Domestic violence: Predictors of victim support for official action

In this paper, using a sample of 5,272 domestic violence cases processed through the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office between July 1, 1999 and December 31, 2000, we analyze the predictors of victim support for official action. We test the impact of victim and offender characteristics, situational variables, and official behavior on whether it was the victim or some third party who called for assistance, whether the victim desired the arrest, and whether the victim was willing to prosecute. The multiple significant effects found include race/ethnicity, gender, cohabitation, co-parenthood, attack severity, victim injury, prior incidents, reporting of prior incidents, presence of a protective order, provision of victim services, victim substance use, and suspect injury. Especially important from a policy perspective is that prosecutor charging practice (i.e., filing as a felony rather than a misdemeanor or violation of probation) was negatively associated with levels of victim support for prosecution.