‘It feels a bit more sinister’: Police perception of intimate partner violence in the context of socio-economic status

After half a century of grass-roots advocacy and academic research, coercive or controlling behaviour (CCB) is still not widely understood or recognised as the most pervasive form of intimate partner violence (IPV). Since the criminalisation of CCB, the police have been a key agency in victim support in the UK, yet effective response remains a work in progress. This qualitative study focuses on the cultural narratives which influence individual officers in their interactions with victim-survivors of CCB. Critical discourse analysis of in-depth interviews with officers reveals that socio-economic status is a significant factor in perception of IPV: in lower socio-economic households IPV is more likely to be interpreted as situational and episodic, while in higher socio-economic households it is more likely to be interpreted as a deliberate pattern of CCB. This finding suggests that cultural narratives and assumptions should be unpacked as part of officer education and development on CCB.