Abstract
Intimate partner violence (IPV) among sexual minorities (SM) remains a considerable social problem. Police response to survivors can have a significant impact on recovery, case attrition, and suspect apprehension. The present study employed a 3 (sexual orientation) × 2 (physical evidence) × 2 (trauma response) between-subjects factorial design with a sample of 467 police–participant survey responses among commissioned personnel in one of the five largest U.S. cities to examine predictors of arrest in a randomly assigned hypothetical IPV vignette while considering case and participant factors. Findings revealed arrest likelihood decreased when police were presented with an SM couple. Presence of physical evidence and increased importance on police processes increased arrest likelihood. Adherence to heteronormative IPV myths decreased arrest likelihood despite couple sexual orientation. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
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