Police Assistance During Conflicts

In an article entitled Police response to victims of domestic and non-domestic violence, Dr. Ivan Sun, Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Delaware, observes that “Police are more likely to provide assistance on their own initiative to victims of domestic violence than victims of non-domestic violence;” furthermore, “police respond differently to requests made by victims of domestic and non-domestic conflicts” (2006, p.145 & 148). The manner in which police officers provide assistance and concern for victims is influenced by the dispute; if violence is involved or if violence is not involved, if the victims know each other “domestic violence” or if they are strangers “non-domestic violence” (p. 153). The majority of Sun's article explains the process that he went through to research his theory and discover his findings. So, how did he begin his research?

As a scientist, Dr. Sun introduced his theory “to assess whether police respond differently to victims of domestic and non-domestic conflicts” (p.162). This statement provides the reader with information regarding the population; that he was observing, and the criteria that he set for his research design. For example, in the beginning of the article, he tells us that he is researching the behavior of police when they interact with victims of domestic and non-domestic conflicts (p. 153). Sun’s unit of analysis is the police response. However, there cannot be any confusion about his theory, so he went even further by providing specific insight into: the way that the police respond (if they were called or if they initiated the response), factors that affect the way that police respond (if the victim new the perpetrator or if they did not know the perpetrator), and the police officer’s attitudes toward different citizens characteristics (gender, race, socio-economical status, and so on so forth) (p.146). In order for Sun to come up with a viable theory, he had to do some research on the topic.

Sun researched at least fifty-two sources. He used the sources to collect data that would support his theory. The most recent reference was published in 2004, while the oldest was published in 1968 (p.165-172). The most useful data came from “the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN) conducted in Indianapolis, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida, during the summers of 1996 and 1997” (p. 152). Dr. Sun reported his finding in 2006, so at the time the data he collected was about ten years old. However, the research that was conducted looked at multiple variables within the criteria set forth: the dependant variables were “officer- initiated assistance” and “officer response” assistance, and the independent variables were domestic versus non-domestic conflicts, and the control variables were victim characteristics and officer characteristics (p.153-5). Therefore, the information that he discovered was useful in his research project. After the data was collected and analyzed, Sun had to report his findings.

Sun begins by noting the most common reasons why “police-initiated assistance” which were: to “provide information on how to deal with the problem,” to instruct the victims “to call the police if the problem occurred again,” and to advise the victim to use the legal system (p.157). Three tables were incorporated into Sun’s research article to back up his findings. The tables are important because they compliment the research findings with numbers. For example, Sun points out that “the percentages for domestic conflicts victims are all greater than the corresponding percentages for non –domestic conflict victims” (p.158). His sample of study was 380 victims, and the data was collected by trained observers.

Other directions Sun offers include the two choices that police officers have in handling conflicts: “coercive or control approaches and non-coercive or supportive approaches” (p.148). The first selection allows the officer to use his discretion to the amount of power that he or she wishes to exert to get the perpetrator to refrain from being violent (to control themselves). Whereas the latter, is a way for police officers to provide emotional support through assistance and guidance in offering other avenues to deal with the interpersonal conflict that triggered the event (p.148-9).

Since a good researcher is able to identify any problems or shortcomings of the theory that they are researching, Sun made sure that he fulfilled this obligation by noting the two limitations of his findings. First, there were not many victims; as such, Sun reports that it “prohibits meaningful regression analysis of police response to different types of requests made by victims.” Second, he was concerned that “using officer-level variables at the citizen level analysis because it violates the assumption of the variables independence…” (p.164).

There are three important results that Sun points out. The first one is that “police are more active in assisting victims of domestic conflicts than victims of non-domestic conflicts” (p.162). Next, he found that “police respond similarly to requests made by victims of domestic and no-domestic violence.” I believe the author meant to write “non-domestic violence.” As a final point, he notes that “police actions during conflict settlement are significantly affected by one citizen variable, wealth, and two officer variables, education and unit…”(p.163).

In conclusion, Sun provides suggestions on how police departments can improve the way that their police officers handle disputes by making sure that police officers are trained to work with citizens of lower economic status, and by making sure the “effective interventions” are used when helping victims of domestic violence (p.164). Sun’s observation that “Police are more likely to provide assistance on their own initiative to victims of domestic violence than victims of non-domestic violence” has merit, and it is imperative that police officers provide appropriate assistance for victims of “domestic violence” (2006, p.145).

References

Sun, I. Y. (2006). Police response to victims of domestic and non-domestic violence. Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, 29(1), 145-72. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/200011727?accountid=13215