Understanding Offending Patterns of Intimate Partner Violence: They Are Not All the Same.

Abstract

Intimate partner violence offenders may have a history of committing other offenses within and outside of the relationship context. This study used a police dataset of male and female offenders (N = 1,189), and their offenses recorded as solved between 2009 and 2019. Hierarchical cluster analyses and K-means focused on diversity in offending through a person-centered approach, establishing six cluster solutions for males and four cluster solutions for females. Male typologies included "low-level offenders," "escalating intimate partner violence offenders," "anti-social offenders," "increasingly prolific violent offenders," "escalating prolific generalist offenders," and lastly, "de-escalating prolific offenders." Similar typologies were evident across the female cohort with a "low-level female offender" typology, a "low-level escalating anti-social" female offender typology, an "intimate partner violence and regulatory offense female offender," and lastly, "prolific violent and anti-social female offender" typology. Male and female offender typologies varied significantly across several variables. Similarities were identified across gender and typologies, alongside similarities and differences based on the time period of offending (either pre-2013, 2013, or post-2013). The implications of this study involve increased understanding of how police administrative data can be used to identify differences across offending based on sex and offense types and tailor responses accordingly.