ABSTRACT

Following a pre-registered study design, we estimated the effect of police force-wide domestic abuse training on arrests for the new crime of ‘controlling or coercive behaviour’. Using data on monthly counts of arrest for controlling or coercive behaviour in 33 police forces, we performed a negative binomial difference-in-difference analysis and capitalised on differences in intervention timing to undertake an event study. Training was associated with a 41% increase in arrest for controlling or coercive behaviour for trained forces (IRR 1.413, 95% CI 1.235–1.617) and the increase in arrests was consistent with the timing of the training. This study provides evidence that training entire police forces to understand the dynamics of domestic abuse, including the new offence of coercive control, is effective in increasing the rate of arrest for coercive control. However, the number of coercive control arrests as a proportion of total domestic abuse arrests remains miniscule.

摘要

根据预先注册的研究设计，我们估计了针对整个警察部队的家庭虐待培训对因“控制或强迫行为”新罪行而被捕的影响。我们使用33名警察在控制或强制行为方面每月的逮捕数来进行负二项式差异分析，并利用干预时间的差异进行事件研究。训练使受过训练的部队的控制或胁迫行为的逮捕增加41％（IRR 1.413，95％CI 1.235–1.617），逮捕的增加与训练的时间一致。这项研究提供的证据表明，培训整个警察部队以了解家庭虐待的动态，包括新的强制控制罪行，有效地提高了强制控制的逮捕率。但是，强制控制逮捕的数量在家庭虐待逮捕总数中所占的比例仍然很小。