Police intervention in domestic violence cases: mediation, warning or administrative penalty?

Abstract

China’s first law on domestic violence (DV) was passed in 2015 and implemented in 2016, which creatively established the DV warning system. It provides a way for police stations to intervene in DV and ensures family harmony and stability to some extent. However, there are regional and individual differences in implementation. In this study, information was collected during personal interviews with 12 police officers from three police stations in the same city in China. Through the discussion of police intervention in DV, we found that mediation was still the main way to settle a DV case due to the traditional concepts, ambiguity of related terms, weak deterrent of a warning paper, and inadequate understanding of related guide. Also, the support and cooperation mechanism to intervene in DV has not been established. Based on our findings, we will put forward suggestions on improving work norms and procedures, strengthening training and guidance, and establishing multi-party cooperation mechanisms.