Procedural Justice and Domestic Violence: Victims\u27 Satisfaction With Police and Willingness to Seek Help

Procedural justice research in the field of criminal justice and policing have investigated how perceptions of procedural justice during police-citizen encounters influence satisfaction with police, cooperation with police, perceptions of police effectiveness, and perceptions of police authority. In general these studies have investigated police-initiated encounters, police-suspect encounters, and to a lesser degree, police-victim encounters. Limited research exits perceptions of police-citizen encounters during calls for service, and even less regarding police-domestic violence victim encounters. The present study investigates this relationship of procedural justice and domestic violence victims\u27 satisfaction with police processes during a call for service, police actions during calls for service, and domestic violence victims\u27 willingness to seek help from police in the future. The sample study for the present research comes from a 1994-1995 victim survey distributed in New York and Texas. Results from this study suggest that perceptions of procedural justice do influence domestic violence victims\u27 satisfaction and willingness to seek help in the future