Department of Population, Family & Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N. Wolfe Street, E4142, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
Center for Public Health & Human Rights, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
J Urban Health. 2019 Oct;96(5):772-783. doi: 10.1007/s11524-019-00359-z.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence (SV) are drivers of women's morbidity and mortality in urban environments yet remain among the most underreported crimes in the USA. We conducted 26 in-depth interviews with women who experienced past-year IPV or SV, to explore structural and community influences on police contact in Baltimore, MD. Results indicate that gender-based and race-based inequities intersected at the structural and community levels to discourage women from police contact following IPV/SV. Structural influences on police reporting included police discriminatory police misconduct, perceived lack of concern for citizens, power disparities, fear of harm from police, and IPV/SV-related minimization and victim-blaming. Community social norms of police avoidance discouraged police contact, enforced by stringent sanctions. The intersectional lens contextualizes a unique paradox for Black women: the fear of unjust harm to their partners through an overzealous and racially motivated police response and the simultaneous sense of futility in a justice system that may not sufficiently prioritize IPV/SV. This study draws attention to structural race and gender inequities in the urban public safety environment that shape IPV/SV outcomes. Race-based inequity undermines women's safety and access to justice and pits women's safety against community priorities of averting police contact and disproportionate incarceration. A social determinants framework is valuable for understanding access to justice for IPV/SV. Enhancing access to justice for IPV/SV requires overcoming deeply entrenched racial discrimination in the justice sector, and historical minimization of violence against women.
亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）和性暴力（SV）是城市环境中妇女发病率和死亡率的驱动因素，但在美国仍是报告率最低的犯罪行为之一。我们对 26 名过去一年经历过 IPV 或 SV 的妇女进行了深入访谈，以探讨巴尔的摩市结构和社区因素对与警察接触的影响。结果表明，性别和种族不平等在结构和社区层面相互交织，阻碍了妇女在经历 IPV/SV 后与警察接触。与警察报案有关的结构性影响包括警察的歧视性警察不当行为、对公民漠不关心的看法、权力差距、对警察伤害的恐惧，以及对 IPV/SV 的相关轻视和对受害者的指责。社区对警察的回避社会规范阻碍了警察的接触，这是由严格的制裁执行的。交叉视角使黑人妇女面临一个独特的悖论：一方面担心警察的过度反应和出于种族动机的不公正伤害他们的伴侣，另一方面又感到在一个可能没有充分优先考虑 IPV/SV 的司法系统中无能为力。这项研究提请注意城市公共安全环境中的结构性种族和性别不平等，这些不平等影响了 IPV/SV 的结果。基于种族的不平等损害了妇女的安全和获得正义的机会，并使妇女的安全与社区避免与警察接触和不成比例监禁的优先事项相冲突。社会决定因素框架有助于理解获得 IPV/SV 司法的机会。为了增强 IPV/SV 的司法机会，需要克服司法部门根深蒂固的种族歧视，以及对暴力侵害妇女行为的历史轻视。
