No Ideal Victim: A Cross Racial and Cross Socioeconomic Analysis of Domestic Violence Arrest Policies

This thesis examines how different domestic violence arrest policies influence the distribution of intimate partner violence (IPV)-related homicide cases when taking into account race and socioeconomic status. To answer my research questions, I conduct a mixed methods analysis using a 27-state sample from the Center for Disease Control (CDC)'s National Violent Death Reporting System between 2003-2015 alongside interview data that I collected from five relevant professionals in North Carolina. The results of the statistical analysis show a statistically significant relationship between race, socioeconomic status, and domestic violence arrest policies. Descriptive statistics show that black women and American Indian/Alaskan Native women are over represented amongst IPV-related homicide cases whereas white women and women are underrepresented within the sample. Additionally, women with less than or equal to a high school education are over represented within the sample whereas women with some college education or beyond are underrepresented. Findings of this study aim to create a more nuanced discussion around the effectiveness of domestic violence arrest policies with hopes of informing policy makers of ways in which they can create more effective interventionist policies for black women and poor women who experience domestic violence.Bachelor of Art