Battered womenu27s evaluations of two criminal justice policies designed to arrest and prosecute more batterers.

摘要

This study explored battered womenu27s perceptions of and attitudes toward a mandatory arrest policy and a no-drop prosecution policy. There were two main objectives in this study. The first was to describe victimsu27 perceptions of and attitudes toward the two policies, and the second was to predict attitudes toward the policies. The participants were 39 women from a local shelter for battered women. The participants filled out a questionnaire that contained both qualitative and quantitative sections designed to elicit their assumptions, interpretations, and opinions about the policies. Among the questions were those that pertained to the effects of each policy on batterer violence, victim empowerment, and criminal justice bias against sanctioning the batterer. The questionnaire also asked about victimsu27 views regarding criminal justice involvement in general (e.g., should the abuse be dealt with as a violent crime) and personal experiences that could be relevant to their attitudes toward the polices (e.g., feeling committed to the partner). Attitudes toward the policies were measured in terms of the victimsu27 particular cases and in terms of domestic violence cases in general. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses u26 Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1999 .B37. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0607. Adviser: F. Schneider. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1999.