LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS' AND PROSECUTORS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The main purpose of the survey reported here was to learn more about the attitudes of law enforcement officers and prosecutors to domestic violence against women and children.

The survey was conducted in the early Summer of 2000 among the sample of 164 persons (55 women and 88 men^¹) from both professional groups. The sample included 106 police officers and 38 prosecutors from four large towns: Warsaw, Gdansk, Lodz and Radom. The group of respondents was divided into 3 age groups: 20-30 years old (41 respondents); 30-40 years old (70 respondents); and 40-50 years old (38 respondents). In 15 cases there is no information about the age of a respondent

Organizational problems (e.g. refusal by many prosecutors to take part in the survey) made it impossible to create a representative sample. Therefore our survey should be regarded as a pilot study and its results should be tested in the study of represantive national sample of prosecutors and police officers.

However, since such a study may be very difficult or even impossible to conduct (many prosecutors refuse to take part), the results obtained in our survey must, for the time being, serve a preliminary source of information about Polish police and prosecutors' attitudes to domestic violence.

Question 1: Which of the following types of behavior should be recognized as domestic violence?

Respondents were given a list containing 15 descriptions of aggressive behaviors, most commonly associated with domestic violence against women (various forms of verbal and physical aggression, threats, restriction of personal freedom etc.). They were requested to choose all behaviors that - in their opinion - should be classed as domestic violence.^²

The answers were divided into three groups: (a) verbal violence; (b) physical violence; and (c) other forms of violence.

As predicted, the breakdown of answers by sex shows that joint number of women's choices under this category was nearly 50% higher that in the case of men (159,9% and 109% respectively). This difference is particularly obvious for answers 1 and 2 on the list (repeated verbal aggression without vulgar language and single act of verbal aggression with verbal language), which were chosen by 49% of women and 29,5% of men.

Surprisingly, under this category, the listed behaviors were chosen more often by men than by women. Total (accumulated) percentage of choices amounted to 296,6% among men and 272,7% among women. Differences between men and women were particularly striking for the following answers:

It should be noted that general (percentage) of choices is very low, even in the case of the most drastic violence (e.g. item 11 above). Results seem to show that almost 40% of surveyed police officers and prosecutors do not recognize the existence of domestic violence at all. While it may be true for a certain group, it seems that some respondents classified the most extreme forms of violence under the category of "domestic abuse" as a legal term (compare question 2). This hypothesis should be tested in the future study.

Under this category, sex of respondents does not significantly influence the choices. It is worth noting, that the average rate of choices here is almost as high as under the category of physical violence. For example, restriction of freedom was chosen by 61,4% of respondents, economic violence - by 57,9% and unlawful threats - by 53,9% of respondents.

Under this category we have observed considerable differences between surveyed professional groups. It turned out that verbal violence was recognized as domestic violence much more often among police officers than among prosecutors. This difference was particularly striking in the case of item 2 on the list (repeated verbal and vulgar violence), which was chosen by 73% of police officers and by a mere 5,3% of prosecutors.^³ 36,8% of the police and 15,8% of prosecutors chose the first item on the list (repeated verbal violence without vulgar language). The differences for the remaining three items under the category of verbal violence are much smaller.

The result for both professional groups are again apparent, but behaviors listed under this category were chosen much more often by prosecutors - total (accumulated) percentage amounted to 381,6%, compared with 237,7% among police officers. General low rate of choices among policeman was particularly low in the case of items 6 and 7 on the list (single blow having no serious health consequences - 13,2% of choices; single battery having no serious health consequences - 20,8%). Among the prosecutors the same behaviors obtained respectively 26,3% and 47,4%.

The percentage of choices among police officers was relatively low even in the case of the most drastic forms of violence: repeated battery with serious consequences for the health of a victim obtained 59,4% of choices, while repeated blows with serious consequences for victim's health - 55,7% of choices. The same behaviors were chosen by a many more prosecutors; respectively 78,9% and 81,6%.

For this category, the average percentage of choices was again much higher among prosecutors (joint percentage - 231,1%, compared with 164,2% among police officers). The difference between professional groups is most striking in the case of "unlawful threats" that are recognized as a form of domestic violence by 73,7% of prosecutors and only by 49,1% of police officers.

Results show that the general percentage of choices was clearly the lowest among the youngest respondents (total 470,7%, compared to 664% in "middle" group and 663% in the oldest group). This result will be somehow confirmed by the pattern of answers to other questions. Respondents from the youngest group are generally (with few exceptions) the most conservative and least sensitive to the rights and interests of victims of domestic violence.

Question 2: Which of the following behaviors should - in your opinion - be classed as an offence of "repeated domestic abuse" under Art. 184 of the penal Code?

