Service providers experience with intimate partner violence reduces their skepticism to mandatory reporting

We analyzed responses from 374 service providers working with domestic violence in the police, child welfare services, emergency primary health care (emergency rooms and assault centers), Alternative to violence, Anger management, and domestic violence shelters about their attitudes toward mandatory reporting and issues that might influence these attitudes. Descriptively data showed that the service were generally supportive of mandatory reporting of intimate partner violence. When we analyzed the extent to which service providers were skeptical of mandatory reporting, we found that professional experience with intimate partner violence influenced their skepticism. Specifically, the more experience the service providers had with intimate partner violence cases, regardless of whether the cases were with victims or perpetrators, or how severe the violence was, or whether the cases were from the last 12 months or throughout their career, they were less skeptical to mandatory reporting. This remained when we adjusted for professional experience in years, type of profession they belonged to, knowledge of mandatory reporting, and number of times they had used mandatory reporting previously.

Read more about the study that was published in Journal of Interpersonal Violence: Nordby, C., Douglas, K.S., Vatnar, S.K.B. Service Providers' Attitudes Toward Mandatory Reporting of Intimate Partner Violence: The Impact of Professional Experience. J Interpers Violence (2024). doi: 10.1177/08862605241305145.