The effect of victim-offender relationship on reporting crimes of violence against women

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The effect of victim-offender relationship on reporting crimes of violence against women Rosemary Gartner and Ross Macmillan University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario This paper examines how a crime victim's relationship with her offender affects the likelihood that police will learn about the crime. While both mainstream and feminist social science perspectives predict that the more intimate the relationship, the less likely police awareness of the crime, empirical evidence supporting this prediction has been weak. These mixed findings are due in part to limitations of conventional victimization surveys. This study is based on data from the 1993 Canadian Violence Against Women Survey, which overcomes many of these limitations. Our findings demonstrate that criminal justice knowledge of violence against women is systematically biased. The multivariate analysis reveals that. while all types of violence against women are under-reported, intimate violence is least likely to be reported to the police, independent of type and severity of violence and victim characteristics. We also find evidence suggesting a change over time in the effects of some types of victim offender relationships on police reporting. Theoretical, methodological, and policy implications of these findings are discussed.

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