Partner violence among a sample of police detainees

Using data from the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program, this paper explores involvement in intimate partner violence, and provides first-time results from face-to-face interviews with a group of 1,597 police detainees. The study found that the levels of intimate partner violence are much higher among this group (49%) than is found from general population surveys. More than two-thirds of the detainees who were involved in partner violence reported being both a victim and a perpetrator in the past 12 months. This is consistent with other criminological research that finds that a large proportion of offenders often report having been victims of crime. Factors found to be significant risk markers for detainees' involvement in partner violence included prior arrest, drug and alcohol dependency, having dependent children, and experiencing physical abuse as a child. Although a greater percentage of female than male detainees reported being involved in partner violence, once these other risk factors were controlled for, gender was not found to be a significant risk marker among this sample. The paper discusses the policy implications of the findings, particularly the need for early intervention with at-risk families and where drug and alcohol dependency issues are emerging.