For this question, respondents were given a list of 14 behaviors - a slightly modified list of violent behaviors used in the first question. Similarly, the respondents could indicate all these items on the list that - in their opinion - should be classed as a crime of "repeated domestic abuse".

Results show only slight differences between the answers of men and women. The only exception is the item 4 on the list (repeated derision, scorn and belittling of personal virtues, work or skills of a victims), which was chosen by 52,7% of women and by 39,8% of men.

Respondents seem to overestimate the role of vulgar language, which automatically results in underestimation of non-vulgar forms of verbal aggression. Repeated verbal violence without vulgar language obtained very low percentage of choices, particularly among men (18,2% compared with 23,6% among women). The percentage of choices of "repeated verbal abuse with vulgar language was twice as high.

Results show small difference between men and women, there is however one, but symptomatic, difference. Single act of battery with no serious consequences for the health of a victim was chosen by 21,8% of women and only by 13,6% of men. This result seems to support the hypothesis that the man's attitude to legal system is more formal. They do not recognize this behavior as "domestic abuse" because its lacks "continuos or repetitive character". The analysis of other choices show that if the condition of "repeated nature" of an act of violence is fulfilled, men recognize various forms of physical aggression more often than women.

Results show very low general percentage of choices under this category. Even such a drastic form of violence as "threat to kill" was chosen only by 47,3% of women and 51,1% of men.

The analysis of answers shows that, on average, prosecutors recognize listed behaviors as a form of "domestic abuse" considerably more often than police officers (joint percentage amounts to 694,7% compared to 543,4% among police officers).

However, generally the percentage of choices is relatively very low, even in the cases of behaviors that undoubtedly constitute "abuse" in the meaning of the relevant article of the penal Code. For example, "repeated blows having serious consequences for the health of a victim" was chosen by 76,3% of prosecutors and by only 55,7% of police officers (!!!). The most drastic form of abuse included in the list "repeated battery having serious health consequences" was indicated by 81,6% of prosecutors and only 59,4% of police officers. This result means that more than 40% of law enforcement agents and almost 20% of prosecutors do not recognize the existence of a crime of "domestic abuse".

The results for this category are similar to the answers given to the first question. The lowest percentage of choices was again observed in the youngest group (joint percentage: 500%, compared with 621,4% in the "middle" group and 557% in the oldest group. In some cases, the answers given by the youngest respondents are simply alarming: for example, repeated battery having serious consequences for the health of a victim was indicated by 53,7% of the youngest respondents. Almost half of Polish young police officers and prosecutors deny the existence of a crime of domestic abuse!

Question 4: Should law enforcement officers treat rapes committed in intimate relationships as rapes committed by strangers?

Respondents could choose one of the following answers: "yes", "no" or "it is difficult to say".

As expected, women chose answer "yes" more often than men (respectively 69,1% and 60,2%) and answer "no" less frequently than men (respectively 18,2% and 26,1%). The average percentage of answers "yes" should be considered as low; one should remember that marital rape was recognized as a crime long time ago.

Differences between prosecutors and police officers are minor: 63,2 and 61,3% of answers "yes".

An analysis of responds by age groups shows that answer "yes" was most frequently chosen by those in the middle-aged group (30-40 years old).

Questions 5 and 6: Should sexual harassment in intimate relationships be penalized? If so, which of the 7 listed behaviors should be classed as sexual harassment?

For this question, the respondents were given a choice from among three answers: "yes", "no" and "difficult to say".

In the case of question no. 6, the subject were to choose all descriptions from the list of 7 types of behavior.

A majority of respondents understands the need to penalize sexual harassment in the family: 67,3% of women and 61,4% of men. At the same time, women's answers were more polarized: a number of women, who are decidedly against penalization is considerably higher: 23,6% compared with 14,8% among men. The percentage of men who chose answer "it is difficult to say" was almost three times higher than in the case of women.

In response to question 6, the average rate of choices (from the list) among women was surprisingly high in comparison with answers to the question about rape, which is usually considered a much heavier crime. Even the least drastic form of harassment^⁴ from the list was indicated (as the kind of sexual behavior that should be penalized) by 29,7% of the surveyed women.

The breakdown of results by professional groups shows that a number of police officers, who support the idea of penalizing sexual harassment in the family is noticeably higher: 68,9 in comparison with 57,9% among the prosecutors. The difference between these two groups becomes much more striking, if we compare the distribution of answers "no", which was chosen by 10,4% of police officers and 31,6% of surveyed prosecutors.

