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>Police officers are almost entirely decent people . . . This statement requires justification. >Research suggests that family violence is two to four times h

>Police officers are almost entirely decent people . . . This statement requires justification. >Research suggests that family violence is two to four times higher in the law-enforcement community than in the general population. >As the National Center for Women and Policing noted in a heavily footnoted information sheet, "Two studies have found that at least 40 percent of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10 percent of families in the general population. A third study of older and more experienced officers found a rate of 24 percent, indicating that domestic violence is two to four times more common among police families than American families in general." Cops "typically handle cases of police family violence informally, often without an official report, investigation, or even check of the victim's safety," the summary continues. "This 'informal' method is often in direct contradiction to legislative mandates and departmental policies regarding the appropriate response to domestic violence crimes." Finally, "even officers who are found guilty of domestic violence are unlikely to be fired, arrested, or referred for prosecution." https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/09/police-officers-who-hit-their-wives-or-girlfriends/380329/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/09/police-...

dogma1138 9y ago
Family violence is also more common in first responders/EMTs and soldiers. Take a wild guess on what those have in common with police officers. People that are constantly exposed to highly stressful situations tend to develop psychological problems.
- grasshopperpurp 9y ago
  He said: >Police officers are almost entirely decent people . . . Between 20% and 40% abuse their families. Does an entirely decent person abuse his family? I'm not aware of a higher family abuse rate among EMTs, and a quick Google search produced nothing, so I'd appreciate any sources. Your reasoning makes sense, but I can just as easily say that violent people are more inclined to be police officers and soldiers - for obvious reasons. I'd guess it's some of both (some high stress and the attraction of the occupation to violent people).
  - dogma1138 9y ago
    The problem is that the Atlantic publishes very selective data. Yes police officers have higher rates than the average, but you know who has higher than even those wife beating cops? Men that work in "demeaning jobs" or professions that are attributed traditionally to women like clerks, secretaries, teacher/classroom aides and maids/helpers. The vast majority of those articles boil down to a handful of studies the one linked below is probably the most commonly referenced. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2002.00820.x/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2002.... And yes most police officers are decent and professional people, but there isn't such thing as being universally decent and any person is capable of the utmost indecency. And you know what they say about so many intimate partner abuse cases? he/she was the nicest person in the world I would never think they would be capable of it.... People that abuse their partner more often than not do it as a release mechanism rather than their normal pattern of behaviour.
    - forapurpose 9y ago
      > the Atlantic publishes very selective data What is that based on?
      - dogma1138 9y ago
        Because based on every study while police officers, soldiers and other people that are put in stressful and life threatening situations do exhibit higher rates of abuse men that work at jobs that hurt their ego are even more prominently represented and unlike police officers, soldiers and emergency services personnel they don't have a PTSD just a small dick problem.
dibujante 9y ago
Um, this study isn't controlling for socioeconomic status? It sort of barely controls for age, which finds lower violence when the officers are older. But it's not very convincing. Anecdotally it seems like there is a domestic violence problem in the population, but you can't compare it to the general population. You need to control for education, background, and socioeconomic status.
- comex 9y ago
  You don’t actually need a control to make claims about what fraction of police officers are “decent people”. Even if, hypothetically, decency were determined completely by external factors that happen to correlate with being a police officer, that wouldn’t change the fact that any police officer you meet is likely to be less (or more) decent than some baseline of people in general. Though, of course, the source itself may be making stronger claims…

dogma1138 9y ago

Family violence is also more common in first responders/EMTs and soldiers. Take a wild guess on what those have in common with police officers. People that are constantly exposed to highly stressful situations tend to develop psychological problems.

grasshopperpurp 9y ago
He said: >Police officers are almost entirely decent people . . . Between 20% and 40% abuse their families. Does an entirely decent person abuse his family? I'm not aware of a higher family abuse rate among EMTs, and a quick Google search produced nothing, so I'd appreciate any sources. Your reasoning makes sense, but I can just as easily say that violent people are more inclined to be police officers and soldiers - for obvious reasons. I'd guess it's some of both (some high stress and the attraction of the occupation to violent people).
- dogma1138 9y ago
  The problem is that the Atlantic publishes very selective data. Yes police officers have higher rates than the average, but you know who has higher than even those wife beating cops? Men that work in "demeaning jobs" or professions that are attributed traditionally to women like clerks, secretaries, teacher/classroom aides and maids/helpers. The vast majority of those articles boil down to a handful of studies the one linked below is probably the most commonly referenced. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2002.00820.x/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2002.... And yes most police officers are decent and professional people, but there isn't such thing as being universally decent and any person is capable of the utmost indecency. And you know what they say about so many intimate partner abuse cases? he/she was the nicest person in the world I would never think they would be capable of it.... People that abuse their partner more often than not do it as a release mechanism rather than their normal pattern of behaviour.
  - forapurpose 9y ago
    > the Atlantic publishes very selective data What is that based on?
    - dogma1138 9y ago
      Because based on every study while police officers, soldiers and other people that are put in stressful and life threatening situations do exhibit higher rates of abuse men that work at jobs that hurt their ego are even more prominently represented and unlike police officers, soldiers and emergency services personnel they don't have a PTSD just a small dick problem.

dibujante 9y ago

Um, this study isn't controlling for socioeconomic status? It sort of barely controls for age, which finds lower violence when the officers are older. But it's not very convincing. Anecdotally it seems like there is a domestic violence problem in the population, but you can't compare it to the general population. You need to control for education, background, and socioeconomic status.

comex 9y ago
You don’t actually need a control to make claims about what fraction of police officers are “decent people”. Even if, hypothetically, decency were determined completely by external factors that happen to correlate with being a police officer, that wouldn’t change the fact that any police officer you meet is likely to be less (or more) decent than some baseline of people in general. Though, of course, the source itself may be making stronger claims…