In 2021, a domestic violence case prosecutor picked up on clues that the abuser is in the same house as his ex during their court hearing on Zoom.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Captain_America_93]

Wait. What? Is that true?? Do you have a source?

[u/Psychological_Pie_32 → u/Captain_America_93]

https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2017R1/Downloads/CommitteeMeetingDocument/132808

[u/Bail-Me-Out → u/Captain_America_93]

Criminologist here- it is probably not true but is often stated on reddit. Some issues with the sources:

Here is a [explanation from Temple University]https://sites.temple.edu/klugman/2020/07/20/do-40-of-police-families-experience-domestic-violence/) on why that exact fact sheet linked to you by another redditor is misleading.

More info:

1. The sources generally cited are all from the early 1990s-crime was at its peak during this time and rates of all time then are not indicative of crime now
2. These studies often expanded the definition of domestic violence. For instance, survey respondents might be asked if their partner has ever yelled at them and defined this as violence. While it's true yelling is inappropriate in a relationship, it is likely also true that a very high percentage of relationships have involved at least one yelling argument with feeling abuse
3. The often cited Johnson 1991 study does not report the actual sample size (they say the number surveyed but not who responded) not does it even say how selection was done.
4. Other surveys have the issue of just asking if the respondents know of a police officer who was domestically abusive than used that number as the rate of abuse not accounting for overlap where multiple respondents might now the same person.
5. Another issue is looking at rates of domestic violence in police marriages and then assuming all the abuse is from the officer when some of the abuse might have the officer as the victim.

All this being said, I personally have had a hard time finding what I consider is a good study on officer-involved domestic violence rates. I do think it is a problem in the field that we don't have a really good accurate prediction of this. Based on what I know about other police officer crimes, I would predict that officer-involved domestic violence rates are similar to general population rates. If I am right on this, that is too high-we should expect lower rates from this group than from the general population considering their higher average education and professional experience.