Bachman R, Coker A L
Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, USA.
Violence Vict. 1995 Summer;10(2):91-106.
While there is a proliferation of research devoted to ascertaining the efficacy of arrest and other formal sanctions in deterring domestic violence, little research has focused on factors related to the pivotal point at which this formal sanctioning process begins, namely, in a victim's decision to report her victimization to police. This paper is an attempt to rectify this omission by examining those factors most important in predicting the police-reporting behavior of 1535 female victims of intimate-perpetrated violence (e.g., by husbands and boyfriends) taken from the National Crime Victimization Survey during 1987-1992. In addition to predicting the reporting decision of these victims, models predicting various police responses to a victim's report were also examined, including police response times, police actions at the scene, and the probability of an arrest being made. A combination of contextual and demographic characteristics affected the probability that incidents would be placed into the realm of formal sanctioning. Black victims, victims who sustained injury as the result of their victimization, and victims who reported that the offender had not victimized them before were more likely to report their victimization to police. These same factors were also significant predictors of arrest. Police were more likely to make an arrest in incidents in which victims had sustained injuries, when the offender did not have a history of violence, and in incidents which involved Black offenders victimizing Black victims. Implications for the "Battered Women Syndrome" and suggestions for future research are discussed.
虽然有大量研究致力于确定逮捕及其他正式制裁措施在威慑家庭暴力方面的效果，但很少有研究关注与这一正式制裁过程起始关键点相关的因素，即受害者决定向警方报告其遭受侵害的情况。本文试图通过研究那些对预测1535名亲密关系暴力（如丈夫和男友实施的暴力）女性受害者向警方报案行为最为重要的因素来纠正这一疏漏，这些受害者数据取自1987 - 1992年的《全国犯罪受害情况调查》。除了预测这些受害者的报案决定外，还研究了预测警方对受害者报案的各种反应的模型，包括警方反应时间、警方在现场的行动以及逮捕的可能性。背景特征和人口统计学特征的综合作用影响了事件进入正式制裁领域的可能性。黑人受害者、因受害而受伤的受害者以及报告称犯罪者此前未对其实施过侵害的受害者更有可能向警方报告其受害情况。这些相同因素也是逮捕的重要预测指标。在受害者受伤的事件中、犯罪者没有暴力史的事件中以及涉及黑人犯罪者侵害黑人受害者的事件中，警方更有可能进行逮捕。本文还讨论了对“受虐妇女综合征”的影响以及对未来研究的建议。
