Journal of Family Violence (2011) 26:163–169 DOI 10.1007/s10896-010-9346-0 Predicting Officer Physical Assaults at Domestic Assault Calls Richard R. Johnson Published online: 18 January 2011 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2011 Abstract Police work is rife with the potential for physical harm, and domestic assault calls are one source of assaults on officers. Inability to accurately predict what circumstances might lead to an attack is one cause of officer cynicism and paranoia. Having the ability to identify which suspects pose the greatest threat of assault would allow officers to take appropriate protective measures. Using data collected from 1,951 domestic assault calls across three cities, the present study compared characteristics and behaviors of the batterers with whether or not the batterers physically assaulted the responding officers. Findings revealed five significant batterer characteristics (employment status, shared residence with abuse victim, alcohol consumption, property damage, and hostile demeanor toward officers) that successfully predicted officer assaults. These risk factors may be incorporated into police safety training in the response to family violence calls. Keywords Domestic violence. Officer safety. Officer assaults The potential for assaults on police officers handling domestic assault calls has been the subject of some debate over the last few decades. While some studies have found that domestic assault calls only contribute to a very small portion of the assaults that officers experience (Garner and Clemmer 1986; Hirschel et al. 1994; Konstantin 1984), studies in different communities have suggested that domestic assault calls are one of the three most common situations where officer assaults occur (Ellis et al. 1993; Stanford and Mowry 1990; Uchida et al. 1987). Even if other types of calls have higher rates of officer assault, this does not necessarily mean that domestic assault calls are “safe.” On the contrary, as FBI statistics indicate that from 1980 through 2003 more than 224,000 police officers in the U.S. were assaulted while handling family disturbance calls (Johnson 2007, 2008). Furthermore, while survival rate for officers assaulted in the U.S. has been steadily increasing over the last 30 years, the survival rate for officers assaulted at domestic violence calls has failed to increase for officers assaulted at domestic assault calls. It is the unpredictability and constant potential for danger in the form of a violent physical attack that distinguishes the work environment of the police officer. Inability to accurately predict what circumstances might lead to an attack is suggested to be a primary cause of police cynicism and officer mistrust of the public, causing officers to emphasize keeping their guard up at all times (Barker 1999; Skolnick 1966; Wilson 1968). This is impossible to achieve, however, and could lead to paranoia or citizen c ...

1. Journal of Family Violence
(2011) 26:163–169 DOI
10.1007/s10896-010-9346-0
Predicting Officer Physical Assaults at Domestic Assault Calls
Richard R. Johnson
Published online: 18 January 2011 # Springer Science +
Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract Police work is rife with the potential for physical
harm, and domestic assault
calls are one source of assaults on officers. Inability to
accurately predict what circumstances
might lead to an attack is one cause of officer cynicism and
paranoia. Having the ability to
identify which suspects pose the greatest threat of assault would
allow officers to take
appropriate protective measures. Using data collected from
1,951 domestic assault calls across
three cities, the present study compared characteristics and
behaviors of the batterers with
whether or not the batterers physically assaulted the responding
officers. Findings revealed five
significant batterer characteristics (employment status, shared
residence with abuse victim,
alcohol consumption, property damage, and hostile demeanor
toward officers) that
successfully predicted officer assaults. These risk factors may
be incorporated into police safety

2. training in the response to family violence calls.
Keywords Domestic violence. Officer safety. Officer assaults
The potential for assaults on police officers handling domestic
assault calls has been the
subject of some debate over the last few decades. While some
studies have found that
domestic assault calls only contribute to a very small portion of
the assaults that officers
experience (Garner and Clemmer 1986; Hirschel et al. 1994;
Konstantin 1984), studies in
different communities have suggested that domestic assault
calls are one of the three most
common situations where officer assaults occur (Ellis et al.
1993;
Stanford and Mowry 1990; Uchida et al. 1987). Even if other
types of calls have higher rates of
officer assault, this does not necessarily mean that domestic
assault calls are “safe.” On the
contrary, as FBI statistics indicate that from 1980 through 2003
more than 224,000 police
officers in the U.S. were assaulted while handling family
disturbance calls (Johnson 2007, 2008).
Furthermore, while survival rate for officers assaulted in the
U.S. has been steadily increasing
over the last 30 years, the survival rate for officers assaulted at
domestic violence calls has
failed to increase for officers assaulted at domestic assault
calls. It is the unpredictability and
constant potential for danger in the form of a violent physical
attack that distinguishes the work
environment of the police officer. Inability to accurately predict
what circumstances might lead

