PARALLEL SESSIONS
3.18 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: POLICE AND LEGAL RESPONSES Chair: Philip Stenning Chair: Philip Stenning
193 0252 - FACTORS INFLUENCING HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE
Karlo Ressler (Croatia)¹
1 - University of Zagreb - Faculty of Law
The exact scope of human trafficking in Southeast Europe, a region suspected to be one of the rare regions which is at the same time the area of origin, transit and destination, is largely unknown. There is an increasing concern by governments, media and NGOs, however, that it represents a considerable problem in the region.
This presentation aims at discussing various factors that have been influencing human trafficking in Southeast Europe. It will begin by examining the specific geographic location of the Balkan Peninsula, historically a significant connection between Europe and Asia, as well as consequences of such position.
It will continue by analyzing the ramifications of the complex economic and political transition from communism to free market democracies and will try to answer to what extent do the weak state institutions influence the flourishing of organized crime, including trafficking in human beings.
The presence of international peacekeeping troops in 1990s, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, created specific conditions and an immense increase in demand for prostitution. This is why the impact of wars in former Yugoslavia on trafficking in human beings will be discussed in this presentation as well.
3.18 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: POLICE AND LEGAL RESPONSES
penalties have been introduced when the offender is a man and the victim a woman, thus forgetting the complexity of the phenomenon.
The aim of our study is twofold: to determine which type of dating violence accesses to the Criminal Justice System and to analyze the opinion of the police, judges and prosecutors on the adequacy and effectiveness of the current penal response. Through 13 in-depth interviews, we have explored the limits and potentials of criminal response to intimate partner violence and the attitudes of those actors to the implementation of restorative processes.
0254 - POLICE RESPONSE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INCIDENTS Monica Fagerlund (Finland)¹
1 - Police University College of Finland
Prior research has indicated that victims' willingness to report domestic violence is significantly lower compared to other forms of violence, and that there is variation in the attitudes of the authorities to address domestic violence. Only a small proportion of the cases labelled as domestic violence by the emergency centre result in a report of an offence in Finland, although the police have a legal duty to report an assault, including petty assault, against a partner, spouse or children each time regardless whether it has happened in private or public places, and even in situations in which the victim does not want the report to be made. Consequently, it is important to study police response to domestic violence incidents, as well as police-victim and police-perpetrator interaction.
This paper presents the study on police response to domestic violence incidents in Finland. The aim of the study is to look into the whole process, and what actually happens after an emergency call is made. Data of the emergency centre is utilised to track down the patrols going to stop the immediate situations of domestic violence, and to interview the police officers using a structured form. In addition to the quantitative interview data, qualitative methods are utilised to collect observational data.
Variation in the attitudes and modus operandi may occur in the police force nationally, but also internationally between different societies. Comparative study on the matter could provide a deeper understanding to the policing of domestic violence, and how it can be further developed. Initial plans have been made between researchers in Finland and Scotland compare these two countries with relatively similar size of population, yet major differences in the size of police forces and policing domestic violence.
195 0255 - DOES LONG GUN REGISTRATION REDUCE DOMESTIC HOMICIDE? RECENT CANADIAN EXPERIENCE
Philip Stenning (Australia)¹; Matthew Manning (Australia)²
1 - Griffith University, Queensland; 2 - Australian National University
In 1996, Canada introduced universal long gun registration (i.e. every rifle and shotgun in private household ownership had to be separately registered). The main rationale which the government offered for doing so at the time was to reduce domestic firearms homicide, noting that this most commonly involved long guns rather than hand guns, and that women comprised the majority of victims. The legislation came fully into effect in 2003, and remained in force for nine years, being eventually repealed in 2012. In this paper we review the available evidence about the connection between long gun registration and the incidence of domestic firearms homicide, and whether it had a protective effect for women in particular, based on data before the introduction of the legislation and while it was in effect. Some comparison with earlier experience in New Zealand (the only other country to have introduced and subsequently abolished long gun registration) is also considered. We consider possible explanations for why the legislation did not have the effect that had been hoped for. We conclude that the legislation was politically motivated rather than evidence-based, and that its high cost could have been better spent on other strategies for protecting women from domestic homicide.
0256 - THE OKLAHOMA LETHALITY ASSESSMENT (OK-LA) STUDY: A PROMISING US POLICE PRACTICE TO REDUCE INTIMATE PARTNER HOMICIDES
Janet Wilson (United States of America)¹; Jill Messing (United States of America)²; Sheryl Brown (United States of America)³; Beverly Patchell (United States of America)4; Jacquelyn Campbell (United States of America)5
1 - University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; 2 - Arizona State University; 3 - Oklahoma State Department of Health; 4 - University of Utah; 5 - Johns Hopkins University
In the United States up to 70% of female murder victims are killed by an intimate partner.
Oklahoma, a U.S. state with the second highest proportion of Native Americans, ranks 3rd in the nation for intimate partner homicides. To prevent and reduce these intimate partner deaths, the Oklahoma Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board (ODVFRB), mandated by state law to review all intimate partner fatalities, recommended to the Governor and state legislature that 1st, 2nd, 3rd responders to intimate partner violence (i.e., law enforcement, health care, and social services) should have a uniform screening tool to identify the “red flags” of intimate partner fatality. The ODVFRB also recommended that all interdisciplinary responders to intimate partner violence be trained on the fatality indicators. In order to implement these recommendations two ODVFRB members proposed to the Oklahoma Chiefs of Police a study to evaluate the intimate partner lethality assessment developed by Dr.
Jacqueline Campbell and used in the state of Maryland. In 2009 the U.S. National Institute of
Justice (NIJ) funded an evaluation of police use of the Oklahoma lethality assessment (OK-LA) protocol for intimate partner violence. Law enforcement, social services, and Native American community advisory groups, involved throughout the study, monitored victim safety, police use of the protocol, research recruitment, and field implementation of the intimate partner lethality assessment protocol. Preliminary findings of the study were published and shared with the public and participating police departments, social services agencies and Native American advisory groups. By the study’s end in 2013, Oklahoma legislators, law enforcement, police, and advocates worked together to write, support, and pass legislation to implement police use of the OK-LA throughout the state. House Bill 2526, a victim’s rights bill, stipulates that police will screen victims of intimate partner violence with the OK-LA protocol and have the victim speak on the phone with their collaborating social service agency for an immediate safety plan, thus ensuring victims are safe and informed of the deadly signs of intimate partner violence. Key findings from the 3-year NIJ evaluation study and lessons learned during the first year of implementation of the OK-LA law will be discussed.
3.19 HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO CRIMINOLOGY