THE EFFECT OF VICTIM-OFFENDER RELATIONSHIP ON REPORTING CRIMES OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

This paper examines how a crime victim's relationship with her offende r affects the likelihood that police will learn about the crime. While both mainstream and feminist social science perspectives predict that the more intimate the relationship, the less likely police awareness of the crime, empirical evidence supporting this prediction has been w eak. These mixed findings are due in part to limitations of convention al victimization surveys. This study is based on data from the 1993 Ca nadian Violence Against Women Survey, which overcomes many of these li mitations. Our findings demonstrate that criminal justice knowledge of violence against women is systematically biased. The multivariate ana lysis reveals that, while all types of violence against women are unde r-reported, intimate violence is least likely to be reported to the po lice, independent of type and severity of violence and victim characte ristics. We also find evidence suggesting a change over time in the ef fects of some types of victim-offender relationships on police reporti ng. Theoretical, methodological, and policy implications of these find ings are discussed.