Rank, Experience, and Attitudes towards Domestic Violence Intervention: A Moderated Mediation Analysis of Chinese Police Officers

Abstract

By analyzing survey data collected from over 400 police officers in Jiangsu Province, China, this study assessed the direct and indirect effects of officer rank and experience on police support for law enforcement domestic violence (DV) intervention. The results from the path analysis revealed that officer experience of handling DV reduced support for DV intervention, and this reductive effect was stronger among frontline officers as compared with their supervisors. Supervisory support was directly linked to officer support for handling DV, mediating the influences of demographic and experiential factors. These findings suggest that when it comes to DV intervention, the experience of handling DV, moderated by officer rank, plays a strong role in shaping DV enforcement in China along with supervisory support. Implications for policymaking and future research were also discussed.