To a large extent research on police response to wife assault had been dominated by the North American experience. Recent work in Britain has cast doubt on the extent to which these findings are applicable to the British context and drawn attention to the need for studies which explore the specific context in which policing occurs. It is argued that this approach has particular relevance in Northern Ireland where, in contrast to North America and Britain, the police operate in a context of political violence. Using data obtained from a series of semi-structured interviews with 67 women who defined themselves as victims of wife assault, the study examines police response in Northern Ireland. While the results indicate similar patterns of police response in Northern Ireland as those found elsewhere, the results also suggest that factors specific to the Northern Ireland context may influence women’s use of the police, police procedures and police attitudes, and women’s experience as victims.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.