Characteristics of household addresses that repeatedly contact 911 to report intimate partner violence.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether households that generate several 911 calls differ in important ways from those that make a single call and to determine whether households that generate repeat 911 calls for intimate partner violence (IPV) experience more severe violence than those that do not.


METHODS
All cases of police-documented IPV were reviewed and linked with their respective 911 calls. Each incident report was reviewed to determine the relationship between the offender and victim, demographic characteristics of the offender and victim, weapon and substance involvement, prior incidents of IPV, and violence severity.


RESULTS
Of the 1,505 IPV addresses identified during the 12-month study interval, 1,010 (67.1%) placed more than one phone call to report IPV. Sixty-nine percent of African American victims, 50.6% of white victims, and 36.8% of Hispanic victims were repeat callers (p < 0.001). There were no differences between addresses that generated repeat calls versus single calls with respect to offender alcohol or drug involvement, presence of children, victim age, or offender age. Sixty-seven percent of households with severe violence and 66.9% of households with minor violence generated repeat 911 calls (p = 0.98).


CONCLUSIONS
Ethnic differences in 911 use for IPV exist between African Americans, whites, and Hispanics. However, unknown societal, economic, or cultural issues could have influenced this finding. Households that repeatedly contacted 911 during the study interval to report IPV were not more likely to experience severe violence than those that placed a single 911 call.
Houry
Debra
D
Department of Emergency Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. dhoury@emory.edu
Parramore
Constance
C
Fayard
Gregory
G
Thorn
Jennifer
J
Heron
Sheryl
S
Kellermann
Arthur
A
D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015331:Cohort Studies; D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia / Q000453:epidemiology; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies