Domestic violence perpetrated by police officers

Abstract

Domestic violence cases tend to be considered as potentially dangerous, messy and not real police work by police officers, cases to be avoided as these are seen to be private in nature (Azzopardi Cauchi, 2004). But what happens when the person accused of abusing his wife/life-partner, is actually a police officer? It seems to be already difficult for an abused wife/life-partner to secure police attention when their partners abuse them, but do circumstances change when the abuser is a police officer? How? The author hypothesizes that the situation of Maltese women abused by their police officer -husband/partner is rendered even worse. Apart from these factors, police culture, specifically police solidarity and loyalty, could stop police officers from taking prompt, decisive action. Focusing on women abused by their police-officer male life-partner, the researcher tries to discover whether in Malta, the predicament of these abused women and their abusers is being addressed and if yes, how. Although studies about law enforcement exist to date, there is not enough knowledge about this subject to date. So far in the Maltese Islands, this topic has not been tackled and therefore more awareness on the subject would be beneficial to all parties involved.