Policy promise: community policing and domestic violence victim satisfaction

Police policy regarding domestic violence has been severely altered over the last decade. The social control approach of pro‐arrest policies has coincided with a service approach promoted by community policing philosophy. But community policing practice has largely ignored the role of victim satisfaction. The evaluation of domestic violence victims must be considered in determining police accountability, because of both the likelihood that victims will seek police service more than once, and because they are intimately knowledgeable about the effect of police practice on offender behavior. Presents an exploratory study of victim satisfaction as an illustration of the situations, expectations and behaviors which shape the victim’s experience with the police. Finds that police helping behaviors were the best predictors of satisfaction, but helping behaviors were differentially distributed by victim characteristics. Suggests that police can actively improve community satisfaction in domestic violence cases by fully implementing policy and training directives which require them to provide information and concrete assistance equitably.