Before the First Charge: Using Police Data to Identify Opportunities for Domestic Violence Prevention
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55016/tr9zrv79Abstract
Domestic violence perpetrated by men is a significant public health and public safety issue in Canada. While governments have invested heavily in victim protection, emergency response and justice system interventions, most policies and programs continue to focus on responding after violence has been reported to or detected by the criminal justice system. This paper argues that meaningful opportunities exist to intervene much earlier before violence becomes entrenched, escalates in severity or results in criminal charges.
Patterns of police contact before men are charged with domestic violence reveal distinct developmental trajectories that can be identified years before a domestic violence offence occurs. Understanding these trajectories provides an opportunity to strengthen primary prevention by identifying earlier intervention points and shifting the focus from responding to violence after it occurs to preventing it before it starts. The analysis is based on an expanded longitudinal dataset provided by the Calgary Police Service, spanning January 2017 through December 2023. The study follows 3,846 adult men who received their first criminal charge for domestic violence against a female intimate partner and examines their prior patterns of police contact before the index offence.
The characteristics of these incidents remained remarkably consistent across the seven-year study period. Approximately three-quarters of offences involved a spouse or girlfriend, and nearly two-thirds of couples were living together at the time of the incident. Physical force was used in 73 per cent of cases, while 70 per cent resulted in injuries to the victim. Children were present or witnessed the violence in 42 per cent of incidents, highlighting the broader impact of domestic violence on children and families. The analysis identified four distinct groups of perpetrators based on their history of police contact before their first criminal domestic violence charge. At one end of the spectrum, 39 per cent of men had no previous police contact. At the other, 21 per cent had extensive criminal histories combined with repeated non-criminal domestic conflict incidents. Despite these differences, each group followed stable and identifiable developmental trajectories over time.
For men with prior police contact, interactions with police became increasingly frequent in the years leading up to their first domestic violence charge, with the sharpest increase occurring during the final year. Men with a history of non-criminal domestic incidents averaged more than one domestic conflict call in that year alone, highlighting a clear opportunity for intervention before violence escalates to a criminal offence. The 2023 cohort also demonstrated increasing police involvement related to crimes against persons, property offences, administration of justice offences and other criminal activity. These findings suggest that domestic violence is rarely an isolated or unpredictable event. For many male perpetrators, it represents the culmination of a pattern of escalating police contact and behavioural risk that develops over several years. Repeated non-criminal domestic incidents are particularly significant because they frequently precede violent offences and provide an important opportunity to intervene before violence against women occurs.
Current policy approaches leave a significant prevention gap by focusing predominantly on responses after a criminal offence has occurred. Yet, many male perpetrators who commit domestic violence are already known to police through repeated domestic conflict calls that do not result in criminal charges. These earlier encounters provide a critical opportunity to identify elevated risk, connect individuals with appropriate interventions and strengthen primary prevention before violence occurs. Shifting more
attention and investment toward these earlier opportunities has the potential to reduce harm to women, improve safety for children and families and lessen the long-term demands placed on policing, justice, health care and social service systems. Recognizing and acting on these earlier intervention opportunities represents one of the most promising pathways for preventing domestic violence before it starts.
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