title: Referring abused women: does police assistance decrease abuse?
abstract: To evaluate if abused women's use of the police reduced further violence experienced, 90 abused women were interviewed at a large urban police department and followed for 6 months. Frequency and severity of violence as well as danger of homicide were measured before and at 3 and 6 months after women sought police help. Women seeking police help had significantly reduced threats of abuse (F = 124.62, df = 2,81; p < .0005), actual abuse (F = 90.11, df = 2,81; p < .0005), and danger of being killed (F = 188.69, df = 2,81; p < .0005) by her intimate partner. Bonferroni post hoc tests showed that significantly fewer threats of abuse, physical abusive acts, and risk indicators for homicide had occurred from prefiling to 3 months (p <.0005) and prefiling to 6 months (p <.0005). The data indicate that referring abused women to the police is an appropriate intervention.
authors.affiliation: Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Willson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McFarlane
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lemmey
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malecha
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017579:Domestic Violence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D016495:Police; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D014930:Women