The effect of a domestic violence policy change on police officers' schemata

Schemata are used to organize knowledge, helping people interpret their env ironment and decide on courses of action. The current study examined the sc hemata of police officers socialized before and after the department change d its domestic violence policy to mandate arrests when probable cause exist s in domestic disturbances. It was hypothesized that officers socialized be fore the policy change would have schemata that discouraged them from makin g arrests and rating victims cooperative and likely to prosecute their case s. whereas the opposite was predicted for officers socialized during the pr o-arrest era. The relationship of officers' schemata to their arrest decisi ons at domestic calls and their attitudes toward the victims at these calls were analyzed using logistic regression. Results indicated more similarity than difference between the two groups of officers, although the schema va riable did predict officers' belief in the likelihood of victims prosecutin g their cases, pointing to the utility of schema theory for understanding p olice attitudes.