3. to an attack is suggested to be a primary cause of police
cynicism and officer mistrust of the
public, causing officers to emphasize keeping their guard up at
all times (Barker 1999; Skolnick
1966; Wilson 1968). This is impossible to achieve, however,
and could lead to paranoia or
citizen complaints for overly aggressive behavior. Therefore,
increasing an officer’s ability to
predict which domestic assault situations pose the highest
potential for assault could be very
helpful. Being able to identify for officers which circumstances
pose threats of assault would
allow officers to take protective measures. The present study
sought to utilize characteristics of
the domestic batterer and the situational circumstances of the
incident to predict assaults on
police officers attending domestic assault calls. This study
extended the previous research on
police officer assaults by moving beyond simply searching for
correlates of assault and
developing prediction odds ratios for assaults. A simple
correlate usually refers to a factor that
occurs at the same time as the outcome, while predictor
variables predict an increased
probability of the outcome (Loeber 1990). This study
Page 164
sought to predict increased probabilities of assaults on officers.
Furthermore, this research
targeted assaults at domestic calls, which some previous
research has suggested occur

4. somewhat differently than assaults on officers performing other
duties (Johnson 2007, 2008). It
was hoped that key characteristics could be identified that
would be useful in predicting the
likelihood of an officer assault and permit the utilization of
proactive safety tactics by officers.
Literature Review
While there has been a fair amount of research on the correlates
of police use of force
against citizens (see for example Alpert and Dunham 1999;
Geller and Toch 1995; Terrill and
Mastrofski 2002), there has only been limited research on the
correlates of physical assaults
against police officers. Meyer et al. (1979) reviewed the
characteristics of assailants in 1,143
assaults on police officers from 37 municipal law enforcement
agencies in five U.S. states. The
majority of the assailants in these assaults were young (between
ages 18 and 25), male,
members of racial minority groups, unemployed, had been
consuming alcohol, and had
displayed an angry or belligerent demeanor prior to committing
the assault. A number of these
individuals also had personal problems such as a lack of a high
school education, a criminal
record, and family relationship difficulties (Meyer et al. 1979).
More recently, Pinizzotto et al.
(1998) reviewed the assailant characteristics in all law
enforcement officer murders reported to
the FBI from 1985 to 1994. Again they found that the majority
of the assailants were young
(between the ages of 15 and 29), male, members of racial

5. minority groups, unemployed, low
socioeconomic status, unmarried, under the influence of drugs
or alcohol, and had a criminal
record.
Other Western nations have also conducted similar studies and
identified similar
assailant characteristics. Brown (1994), Moxey and McKenzie
(1993), and Noaks and
Christopher (1990) analyzed data from officer assaults in the
United Kingdom. In all three of
these English studies the assailants were found to be
predominantly lower income males who
were unemployed, had a criminal record, and were consuming
alcohol at the time of the
assault. Most were between the ages of 17 and 25, with an
average age of 22 years old. In
Australia, Mayhew (2001) analyzed official police reports and
found similar characteristics were
prevalent in those who assaulted officers in that nation. The
Australian assailants were
generally young males of lower socioeconomic status who were
intoxicated, with aboriginals
being over-represented among the assailants. In Iceland,
Bragason (2007) conducted a survey
of assaulted police officers who described the characteristics of
their assailants. Again it was
found that those who assaulted the officers appeared to be
predominantly young indigenous
males who were unemployed, had a criminal record, and had
been consuming alcohol. While
the previous research has done a fairly good job of describing
the characteristics of the

6. assailants who attack police officers in many nations, they all
failed to make any attempt to
predict officer assaults. While the person who is most likely to
assault police officers is
described as a lower class, adolescent male who has been
consuming alcohol, it could be
argued that this description fits a significant proportion of the
citizens with whom the police
routinely interact. Yet only small fractions of the intoxicated,
lower class, adolescent males the
police encounter actually assault them. So how do the assailants
differ from the non-assailants
that officers typically encounter? The previous literature has
been silent on this question.
Another weakness to the previous literature is an assumption
that all assault incidents are
similar. Assailant characteristics are pooled across all types of
officer assault incidents. Recently
there has been evidence to suggest that there may be differences
in both offender
characteristics, and how assaults occur, across different types of
officer assault incidents
(Johnson 2007). Previous studies failed to look specifically at
physical assaults of officers
handling domestic assault calls to determine what
characteristics offenders in these specific
situations have, and how these characteristics differ from
batterers in domestic assault calls
who did not assault the police. The present study attempted to
fill this void in the literature.
Method
Participants

