2014/03/05 by Myrna Dawson, Tina Hotton
Social Sciences · #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis #Intimate Partner and Family Violence
paper · doi:10.1177/0022427814523787
crossref issued 2014/03/05 · crossref published 2014/03/05 · crossref published-online 2014/03/05 · openalex publication_date 2014/03/05 · crossref created 2014/03/06 · crossref published-print 2014/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/04/30 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Objectives: To examine police charging practices in case of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Canada. Methods: In this national level study, we explore police charging in cases of IPV using data from the 2008 Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) survey. Using logistic regression, we examine the impact of several key legal and extralegal factors on the police charging decisions. Results: Analysis shows that, while the majority of cases were cleared by charge, the proportion of cases in which police recommended a charge varied across the country. Further, the majority of legal and extralegal variables examined were significantly associated with the police decision to lay a charge across the jurisdictions examined, including the presence of victim injury, multiple victims, offence type as well as gender of the victim and the victim–accused relationship. Conclusion: Study findings indicate that future research on police charging in cases of IPV require more precise examinations of the role played by gender and the type of relationship as well as an investigation of the community context in which police decisions are made.