The experience of domestic abuse victim-survivors who work in policing remains an under-researched issue despite their facing a clear role conflict that could expose them to further private and professional harm. Through qualitative analysis of open-ended responses to a survey conducted among officers and staff in a police force in England, this study examined institutional responses to disclosures of domestic abuse victimisation. We identified seven themes: inaccessible reporting pathways; absent institutional procedures and policies; privacy violations in institutional spaces; the exceptional nature of police perpetrated abuse; the uneven risk of counter-allegations; long-term impacts of institutional betrayal; and islands of institutional support. The common mechanism across these themes was one of institutional ‘denial’. Overall, the findings demonstrated that police victims of domestic abuse were held to a higher standard of resilience than the public, which denied them the normal support afforded to victims. Simultaneously, they experienced a set of additional vulnerabilities and harms that is unique to police victims and a direct consequence of their role. At the core of these harms was an institutional failure to acknowledge, accommodate and prepare for domestic abuse victimisation in the police workforce.
O’Leary et al. (Wed,) studied this question.