7. Data used came from the pooling of datasets from three
previous studies. A sample of
domestic assault calls was needed that contained descriptive
information about the batterer
involved, and contained both cases that involved an assault on
an officer and cases that did not.
Data from three well known domestic violence arrest
experiment studies were used, the first
being the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment (Sherman
and Rogan 1984) which
involved official police reports in 1,250 domestic assault cases
handled by the Minneapolis
Police Department. The second was a replication of the
Minneapolis experiment that was
conducted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, involving 921 domestic
assault cases handled by the
Milwaukee Police Department (Sherman et al. 1991). The last
study was a replication study in
Miami, Florida that involved 907
Page 165
domestic assault cases handled by the Metro-Dade Police
Department (Pate et al. 1991). 1
Even though these data were collected in the 1980s, they remain
relevant today for
several reasons. First, they continue to be used in research on
family violence published in
prestigious social science research journals (Garner and

8. Maxwell 2000; Hickman 2003; Maxwell
et al. 2002; Piquero et al. 2006). Second, since empirical
evidence suggests that assaults on
officers at domestic calls, and officer survival rates from these
assaults, have remained stable
for more than 30 years (Johnson 2007, 2008), there is little
likelihood that any possible changes
in police tactics since the 1980s has occurred with respect to
handling domestic calls. Finally,
the emphasis of this investigation rested on offender
characteristics to predict offender
behavior, relating to innate human behavioral traits that are
unlikely to have evolved
significantly over a few decades.
Data collection method used in all three of these studies was
identical. The data about
the domestic assault incident came from official reports by
police officers and from interviews
with the domestic abuse victims conducted by the research team
within a week after the
incident. Information about the batterer’s behaviors before the
arrival of the police was also
obtained in the abuse victim interviews. Finally, data about the
batterer’s prior criminal record
was obtained from the state crime computer database (Pate et al.
1991; Sherman and Rogan
1984; Sherman et al. 1991).
After merging the 3,078 cases from these three studies it was
discovered that 98 cases
(3.2%) involved a female batterer, none of whom had assaulted
an officer. Because of this lack
of variation in the dependent variable for female batterers in the
sample, the decision was
made to limit this analysis to only male batterers. In another

9. 33.3% of the cases the batterer
had fled the scene prior to the arrival of the police, thus
eliminating the possibility of an assault
on the officers. These 1,026 cases were therefore eliminated
from the analysis, as were three
additional cases that involved an assault on officers by the
abuse victim rather than the
batterer.2 The final dataset for the present study consisted of
data on 1,951 incidents of
domestic assault that were investigated by the police.
The fact that so many cases were eliminated from the sample for
this analysis could
raise questions of validity, especially if the batterers excluded
from the analysis differed
significantly from those that remained. It order to determine the
extent of this potential
weakness, basic demographic characteristics available for the
batterers who remained in the
sample were compared with those who were excluded from the
sample. These demographic
characteristics are displayed in Table 1 and suggest that there
were surprisingly few differences
between the cases that were excluded and those that remained in
the sample. In general, those
batterers that were excluded from the analyses were slightly
more likely to be male, were
slightly younger, and less likely to be married.
Procedure

10. The dependent variable in this analysis was whether or not the
official report indicated
the suspect had physically assaulted the officers handling the
domestic assault call. Because the
data collected was focused primarily on the batterer and the
abuse victim, details were not
available on whether or not the officers sustained injuries, the
seriousness of the injuries,
whether or not the assailant used a weapon, or when during the
encounter this attack took
place. While having this information would have permitted a
richer analysis, the emphasis of
this study, however was the prediction of assaults, no matter
how minor. Just as with victims of
abuse, assaults of any kind are a crime and place police officers
at risk of injury and increased
stress. Data were available on 12 descriptive characteristics
about the batterers in the domestic
assaults that served as the independent variables in this
analysis. These variables and their
descriptive statistics are displayed in Table 2. The first
independent variable considered was the
batterer’s age, and it was hypothesized that younger batterers
would be more likely to assault
officers than older batterers. Second, whether the batterer was
married to the abuse victim
was
Table 1 Comparison between sample and excluded cases
Sample Cases Excluded Cases
N 1,951 1,127
Percent male 100% 91%
Mean age 33.4 30.4
Percent married 51% 47%
Percent consuming alcohol 51% 49%

