Organizational support and Chinese police officers’ attitudes toward intervention into domestic violence

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine Chinese police officers’ general support for police intervention into domestic violence, emphasizing adequate protection of the victims, and specific support for utilizing arrests to deal with the offenders.

Design/methodology/approach

This study relies on survey data collected from 1,064 police officers who worked in multiple areas in two provinces of China between June and July of 2019. OLS models were used to test whether organizational variables are significant predictors of officer attitudes toward domestic violence intervention.

Findings

Both agency endorsement and supervisory support are positively related to officers’ favorable attitudes toward police intervention into domestic violence and using arrests to handle offenders. The amount of training received from the agency on the recently promulgated Anti-Domestic Violence Law, however, has a negative influence on officer support for general intervention into domestic violence and no influence on officer attitudes toward arrests.

Originality/value

This study represents one of the first attempts to investigate the connections between organizational and managerial factors and Chinese officers’ support for both general and specific interventions into domestic violence. It contributes to the current literature that only included police cadets in the analysis of Chinese police attitudes toward domestic violence despite the fundamental differences between cadets and active-duty officers.

Citation

Wu, Y., Lin, K., Li, L. and Wang, X. (2020), "Organizational support and Chinese police officers’ attitudes toward intervention into domestic violence", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 43 No. 5, pp. 769-784. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-04-2020-0048