The pattern of responses to question 6 shows that the difference between two groups was particularly large in the case if items 4 and 5 on the list (persistent inducement to watch, read or listen to pornographic materials or persistent excitement to sexual intercourse). Item 4 was indicated by 68,5% of surveyed police officers and only by 45,5% of prosecutors.

As in the answers to the previous questions, the youngest respondents proved to be the least sensitive and their support for the penalization of sexual harassment in intimate relationships was lower than in other age groups. The difference was particularly clear in the case of the least drastic kinds of harassment (for question 6). For example, item 1 (sexual jokes and allusions ....) was chosen by only 12,5% of the members of this age group and by 27,9% and 20,7% of the members of the older groups.

Question 7: Should domestic violence against women be treated as any other crime, or as an internal family problem, with which the police should interfere only in extreme cases, where violence is drastic and continuous?

The respondents were given three answers to choose from: "ordinary crime", "family problem" or "it is difficult to say".

Overwhelming majority of respondents chose the first answer (ordinary crime). As expected, more women than men expressed this opinion (87,3% and 75% respectively). Domestic violence is considered as family problem by 18,2% of the surveyed men, and by 10,9% of women). As in most other cases the percentage of answers "difficult to say" was higher among men than women (6,8% and 1,8%).

The idea that domestic violence should be considered as an "ordinary crime" was supported by 79,2% of surveyed police officers and by 73,7% of prosecutors. The difference between professional groups is more visible in the case of an answer "family problem", which was indicated by 23,7% of prosecutors and by 15,1% of police officers.

There was practically no differences among age groups. As expected, the youngest expressed the weakest support for the idea that domestic violence should be treated as a any other crime.

Question 8: If you are of the opinion that domestic violence is an internal family problem, and that the police should interfere only in extreme cases, what are the circumstances in which the police should intervene?

The respondents were given a list of 8 types of violent behavior, of which they were to choose all that should justify police intervention.

The low number of answers to this questions makes it impossible to conduct a comparative analysis. Generally speaking, as expected, the overwhelming majority of those who agree that domestic violence is an internal family problem, are of the opinion that the police should intervene only in the case of repeated violence causing grave health consequences or in the case of a direct threat to life: the first cause was supported by 88,9% of prosecutors, while the second by 77,8%. This result shows, that according to 22% of the prosecutors from this group, even direct danger to life of abused women should not be considered the ground for a police intervention. The same answer was indicated by 81,3% of surveyed police officers.

Question 9: Reason for which women so often withdraw their complaints of abuse

In this question the respondents were given a list of eight causes which were to be arranged in order from the most important (no. 1) to the least important (8).

It is worth emphasizing that the cause which was chosen most often as "number one" reason, was "love for the perpetrator" (number 4 on the list). It was selected as the most important by 35,4% of men and 40% of women. It was, however, seldom chosen as one of the top four items on the list, which were taken into account while calculating total support for a particular cause.

Respondents could choose from the list of 4 answers: "most commonly yes", "usually yes", "seldom", and "there is no relation between abuse of alcohol and domestic violence.

In response to this question, a clear majority of the surveyed men and women answered "most commonly yes" (respectively 72,7% and 61,8%). 32,7% of women and 23,9% of men chose the second answer (usually yes), and almost nobody supported an opinions expresses in the third and fourth answers.

The pattern of responds in various groups was very similar. The only result that is perhaps worth mentioning is the highest percentage of the first answer selected by the youngest respondents, whose views again proved to be the most stereotyped.

Question 11 and 12: Are people with low education more often the perpetrators and the victims of violence? Are low income people more often the perpetrators and the victims of violence?

For these questions no detailed analysis was conducted, as overwhelming majority of answers seems to reflect social stereotypes. Generally speaking, a clear majority (about 60 to 70 per cent) of respondents expressed an opinion that both disadvantaged group are more often involved in domestic violence than people, who are better wealthy and well educated.

For this question, respondents were given a list of 20 possible causes of domestic violence against women, from which they could choose 5 most important and arrange them according to descending importance.

On the basis of their preferences, the following list of the most important causes of domestic violence has been created:

The breakdown of answers by sex shows fundamental differences between men and women. As predicted, men mostly chose answers that "put blame on women", while women most frequently indicated such causes as personality disorders and stress. A small proportion of women also chose answers indicating cultural and social roots of domestic violence, (for example: traditional view held by many men that violence against their wives is tolerated, easy and safe way of discharging stress or that in the family they do not have to control their aggression and resulting tendency to yield to emotional, often violent impulses). No surveyed men indicated one of these answers.

Generally speaking, for this question, sex differences are so overwhelming that they completely neutralize the influence of other factors, such as age or profession. Responses are based exclusively on sex and relevant experience. Professional knowledge and training plays no role.