11. Percent using drugs 22% 23%
Percent damaged property 18% 16%
Percent struck abuse victim 94% 91%
Page 166
Table 2 Variable descriptive statistics (N=1,951)
Dependent
Variable N %
N % %
Batterer
physically
assaulted
officers
117 6%
Independent
Variables
Batterer’s age
Min 18 Max 79
Mean 33.4 SD
9.01
Min 18 Max 79 Mean 33.4 SD 9.01
Batterer married
to abuse victim

12. 995 51%
Batterer’s prior
DV arrests
Min 0 Max 10 Mean 0.89 SD 1.08
Batterer
unemployed
702 36%
Batterer has
HS/GED
1,093 56% 56%
Batterer residing
with abuse
victim
741 38%
Batterer
consuming
alcohol
429 22%
Batterer using
drugs
429 22%
Batterer
damaged

13. property
351 18%
Batterer struck
abuse victim
1,834 94%
Batterer knew
police were
responding
1,034 53%
Batterer
displayed hostile
demeanor
1,073 55%
considered, under the assumption that married batterers may
hold stronger views of privilege
to control their spouses and defend against outside interference
by the police. Similarly, the
third independent variable was whether or not the batterer and
abuse victim resided together.
It was hypothesized that batterers who reside with their abuse
victims would be more
defensive of this territory being invaded by the arrival of an
outside authority, such as the
police.
The fourth and fifth independent variables dealt with substance

14. use issues, whether or
not the batterer had consumed alcohol prior to the arrival of the
police, and whether the
batterer had used an illegal drug before the arrival of the police.
Each of these variables was
expected to have a positive relationship with assaulting police
officers.
The next three independent variables were believed to be
measures of the batterer’s
level of aggression at the time of the incident. It was reasoned
that whether or not the batterer
had damaged property as part of the domestic assault incident,
and whether or not the abuse
victim had been struck by the batterer as part of the incident,
would suggest how violently
aggressive the batterer was at the time of the incident. Whether
or not the batterer displayed a
hostile demeanor toward the officers upon their arrival at the
scene was also included in the
model to measure if the batterer’s level of aggression was still
high when the officers finally
arrived.
Whether or not the batterer had been told the police had been
summoned was also
considered as a possible predictor. When offenders are surprised
by the appearance of the
police they may be more likely to resist or be antagonistic
toward the officers. It was therefore
hypothesized that the batterer would be more likely to assault
the officers if their arrival on the
scene was unexpected, allowing him less time to compose him,
flee the scene, or formulate a
plan for how to respond to the officers.

15. The last three predictors in the model related to the batterer’s
background, specifically
his prior history of domestic assault arrests, his employment
status, and his education level.
Regarding the batterer’s prior record, all three datasets used for
this analysis recorded the
number of prior domestic assault arrests the batterer had
received. Unfortunately, not all of
the datasets included information on each batterer’s total
number of prior criminal offense
arrests, (which may have been a better predictor of past
criminality), or all prior violent
offenses (which may have been a better predictor of violent
propensity). Whether or not the
batterer was employed was included in the model, as was
whether or not the batterer had
attained a high school diploma or general education
development (GED) diploma. It was
hypothesized that batterers with prior domestic assault arrests,
those who were unemployed,
and those who had less than a high school education would be at
greater risk for assaulting an
officer.
Results
Only 117 cases involved an assault on officers, thus supporting
the previous literature
that domestic assault calls are not necessarily frequent events
(Hirschel et al. 1994; Konstantin
1984; Garner and Clemmer 1986). Because the dependent
variable was a dichotomous nominal
level measure, binary logistic regression was utilized to
determine the significance of the

