Family Violence and Police Response

Wilma Smeenk is Senior Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), The Netherlands. She studied sociology at the University of Nijmegen and received her doctor's degree with a dissertation about family formation and partner choice. At the NSCR, she combines a strong interest in theory development and epistemology with quantitative and qualitative research in schools and families. Research topics of interest are: family violence, cross-cultural research, developmental criminology, violence against women, and the inter-generational transmission of violence. Marijke Malsch studied social sciences and law at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In 1989, she received her doctor's degree with a dissertation entitled: Lawyers' predictions of judicial decisions: A study on calibration of experts. In 1999, she edited Complex cases: Perspectives on the Netherlands criminal justice system together with Hans Nijboer. She has been a senior researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) in Leiden, The Netherlands since 1993. Current research focuses on family violence, stalking legislation, legitimacy of the criminal justice system, experts in the criminal justice system, and the principle of open justice. Since 1997, she has also worked part-time as a judge at the District Court of Haarlem.

Contents: Foreword, Betsy Stanko; Introduction, Wilma Smeenk and Marijke Malsch; Challenges of surveying violence against women: development of research methods, Natalia Ollus and Sami Nevala; Critical issues related to the measurement of intimate partner violence: a clustering analysis of psychometric scores, Juanjo Medina-Ariza and Eduardo Fe-Rodriguez; Violence against women in France and issues of ethnicity, Stéphanie Condon; Moving in the same or different directions? Reflections on recent developments in domestic violence legislation in Europe, Liz Kelly; Violence against women in the Swedish context, Peter Lindström; Legal processing of domestic violence cases in the Italian criminal justice system, Anna C. Baldry; Family violence against women in Greece, Sevaste Chatzifotiou; (Un)organized responses to domestic violence: challenges and changes in Switzerland, Corinna Seith; Abuser programmes and violence against women, Russell P. Dobash and Rebecca Emerson Dobash; Legislation on family violence and stalking, Marijke Malsch and Wilma Smeenk; Family violence and police response: learning from research, policy and practice, Wilma Smeenk and Marijke Malsch; Index.