Hello Everyone!
Police Personality and Domestic Violence is an educational piece geared towards the psychology professional and researchers, and for those interested on the topic. Although the book provides some professional jargon relating to forensic psychological testing, the majority of the book is suitable for the lay person. This book is a specialty book relating to a sub-population of domestic violence batterer’s, police officers. What makes this book unique is that there is very little research on the topic of domestic violence by police officers that provide credible resources from peer-reviewed empirically based research. I began my research on police family violence while I was a victim of domestic violence by a police officer over 12 years ago. I began researching the topic because I could not find help for myself and for my children during a time when I needed it most. I became further isolated due to the lack of available resources. Domestic violence not only impacts the victim, it takes on a ripple effect that impacts the victim’s children, family, friends, the community, the health care system, and the criminal justice system. In fact, A measurable statistic regarding the health care system reveals that “The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health services” (CDC, 2003). It should be noted that not all abuse is reported making these statistics even more alarming and relevant to only reported abuse.
I had no one to report the abuse to. When I tried to report the abuse to the administration of the police department, the abuse escalated. After attempting to make a report numerous times and suffering further physical abuse, psychological torture, stalking and harassment, I decided to call the State police. They must police the police right? Wrong. The state police told me to call the local prosecutor. So I called the prosecutor only to hear the investigator at the prosecutor’s office say “call the state police.” Nobody knew who to contact and if they did they surely didn’t share it with me, instead they did things behind the scenes by informing internal affairs. Internal affairs would reprimand the officer and then the abuse once again escalated. This internal action by the police department increased the level of lethality to new levels. By their responses you would have thought that I was the only victim who had every experienced this and I began to believe it because nobody else that I knew had experienced this. Finally a state trooper gave me the local DV agency for assistance.
I called the local DV agency and a crisis counselor answered the phone. I cried, I talked, and I grew increasingly frustrated with the advocate because she did not know what to do, who to call or what to say. She relented to connecting me to the State police even though I told her that I had called them numerous times in the past. Once connected with the state police, they again told me to call the prosecutor. Once again I hung up the phone feeling worse than I did before I called. The helplessness was reinforced and my anxiety heightened as I watched yet another police car drive by my house. The abuse escalated into stalking, and stalking into harassment. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t think. I had to do something, but what? Who do I call? Who should I write? How do I explain this to someone when I can’t even talk about it without busting out into tears? I was an emotional mess, rightfully so. I had been through so much and talking about it only made me look crazy, just like he called me so many times before. His abuse extended beyond the confines of our relationship. It spilled over into his work life where he would employ fellow officers to collaborate with him in his mission to intimidate and further abuse me. It got to the point that I was afraid to leave the house by myself.
Twelve years ago, technology was not as advanced and not everyone owned a computer at that time. I was one of those people. When I finally did get a computer, I was able to surf the web looking for help. I came across a website that would offer me the validation that I so desperately needed at the time, but it was only that, validation. The author of the site did an excellent job describing what it was that victims of police officers go through, but she did not provide what to do about it. So I called the author of the site, who was also an advocate for victims of police abuse. She was a tremendous help to me when I didn’t know who else to call. Even though her information was on point and she worked as a voice for victims, I still did not have an answer to my situation. Years had passed and I was still being stalked and harassed. At that time there was very little research on the topic of stalking. Here I was the victim of domestic violence by a police officer and a victim of stalking; both topics with very little information and resources. So I decided to further my research. I then stumbled upon The National Center for Victim's of Crime where I would find additional resources, but again they did not provide the help that I needed. They provided resources, excellent resources and information on DV and stalking. I took the information that I had compiled and decided that I could provide some insight to the local DV agency on both topics so that they would be better equipped to handle victims with special needs, such as mine. At that time I began working as a domestic violence advocate for the local domestic violence agency; and years later I would found The National Police Domestic Abuse Foundation. My story takes on many twists and turns and I have written about my personal experience in my new book coming soon!
I did not intend to write about police personality. I stumbled upon the topic during my extensive research on police family violence. Police Personality and Domestic Violence was written simultaneously as I was writing my Master’s Thesis and it does promote food for thought on whether or not police officers are predisposed to domestic violence. They are exposed to violence on a regular basis, in addition to personality traits that are both innate and developed over time through environmental exposure among other variables. I began to research further and found a strong link between “The Police personality and domestic violence.” In Chapter Three of my book, I provide a quote by a researcher by the name of Skolnick which states “Occupational environments can influence and shape perceptions and interpretations of events and situations” (Skolnick). It is suggested that individual personality traits along with police training constitutes the “Police Personality.” “Insight into the occupational environment of police officers can help to provide a more complete understanding of officer behavior and decision-making” (Skolnick). If you would like to read more of the book you can preview it at the top of this page, or you can purchase a copy also located at the top of this page. I hope you find the book interesting and informative.
With Love and Thanks,
Victoria