16. influence the independent variables had on the probability of
whether or not the batterer
assaulted the police officers on the scene. The logistic
regression technique also permitted the
determination of the odds each predictor had of increasing the
likelihood of assault, while
controlling for the influence of all of the other predictors in the
model. The results of this
logistic regression analysis are presented in Table 3.
As can been seen in Table 3, the model chi-square was highly
significant (p<.001),
indicating that the combined predictors in the model did a fair
job of predicting whether or not
the batterer would assault the officers. The Nagelkerke pseudo
R2 suggests that the
independent variables in the model explained more than a
quarter of the variation between
cases in the odds of the batterer physically attacking the police.
Within the model, however,
Page 167
Table 3 Logistic regression of batterer characteristics on officer
assault (N=1,951)
Variable Coefficient SE Odds Ratio
Batterer age −0.016 .020 0.984
Batterer married 0.070 .327 1.073
Prior DV arrests −0.126 .219 0.882
Batterer unemployed 0.542* .308 1.582
High school/GED 0.047 .308 3.165
Resides with abuse
victim

17. 1.152** .342 3.165
Using alcohol 1.706*** .431 5.507
Using drugs −0.562 .459 0.570
Property damaged 0.652* .307 1.919
Abuse victim struck −0.656 .582 0.519
Hostile demeanor 2.530*** .480 12.555
Knew Police were
coming
−0.161 .298 0.852
(Constant) −5.792*** 1.029 0.003
Model Chi-square 122.843***
Nagelkerke Pseudo
R2
.276
Significance Levels: * p<.05; ** p<.01; *** p<.001
only five of the 12 independent variables were significant in
predicting the odds of an assault
occurring.
The strongest predictor was whether or not the batterer
displayed a hostile demeanor
at the arrival of the police. When the suspect displayed a hostile
demeanor toward the police,
the batterer was almost 13 times more likely to assault the
officers than if he did not display a

18. hostile demeanor. The next significant predictor in strength was
whether or not the batterer
had been consuming alcohol prior to the arrival of the police.
Batterers who had been
consuming alcohol were five-and-a-half times more likely to
assault officers than those who had
not. If the batterer shared a residence with the victim he was
more than three times more likely
to physically assault the police. Batterers who had reportedly
damaged property during the
domestic incident were almost twice as likely to assault officers
as those who had not damaged
property. Those batterers who were unemployed were about
one-and-a-half times more likely
to assault the police as batters who were employed. Finally, all
of the independent variables
that revealed significant relationships to the dependent variable
displayed relationships in the
predicted directions.
To reveal the substantive significance these five variables had
on predicting whether or
not an assault on the police would occur, the cases that bore all
five predictors were compared
with the cases that lacked all five significant predictors. A total
of 43 cases involved a batterer
who displayed a hostile demeanor, had been consuming alcohol,
resided with his abuse victim,
had damaged property in the incident, and was unemployed. Of
these cases, 25.6% (n=11)
resulted in an assault on the police. On the other hand, 263
incidents in the sample failed to
have any of the five significant predictor characteristics, and
none of these incidents resulted in
an officer assault. Therefore, it appears that simultaneous
presence of all five of these

19. predictors increases the chances of an officer being assaulted to
better than one in four, while
the absence of all of these predictors reduces the chances of
assault to less than one in 263.
Discussion and Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to attempt to identify domestic
batterer characteristics
that helped predict whether or not batterers would assault police
officers who responded to
their acts of domestic abuse. It was hoped that this exploratory
analysis would reveal
characteristics that had predictive value in order to help police
officers identify when they are
at increased risk of being assaulted by a male domestic batterer.
It appears that this study took
a significant first step in identifying such risk factor
characteristics.
As hostile demeanor and alcohol consumption were significant
predictors of an officer
assault. Prior research has suggested that domestic batterers
frequently act composed when
officers arrive and tend to act as if the abuse victim is the one
who is acting irrationally (Buzawa
and Buzawa 2003; Walker 1989). Therefore, batterers who
remain hostile in their demeanor
even after the police arrive appear likely to let their hostility
turn to physical violence against
the officers. Thus encountering a batterer who still displays a
hostile demeanor when the

