The Reporting-Service Gap in Intimate Partner Violence: Police Reporting, Victim-Service Receipt, and Dual Noncontact in the National Crime Victimization Survey, 1993–2023

Research on intimate partner violence (IPV) underreporting often treats police notification as the primary indicator of formal-system reach, leaving less clear whether incidents not reported to police include recorded receipt of help or advice from victim-service agencies. Using incident-level public-use data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 1993 to 2023, this study examines the joint distribution of police reporting and receipt of victim-service help or advice among IPV violent victimizations. The analytic sample included 7,672 incidents. A four-category outcome distinguished incidents involving no police report and no recorded victim-service receipt, police reporting only, victim-service receipt only, or both. Dual noncontact was defined at the incident level as no police report and no recorded receipt of victim-service help or advice. Survey-weighted estimates, design-adjusted confidence intervals, reporting-status contrasts, stated reasons for police nonreporting, and a design-based multinomial model described the two measured channels. In 2018 to 2023, 43.0% of IPV violent victimizations involved dual noncontact, 34.3% involved police reporting only, 7.2% involved victim-service receipt only, and 15.5% involved both. Recorded victim-service receipt was more common among police-reported incidents (31.2%, 95% CI [24.9, 38.2]) than among unreported incidents (14.3%, 95% CI [9.9, 20.3]). This reporting-status difference did not vary significantly across the six periods, F (5, 550) = 0.61, p = .693. Among incidents with no police report and no recorded victim-service receipt, the leading stated reasons for police nonreporting were privacy or personal-matter concerns (26.6%), not wanting the offender to get in trouble (24.2%), and fear of reprisal (14.7%). These responses characterize police nonreporting only and do not explain why victim-service receipt was absent. The results provide a long-term descriptive benchmark and support direct evaluation of confidential, low-barrier routes to victim-service help or advice.