Sexual and violent police perpetrators: the institutional response to reporting victims.

Abstract

Despite recent high-profile cases of police perpetrated violence against women, academic research in the UK on the nature and prevalence of police officers who are physically and sexually abusive towards female intimate partners is limited. Still less is known about the experience of these victims who seek to report police perpetrators to the police. This study presents the findings from interviews that we conducted in early 2023 with ten female intimate partner victims of male police perpetrators in England and Wales. The experiences shared by participants included the period 2018–2023 in all but one case. Four of the interview participants were themselves police officers. Using thematic analysis, we classify experiences of reporting as ‘hostile-obstructive’ and/or ‘collusive-minimising’. We discuss these findings in relation to the concept of ‘institutional betrayal’ and consider how the police can demonstrate urgent ‘institutional courage’ for reform.