Referring abused women: does police assistance decrease abuse?

To evaluate if abused women's use of the police reduced further violence experienced, 90 abused women were interviewed at a large urban police department and followed for 6 months. Frequency and severity of violence as well as danger of homicide were measured before and at 3 and 6 months after women sought police help. Women seeking police help had significantly reduced threats of abuse (F = 124.62, df = 2,81; p < .0005), actual abuse (F = 90.11, df = 2,81; p < .0005), and danger of being killed (F = 188.69, df = 2,81; p < .0005) by her intimate partner. Bonferroni post hoc tests showed that significantly fewer threats of abuse, physical abusive acts, and risk indicators for homicide had occurred from prefiling to 3 months (p <.0005) and prefiling to 6 months (p <.0005). The data indicate that referring abused women to the police is an appropriate intervention.