Military police arrest decision in intimate partner violence incidents: The influence of police ideals, police officer, and incident factors

The current research applied schema theory as an overarching framework for understanding military police decision making in intimate partner violence incidents. Specifically, the purpose of the predictive correlational study was to understand the interrelationship among policing ideals, police officer characteristics, and incident factors of intimate partner violence incidents and the likelihood of dual arrest. One hundred ninety-three military police officers participated in the study. A crosstabulation of the independent variables and arrest decision revealed that military police officers are considering the legal and extralegal factors of an intimate partner violence incident; however, these factors are not overriding the incident facts. Specifically, the injury level of the intimate partner violence incident is given priority for military police officers' arrest decision. Multinominal regression model predicted that dual arrest has the highest chance of occurring when military police officers access minor or major injuries at an intimate partner violence incident. These findings suggest that military police officers are not fully investigating the intimate partner violence incident or officers lack training in recognizing defensive injuries to identify the primary aggressor. These findings have significant implications. Lawmakers should provide clear language in intimate partner violence laws, department policy makers should enact arrest policies that meet the intent of primary aggressor statues, and departments should include a comprehensive training model that support the application of primary aggressor statues. Suggestions for future research include observing military police officers in their natural environment, use official reports to examine actual military police arrest decisions, and replicating this research at other military installations to address the limitation of generalizability.