chooses to use and modify this peer-reviewed, internally valid, and highly reliable questionnaire because of the strong emphasis of the PEQI to the immediate state of the environment which is analogous to the presence of the police force in the community. PEQI establishes broad base of values as it places strong emphasis on how the participants feel towards their environment. By analogy, a modified PEQI will be used to establish the perception of the population towards the actions involved in police intervention programs directed at the victims of domestic violence. The questionnaires will then be sent to the respondents via email and/or post mail whichever is appropriate along with the ethical disclosures. Data Coding Scheme and Statistical Evaluation For structured responses, the paper will use the Likert’s Scale for data coding. The subjective answers from the respondents will then be coded using a typology approach introduced by Lofland & Lofland (1995) where data are categorized by similarities of themes, patterns, and other obvious demographic indicators. The demographics of the respondents will also be coded using the coding system proposed by Lofland & Lofland in order to identify whether certain demographic characteristics are relevant to the results of the research. The coded data will then undergo through two types of quantitative analyses which are descriptive statistical analysis and analysis of variance. The descriptive statistics will be used for data that does not require deeper analysis like the age of the respondents, their location, etc. However, analysis of variance, student’s t-test, or a similar statistical approach will be performed on the coded responses of the three types of respondents in all parts of the questionnaires to see if there are significant differences in the perception of the respondents towards the existing police intervention programs on victims of domestic violence. Research Ethics In order to conform to the standard ethical practice of social research, all participants will be informed of their participation in the research as well as their protected rights and the responsibilities of the researcher to secure and safeguard any sensitive information they might provide in the course of the research. The consent of the participants will be obtained first before the research will commence any further. The research will provide the participants these information before and after the interview and before they are to answer the research questionnaire. This is particularly important in the research since the some of its participants are victims of domestic violence who might run the risk of getting harmed if their personal information will be made public. Organization and Budget Although the subject of the project is relatively easy and the research design is less complex, the projected volume of participants in the research would require at least 3 researchers to perform the interview and conduct questionnaires in the Australian regions identified. The estimated budget for the research is at $10,000 for the 10-week duration which is inclusive of researcher allowance, telephone calls, and gasoline allowance for field work. Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Submission of Proposal   Revision of Proposal     Approval of Proposal     Literature Review           Identification of Research Samples     Data Gathering       Distribution of Questionnaires   Interview     Collection of Questionnaires   Data Coding and Analysis     Statistical Treatment     Data Synthesis     Submission of Paper     Final Paper   Conclusion As was discussed, the existing conventional intervention programs initiated and implemented by the police force are somehow detrimental to what the society aims to achieve. One of the reasons identified by the literature review why police intervention programs fail is because of the generic approach of the exiting intervention programs – that is to say that the intervention programs, while comprehensive, could not target the specific areas identified as the root cause. In this regard, it is very good to establish a yardstick for the effectiveness and efficiency of police intervention programs by looking at the microcosmic effects of intervention programs. Shepards’s paper (1990) establishes the need to look at the smallest details of motivation for high and low return arrests for offenders of domestic violence. By looking at the microcosmic details, the research was able to exactly point the observable and quantifiable reasons for the events leading to the statistics of domestic offenders. Moreover, the research of Davie et al (1998) and Cramer (1999) strongly emphasized the need to look for a better way to evaluate existing police intervention programs. In this regard, this paper emphasizes the need to bridge the literature on the effectiveness of identifying the attackers of domestic violence by aiming intervention programs at the victims by looking at the whole issue from a microcosmic scale. References Abbott, P. & Williamson, E. (1999). 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