Domestic Violence and the Police Force: What Abolition Means for Cases of Domestic Violence

Following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police Department on May 25th, a movement erupted across the country. Hundreds of thousands of protestors are calling out the disproportionate policing of communities of color, predominantly Black communities, and standing up against rampant police violence in the United States. The current movement has sparked a conversation around abolishing state violence, with demands spanning from defunding the police to investing in community self-governance and freeing people from prisons and jails (1). As the abolition movement continues to gain traction, many people are asking, “What does abolition mean for response to crimes like rape and domestic violence?.” To that, I want to challenge the notion that police presence and incarceration keep communities safe from violence, but rather, inherently represent state violence.

Rates of officer-involved domestic violence (OIDV) are concerning to say the least. Two separate studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence (2,3). The National Center for Women and Policing (NCWP) reports that domestic violence is 2-4 times more prevalent among police families than non-police families (4). However, a literature review from 2015 found that prevalence rates of OIDV vary widely (4.8%-40%), and these inconsistencies could be a result of sampling and measurement issues (5). This points out the lack of research on this topic, with most studies having been conducted in the 90s and relying heavily on self-reported perpetration. Whatever the true prevalence of OIDV is, it is clear that domestic violence amongst police officer families is unique from domestic violence in non-police families due to risk factors associated with police officers and the complex barriers victims must navigate for safety.

The nature of policing makes victims of OIDV more vulnerable due to the particular knowledge and power police officers hold. For example, police officers are trained in skills of surveillance and commanding their authority, making the situation more dangerous for their victims as detailed in the Battered Women’s Justice Project’s Guide for Advocates, “Police training, access to information, use of firearms, knowledge of the criminal justice system process, and fear of losing employment heighten the complexity and potential danger.” (6). Furthermore, police officers are disproportionately exposed to a number of stress-related risk factors linked to perpetration of domestic violence, including shift rotation, weekend work, exposure to traumatic situations, and frequent marital discord (7). Combined, these factors make police officers especially dangerous perpetrators of domestic violence.

When it comes to reporting these cases of OIDV, victims are oftentimes hesitant to report out of fear of retaliation and that their complaints will not be taken seriously by officers who are friends and colleagues of their abuser. When reports are made, victims find that departments often do not believe their claims or do not conduct investigations properly. According to the NCWP, “most departments across the country typically handle cases of police family violence informally, often without an official report, investigation, or even check of the victim's safety. This "informal" method is often in direct contradiction to legislative mandates and departmental policies regarding the appropriate response to domestic violence crimes” (4). A 2013 New York Times investigation found that allegations of domestic violence result in job loss less often than other instances of misconduct stating, "In many departments, an officer will automatically be fired for a positive marijuana test, but can stay on the job after abusing or battering a spouse” (8).

The lack of accountability for police officers who are domestic abusers shows the systematic nature of gender-based violence (GBV) in the U.S., and it makes advocacy and safety planning for victims of OIDV much more complicated. We heavily rely on the police force in situations of domestic violence; to intervene, arrest the abuser, collect evidence, and enforce an Order of Protection. When the abuser is a police officer, safety planning for their victim is seriously challenged (6). Carceral feminism is often used to describe this reliance on increased policing, prosecution, and imprisonment as the primary solution to GBV.

“Carceral feminism views solutions to gender-based violence through a white middle-class lens, one which ignores the ways in which intersecting identities, such as race, class, gender identity and immigration status, leave certain women more vulnerable to violence, including state violence” (9).

Therefore, it is increasingly important to question the presence of police intervention in situations of domestic violence, which is where abolition comes in. Tanuja Jagernauth provides a very clear and simplified definition of abolition: “Abolition is emptying cages and shutting down prisons, dismantling the systems that created them, and creating community-based processes for preventing, intervening in, transforming, and repairing after harm.” (10).

Abolition is particularly important for survivors of domestic violence who committed crimes in attempting to protect themselves from their abusers. Studies show that women of color and low-income women are disproportionately affected by mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence (11). A 1999 study conducted by the Women in Prison Project found that 75% of the incarcerated women at New York’s Bedford Hills Correctional Facility they interviewed have experienced severe intimate partner violence during adulthood (12). For example, Barbara Sheeha experienced physical abuse at the hands of her NYPD sergeant husband for 25 years before shooting him in self-defense in 2008. In her trial, she was acquitted for murder but convicted of firearms possession and sentenced to 5 years in prison (13). The criminal justice system is deeply flawed and centers around the strategy that making arrests and imprisoning people is the way to solve violence in our communities, without any real plan for rehabilitation and prevention of these crimes.

For instances of domestic violence, abolitionist Mariame Kaba states “I think when you look at domestic violence, and sexual violence in particular, the feminists of the 1960s, and 70s who were pushing for a more serious addressing of gender violence, particularly, racialized gendered violence, were asking for the system to take that more seriously. But their solutions were decidedly non-carceral. They were talking about funding rape crisis centers, funding shelters, funding counseling services, funding all sorts of other stuff” (14). The She Safe We Safe campaign, a transformative movement addressing the GBV faced by Black women, girls, and gender non-conforming (GNC) people, reflects abolition in their mission. They aim to increase interventions to GBV for Black women, girls, and GNC people without police involvement and reallocate funding from the police to community-determined programs that address GBV (15). In the words of abolitionist Bilphena Yahwon, “The biggest misconception is that the absence of policing as we know it is the absence of safety. A lot of people think that police abolition means letting “‘rapists, murders and pedophiles run free’—as if the very same police officers we place our trust in aren’t the murders and rapists we claim to be ridding our communities of” (10). Abolition isn’t just about dismantling prisons and police, it requires a strategic effort to replace punitive measures with restorative practices that prioritize building support systems and prevention strategies through investing more in our communities.

Resources for Survivors of Domestic Violence

She Safe We Safe: https://www.shesafewesafe.org/

Survived and Punished Project: https://survivedandpunished.org/analysis/\

Communities Against Rape and Abuse: https://www.astraeafoundation.org/stories/communities-against-rape-and-abuse-cara/

National Domestic Violence Hotline: https://www.thehotline.org/

Sources:

Sarah BacioJune 21, 2020Comment