When Abused Women Decide to Seek Police Help: Their Perceived Needs, Severity of Abuse, and Mental Health Functioning

Background: Much of our current knowledge base on responses to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) comes from research on samples drawn from battered women’s shelters, batterer intervention programs (BIP), and emergency rooms (or other medical clinics).Responses to IPV by victim assistance programs that are housed within police departments remains understudied because the majority of women are not likely to report abuse to the police (Grech & Burgess, 2011). This study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, the study examines the nature of perceived needs of women whose abuse has been brought to the attention of the police. Second, it examines how these needs are associated with the severity of IPV. Third, the association of these needs with the psychological well-being of women is examined.

Method: This study uses data from case records of women victims of IPV seeking help from a city police station located in the southwest. Case files of the women were examined to identify: (1) demographic characteristics, (2) severity of IPV (3) perceived needs, (4) self-reported mental health symptoms. The sample consisted of 154 women; nearly half of the women were married (51.9%), about 45.5% were Whites, 28.6% Black/African Americans, 18.8% Hispanic/Latino and 7.1% were categorized as others. More than half of the women experienced physical violence (73.4%), 12.3% experienced sexual violence and 14.3% experienced emotional/stalking violence. The main outcome variable was self-reported mental health symptoms. The main predictor variables in this study were severity of IPV and perceived needs.  

Descriptive analysis were used to describe the sample. Chi-square analysis was used to reveal the associations of perceived needs and the severity of IPV. T-tests analysis was conducted to determine if there were statistical mean differences in self-reported mental health symptoms according to perceived needs. Finally, a multiple regression was run to determine key predictors of mental health symptoms for this study.

Results: Chi-square analysis revealed significant associations in IPV severity according to perceived needs of childcare, counseling, employment assistance, and housing. Significant mean differences were also revealed in mental health symptoms according to the perceived needs of transportation, medical services, Crime Victims Compensation Rights (CVC), child protection services, crisis assistance, coping skills, and parenting services. Regression analysis indicated that the model significantly explained 14.2% of the variance in mental health symptoms (R² =.142, F (7,146) = 3.458, p < .01). Further, the need for transportation (β = .240, p < .01) and coping skills (β = .177, p < .05) were significant predictors of mental symptoms.

Conclusion and Implications. This study found that women perceived needs has a significant impact on the severity of IPV and their mental health smptoms. The police should be aware and sensitive to the individual needs that women victims of IPV exhibit. It would also be effective to emphasize on interventions that can address all the needs of women (in addition to stopping IPV) to reduce mental health symptoms.