The Relationship Between Intimate Partner Violence Policing and Family Surveillance in Large U.S. Counties

For decades, policing has been the primary response to intimate partner violence (IPV) in the U.S. despite mixed evidence of its effectiveness and potential harmful consequences of policing for survivors and their families. This is the first study to examine the relationship between IPV policing (i.e., percentage of police-reported IPV incidents resulting in arrest) and family surveillance (i.e., child maltreatment report rates) at the county level. We hypothesized that family surveillance would be a harmful and racialized consequence of IPV policing because of direct coordination between police and family surveillance systems and the increased risk of child welfare intervention associated with parental arrest. Utilizing National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System and FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System data from 160 large U.S. counties (2000–2019), we used Poisson regression and modeled between- and within-county effects with overall and race-specific outcome data. We also conducted an interaction analysis by the percentage of Black residents in the county to assess differences by racialized groups and within different racialized contexts because policing and family surveillance systems disproportionately impact Black families. We found no overall association between the percentage of police-reported IPV incidents that resulted in arrest and child maltreatment report rate at the county level (RR = 1.004, 95% CI: 0.965, 1.044). However, the percentage of police-reported IPV incidents that resulted in arrest was positively associated with the Black child maltreatment report rate in large counties with a below-average percentage of Black residents (RR = 1.013, 95% CI: 1.006, 1.021). This study provides initial evidence that family surveillance is a harmful consequence of IPV policing specifically for Black families living in predominantly white counties. Findings should be considered when evaluating the U.S.’s heavy reliance on policing to respond to IPV.