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Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Police Reporting for Partner Violence in the National Crime Victimization Survey and Survivor-Led Interpretation

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Abstract

Despite compromising women’s health and safety, intimate partner violence (IPV) is among the most underreported crimes, and our understanding of factors that drive police reporting by race/ethnicity is underdeveloped. The purpose of this study is to examine racial/ethnic differences in self-reporting IPV to police. Race/ethnicity-stratified models identified predictors of reporting IPV to police among recent, female survivors (n = 898) in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS; 2011-15). Focus groups (n = 3) with recent survivors (n = 19) in Baltimore, MD (2018), contextualized results. Black women in the NCVS were twice as likely to report IPV to police relative to White women (AOR = 2.05, 95% CI: 1.01–4.15). In race/ethnicity-stratified models, police reporting significantly increased with increasing age between 18 and < 35 years (AOR = 1.18, 95% CI: 1.05–1.33) for Black women, and with IPV-related injury for Black (AOR = 2.51, 95% CI: 1.10–5.71) and Hispanic women (AOR = 2.87, 95% CI: 1.22–6.71); Hispanics with less than a high school education were least likely to report (AOR = 0.24, 95% CI: 0.07–0.91). Focus groups explained racial/ethnic influences on reporting including a culture of silence and discrimination, socioeconomic status, and social desirability. We identified influences on reporting IPV to police that vary by race/ethnicity using national data in context to an urban environment. Results demonstrate the need to enhance equity in survivors’ health and public safety through training and organizational change.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge IPV/SV advocates and service providers in Baltimore, MD, for their support and the survivors whose stories are captured in this article.

Funding

This study was supported with funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau (T76MC00003), Bloomberg American Health Initiative (Spark Award, Decker), National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (1L60MD012089-01, Holliday; 5U54MD000214-17), and National Institute of Mental Health (1T32MH109436-01A1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Population, Family & Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Charvonne N. Holliday, Roma Shah, Zaynab Hameeduddin & Michele R. Decker

  2. Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Charvonne N. Holliday & Roland J. Thorpe Jr

  3. Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Geoffrey Kahn

  4. Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Roland J. Thorpe Jr

  5. University of Maryland School of Social Work, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Roma Shah

  6. Center for Public Health & Human Rights, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Michele R. Decker

Authors
  1. Charvonne N. Holliday
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  2. Geoffrey Kahn
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  3. Roland J. Thorpe Jr
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  4. Roma Shah
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  5. Zaynab Hameeduddin
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  6. Michele R. Decker
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Contributions

All authors contributed to drafting the article. Holliday and Decker contributed to the conceptualization, data collection, and analysis of the study. Shah and Hameeduddin were vital in the qualitative data collection and analysis efforts. Kahn completed the quantitative analysis. Thorpe contributed to the refinement of the quantitative analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charvonne N. Holliday.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All participants provided informed consent.

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The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s IRB approved all study procedures.

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Holliday, C.N., Kahn, G., Thorpe, R.J. et al. Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Police Reporting for Partner Violence in the National Crime Victimization Survey and Survivor-Led Interpretation. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 7, 468–480 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-019-00675-9

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