Fox in the Henhouse

Abstract

The problem of violence within police families has been increasingly recognized as an important sociolegal issue, but there is a lack of empirical data on what has commonly been referred to as officer-involved domestic violence (OIDV). There are no comprehensive statistics available on OIDV and no government entity collects data on the criminal conviction of police officers for crimes associated with domestic and/or family violence. Prior self-report officer surveys are limited by the tendency to conceal instances of family violence and the interests of officers to maintain a “code of silence” to protect their careers. The purpose of the current study is to provide empirical data on OIDV cases. The study identifies and describes cases in which police were arrested for criminal offenses associated with an incident of family and/or domestic violence through a content analysis of published newspaper articles. Data on these cases is presented in terms of the arrested officer, employing agency, victim, charged offense(s), and criminal case dispositions. The paper includes a discussion regarding OIDV and policy implications.

New Directions in Police Academy Training: A Call to Action

“…This pressure is especially difficult for female police officers and, even more so, for married female officers with children [51]. Police officers often struggle to maintain a healthy work-life balance and may bring their work demeanor home with them, which can negatively impact their family members and, especially, their marriages (e.g., [52][53][54]). Similarly, police officers' spouses and children endure a variety of difficulties, which, in turn, leads to added stress on the officers.…”

When the Cop Is the Victim: A Test of Target Congruence Theory on Intimate Partner Violence Victimization Experienced by Police Officers

“…Recently, scholars have paid particular attention to intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrated by police officers (Anderson & Lo, 2011; Stinson & Liederbach, 2013; Stinson, Liederbach, & Freiburger, 2012). Generally, studies have shown that such factors as witnessing parental violence (Zavala, Melander, & Kurtz, 2015), being subjected to physical child maltreatment (Zavala, 2013b), work-related stress (Gibson, Swatt, & Jolicour, 2001), and experiencing various forms of coercive forces, such as experiencing personal victimization (Zavala & Kurtz, 2016), are all associated with perpetrating IPV in police families.…”

Federal Civil Rights Litigation Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1983 as a Correlate of Police Crime

“…In some cases, driving while female encounters escalate into sexual harassment, sexual assault, and in rare instances, forcible rape. Cases were coded on numerous variables relating to police drunk driving arrest cases (see Stinson, Liederbach, & Freiburger, 2010), off-duty police crimes (see Stinson et al, 2012), drug-related police crimes and drugs of abuse (see Stinson et al, 2013), and officer-involved domestic violence (see Stinson & Liederbach, 2013).…”