Police Referrals to Shelters and Mental Health Treatment: Examining Their Decisions in Domestic Assault Cases

This article examines how husband's mental state, antagonism between the disputants, and victim injury affect officers' inferences and referral decisions to battered women shelters and outpatient mental health centers. Husband's mental state and victim injury affected officers' i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Crime and delinquency 1995-10, Vol.41 (4), p.467-480
Main Authors: Finn, Mary A., Stalans, Loretta J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
At Risk Persons
Battered Women
Community Control
Community Responsibility
Criminology
Decision Making
Domestic violence
Family Problems
Family Violence
Family Violence Shelters
Georgia
Husbands
Law Enforcement
Mental health care
Mental Health Services
Mental illness
Police
Police Community Relationship
Police officers
Public Policy
Referral
Referrals
Responses
Sheltered accommodation
Shelters
Social services
Sociocultural Patterns
Spouse Abuse
Spouses
USA
Wives
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Summary:This article examines how husband's mental state, antagonism between the disputants, and victim injury affect officers' inferences and referral decisions to battered women shelters and outpatient mental health centers. Husband's mental state and victim injury affected officers' inferences, whereas antagonism did not. Referrals to outpatient mental health treatment were influenced by perceptions of the wife's credibility and the disputants' control over their actions. Referrals to battered women shelters were influenced by the presence of injuries, officers' perceptions of the wife's intent to fight and argue, the husband's responsibility for the violence, and officers' age.
ISSN:0011-1287
1552-387X
DOI:10.1177/0011128795041004006