Question 15 and 16: Do victims, by their behavior, contribute to violence they suffer at the hands of the perpetrator? How often violence results from the provocative behavior of the victim?

In response to question 15, respondents could choose from four possible answers: "yes", "no", "to a certain degree", "it is difficult to say".

In response to question 16, they could also choose from four answers: "often", "seldom", "sometimes", "never".

As for question 14, the breakdown of answers by sex reveals essential difference between men and women. Answer "yes" (question 15) was chosen by 33% of men and 12,7% of women. The difference is even larger in the case of answer "no", which was chosen by 14,5% of women and just 2,3% of men. Approximately the same proportion of both sexes (60% of women and 56,85 of women) indicated answer "to a certain degree".

Respondents, although they are law enforcement and administration of justice professionals, took the stereotyped, quasi-psychological perspective of blaming women for violence. This conclusion can be additionally justified by the pattern of answers to question 16: answer "seldom" was chosen only by 12,2% of women and 9,2% of men; answer "often" - 14,6% of women and 38,85% of men, and answer "sometimes" - 73,2% of women and 52, 6% of men.

Results show that the attitude revealed in these answers and the tendency to explain violence against women by their provocative behavior is equally strong in both professional groups.

The breakdown of the results by age of respondents shows that the older the respondents the stronger is the above outlined tendency to blame the victims; in response to question 15, answer "yes" was chosen by 17,1% of respondents from the youngest group, 28,3% from the middle group and 38,7% from the oldest group.

Question 17: Is domestic violence often committed under the circumstances that may mitigate criminal responsibility of the perpetrator?

Respondents were given four answers to choose from: "yes", "no", "to a small degree", "in some cases".

The proportion of respondents who are of the opinion that responsibility for domestic violence can be often mitigated by accompanying circumstances is surprisingly low, particularly among prosecutors (only 7,9% answers "yes").

As predicted, the results show significant difference between men and women (respectively 20,5% and 14,5% answers "yes"). This difference is even greater for answer "no", which was chosen by women almost twice as often as among men (27,3% and 14,8% respectively). Also answer "to a small degree" was less popular among women (10,9% compared to 26,1% among men).

For this question, we have observed great difference between surveyed police officers and prosecutors, among whom answer "yes" received only 7,9% of choices, while it was chosen by 22.6% of surveyed police officers. This large difference between both professional groups, particularly in view of similar answers given by the respondents from both groups to questions 15 and 16, can probably be explained by the fact, that the prosecutors better understand that not all causes of violence may, in legal sense, be interpreted as justification of a crime.

Question 21: Does it happen that the perpetrator of violence is in fact more of a victim than a perpetrator?

For this question, respondents could choose one of the three answers: "yes", 'no" and "it is difficult to say".

Results show considerable difference between men and women, half of whom (49,1%) expressed an opinion that the perpetrators should never be treated as victims. The same answer (no!) was chosen by 35,2% of the surveyed men. Similarly, answer "yes" was chosen by 20% of women and 33% of men.

The difference between police officers and prosecutors is noticeable. The answer "yes" was indicated by 30,2% of law enforcement agents and by 23,7% of prosecutors.

There are practically no differences among age groups. As expected, the largest proportion of answers "no" has been observed among the oldest respondents, although in this case this difference is small.

Question 22: Is domestic violence and marital rape treated by the police and the prosecutors as any other crime against life and health?

Respondents could choose one of the following answers: "as any other crime", "harsher than other crimes", "less harsh than other crimes", "it is difficult to say".

The difference between men and women is relatively small. What may be considered surprising, though, is the fact that more women than men chose answer "as any other crime" (45,5% and 36,6% respectively).

Considerable differences have been observed between professional groups. 60,5% of prosecutors, compared with 33% of police officers chose answer "as any other crime". The answer "less harsh" was chosen by 51,9% of police officers and only by 18,4% of prosecutors, which seems to be in striking contradiction with reality.

These (and some other) responses of the prosecutors seem to be seriously affected by the need for social acceptance, which in that kind of studies should be considered as one of the most important variables distorting the picture based on the obtained results.

1 In 21 cases there is no information about the sex of a respondent

2 In Poland, domestic violence is not a legal term. The first question of the survey refers to the colloquial meaning of violence, and respondents' personal understanding of what constitutes domestic violence compared with "ordinary spousal relations".

3 Debriefed prosecutors claim that this result can be explained by the fact that most surveyed prosecutors classified this item under a legal category of "repeated domestic abuse".

4 Sexual jokes and allusions made against clearly expressed will of women, aimed at encouraging her to sexual intercourse or at embarrassing

5 This indicator takes into account the total percentage of choices of a particular item from the list and the average position on the list of the top most important causes.