Police Officers’ Perspectives when Handling Intimate Partner Violence against Women Cases: A Mixed-Method Approach Using Focus Group and Semantic Network Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: Attitudes toward intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) are a key predictor of police officers’ experiences and approaches to handling IPVAW incidents. While individual studies have attempted to conceptualize and assess police attitudes, a comprehensive theoretical framework—grounded in officers’ own beliefs and emotions and supported by a robust mixed-methods approach for accurate data integration—remains lacking, particularly in cultural and legal contexts such as Spain. Our aim is to develop a preliminary framework of police attitudes toward intervention in IPVAW, capturing differences based on specialized IPVAW roles. Methods: Drawing from six focus groups with 36 Spanish specialized and nonspecialized IPVAW police officers, we applied content and semantic network analysis. Results: Analyses confirmed police perspectives organized in two domains (reactive or proactive) directed toward nine objects: victim, perpetrator, event, self, law, philosophy of policing in IPVAW, resources, barriers, and other involved professionals. Besides, nonspecialized (vs. specialized) IPVAW police officers’ perspectives were more complex, less organized, and included a higher focus on reactive attitudes. Conclusions: Results provides a starting framework of police attitudes toward intervention in IPVAW according to prior theory, field data of two police profiles (nonspecialized and specialized IPVAW role) and rigorous methodological approach. We reported common and different components of police attitudes according to IPVAW specialization for further investigation. The evidence obtained can contribute to the suitable assessment of police attitudes toward intervention in IPVAW and reformulate training programs according to police needs.