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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present findings on the efficacy of documents that US police are required to provide to domestic violence survivors, specifically intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors. Triangulating data from survivors, shelter staff, and law enforcement officers across four stages of IPV experiences, this national study identifies priorities among essential information needs and proposes information guidelines for law enforcement. Design/methodology/approach - A nationally distributed, 13-item, e-mail questionnaire was submitted to a stratified sample (ten largest, median, and smallest) of law enforcement agencies in all 50 states. Domestic violence shelters in each of the 1,500 cities were similarly recruited; survivors were recruited indirectly via shelter staff. The questions were clustered in terms of four common situations. Responses from 839 individuals were obtained, self-identified as police officers (481), shelter staff (263), and IPV survivors (95). Findings - Documents should be formatted for safety (i.e. small), developed for specific situations, and written simply. They should also offer information about non-law enforcement services. All three of the populations queried agreed that the immediate needs of survivors are stronger than their long-term needs. Research limitations/implications - The primary limitations are that the survey could include no means of determining the degree to which the respondents match the sample, and the response rate was insufficient to support inferential statistical analysis. Originality/value - This national study, the first of its kind, explicates the nuances of information elements in the personally situated experiences of survivors, and it presents the first set of suggested law-enforcement document design guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Working toward a symbolic interactionist understanding of information provision by multiple agencies responding to crisis situations, in this paper the authors aim to examine mandated information provision on the part of US law enforcement to survivors of intimate partner violence. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a detailed content analysis of 1,793 documents supplied by local law enforcement agencies from over 700 cities from all 50 US states. Documents were coded within a framework that identified 18 information elements corresponding to four emergent situations commonly found within the survivors' small world, as well as codes to note level of responsibility expressed by law enforcement and affective tone. Findings – Law enforcement expressed the greatest responsibility for those information elements related to their immediate purview – generally, how to engage with the police themselves in an initial crisis situation. However, information related to community social services, related to "later" survivor situations was included in the documents almost as frequently, but with less expressed direct responsibility. Originality/value – Agencies providing information to survivors of crisis situations are frequently working within an environment that is bounded by overlapping governmental and private actors who may have different norms, agendas, and priorities. Developing a symbolic interactionist model that allows for the co-existence of these different approaches, and articulates their interaction, can help IS professionals support these actors who may be struggling with minimal preparation for information interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Working towards a broader understanding of information provision by agencies responding to crisis situations, the aim of this paper is to examine mandated information provision on the part of law enforcement to survivors of intimate partner violence at the scene of an emergency response. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a detailed content analysis of 1,851 documents supplied by local law enforcement agencies from 755 US cities. A 29-element coding framework was developed to identify five key content areas of information: the nature of abuse, survivor norms, police information, legal options, and community resources. Findings – The best represented content areas related to police information, legal options, and community resources. Information on the nature of abuse and survivor hood was dramatically less well represented. Law enforcement understandably privileges that information which involves immediate, concrete action and within which the officer may have a responsibility (for example, to obtain a temporary restraining order). Correlations between city size and the presence of information elements were minimal, while several significant correlations based on region were noted. Originality/value – This is the first nationwide study of the information that police are required to provide to survivors of intimate partner violence. Understanding the features of this seldom-discussed yet vital interaction can help IS professionals support practices and protocols of other agencies responding to crisis situations who may be struggling with minimal preparation for information interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]