Police Responses to Cases of Officer-Involved Domestic Violence: The Effects of a Brief Web-Based Training

Abstract

No national research has examined the effect of law enforcement officer training on the problem of officer-involved domestic violence (OIDV). This study investigated responses of officers (n = 852) to case scenarios of OIDV before and after they participated in the National Prevention Toolkit on OIDV, an online training. Officers were asked how likely they were to take particular actions, including assisting a victim in finding help for domestic violence, arresting the perpetrating officer, and filing an internal report against the officer. Officers’ responses from pre- to post-training indicated their increased likelihood of reacting to scenarios with desirable, victim-supportive behaviours including an increased likelihood of arrest and filing of internal reports. Officers indicated that the Toolkit would influence them and others to intervene in suspected cases of OIDV. Limitations of the methods are discussed. Implications for research, advocacy, and training are provided.