Law Enforcement Training and Policies: Only 17% of police departments report having specific policies on same-sex domestic violence. 83% of police departments report providing training on issues around same-sex domestic violence. 14% of police departments report that they do not train on issues around same-sex domestic violence.
Research revealed that law enforcement responses to domestic and interpersonal violence involving LGBT individuals is inadequate and that police authorities are failing to act with due diligence to prevent and protect LGBT individuals from domestic violence, in contravention of international standards. Findings suggest that police often fail to respond to domestic violence, including within the LGBT community. In some cases officers may fail to recognize that the incident has occurred in the context of an intimate relationship. Advocates told AI that police often do not take LGBT domestic violence seriously. According to advocates the police have greater difficulty in identifying the abuser when responding to LGBT domestic violence calls. When police do attempt to identify the abuser in an LGBT domestic violence situation, reports to AI suggest that transgender and gender-variant survivors, immigrant survivors, survivors of color, the person perceived to be of lower socio-economic status or the biggest and youngest person are reportedly often assumed to be the abusers and are arrested. AI also heard a number of reports of police officers arresting or threatening to arrest both parties when responding to LGBT domestic violence in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Washington, D.C. AI also heard reports of officers making homophobic or transphobic comments when responding to LGBT domestic violence situations.
I can't say it better than the police officer: "This situation is just like every other domestic abuse situation. No one deserves to be abused."
**information from Amnesty International: LGBTQ Human Rights
No comments:
Post a Comment