20. officers arrive is an uncommon event and appears highly
predictive of an impending assault.
As for batterer alcohol consumption, the prior research on
police officer assaults
suggested that alcohol consumption is correlated with attacks on
officers (Brown 1994; Meyer
et al. 1979; Moxey and McKenzie 1993; Noaks and Christopher
1990; Pinizzotto et al. 1998),
and the same was found here. Alcohol serves as a depressant,
contributing to the batterer’s
negative mood, and may reduce the batterer’s inhibitions about
using force against the police.
Alcohol consumption frequently coexists with domestic
violence (Buzawa and Buzawa 2003;
Saunders 1995; Straus et al. 1980), and appears to increase
likelihood of the batterer assaulting
the responding police officers.
Batterers who reside with their abuse victim are more likely to
assault officers than
those who live apart from their victim. This may be due to
impressions of territorial control.
Prior research has suggested that many batterers have
heightened needs for dominance and
control in their relationships and their home (Buzawa and
Buzawa 2003; Holtzworth-Munroe
and Stuart 1994; Walker 1989). They
Page 168
are threatened when they cannot successfully control the
behavior of their intimate
partners, and appear to be even more threatened when the police

21. enter their home and
interject themselves into the situation. In essence, the batterer
has lost all influence over what
he views as his human and physical property when the police
intervene. While this police
interference may be difficult for the batterer to accept at any
location, it appears to be an even
stronger insult when it occurs in his own residence.
It may also be this emphasis on dominance, power, and control
that results in
unemployed batterers being more likely to assault officers than
batterers who are employed.
Unemployed batterers may be already struggling to maintain
dominance in their home. Being
unable to provide for their families, they no longer have the
option of using economic means to
control their abuse victims. Some abuse victims are willing to
tolerate their abuse because of
the economic rewards afforded to her and her children if she
stays in the relationship (Buzawa
and Buzawa 2003; Straus et al. 1980), but if there are very few
financial rewards due to the
batterer’s unemployment, there are fewer incentives to stay. The
batterer begins to lose some
of his power and control in the relationship. This situation can
be aggravated further for the
batterer if it results in his abuse victim seeking employment to
support the family, thus gaining
some economic independence that further threatens that
batterer’s control. This situation may
make the batterer more volatile than normal when the police
arrive to interject themselves into

22. that situation, and limit the batterer’s control to an even greater
extent.
Destruction of property by the batterer prior to the arrival of the
police was another significant
predictor of officer assaults. This may be an indicator of the
degree of the batterer’s rage. While
whether or not the victim was struck was not a significant
predictor, it is important to
remember how many batterers view their use of force. Their
abusive behavior is used to
control their victim. When the abuse victim is completely
compliant the abuse is usually very
minor, often only limited to insults and innuendo. When the
abuse victim’s behavior is
perceived as less compliant, the severity of the abuse increases
proportionally (Buzawa and
Buzawa 2003; Saunders 1995; Walker 1989). When the batterer
damages property, especially
his own possessions, it is not a control technique as much as it
is an expression of rage. This
rage is then turned on the police when they arrive.
These five significant predictors could be utilized by law
enforcement agencies to screen
domestic assault calls for their level of danger. In many
situations, police dispatchers can collect
details about four of these elements from the victim or witness
who reports the crime. Even if
the caller is a neighbor, the dispatcher can often ascertain from
the caller if the suspect resides
with the victim, if he has been drinking, and if he has damaged
any property. If the caller is a
friend or family member, he/she should also be able to reveal if
the batterer is unemployed.
The dispatcher could then warn the responding officers if these

23. four assault predictors are
already present at the scene. The dispatcher can also assign
additional units when these
elements are present. When the officers arrive, they can
determine for themselves if the fifth
element, a hostile demeanor toward them, is present. If so, the
officers can take defensive
measures to isolate the batterer and place him in a position of
disadvantage (such as on his
knees with his hands interlaced on his head) before questioning
him.
Finally, it is important to note for police training purposes that
female victims and female
batterers in domestic assault situations assault the police only
very rarely. Of the 3,078
domestic assault calls in the original sampling frame, only 98
(3.2%) involved a female batterer,
illustrating how rarely law enforcement officers encounter
female perpetrators of domestic
assault. Of these 98 incidents of female perpetrated domestic
assault, none of them resulted in
an assault on an officer. Three of the male perpetrated domestic
assault calls did result in a
female abuse victim assaulting an officer. Of the 2,980
incidents of male perpetrated domestic
assault calls in the original sampling frame, less than 0.1%
involved a victim assault on an
officer. In this dataset, only one in 1,026 domestic assault calls
handled by the police resulted in
a female victim assault on an officer.
Several inferences can be drawn from the findings in this study.
First, attacks on police officers
while they are handling domestic assault calls do not occur very
frequent- ly. In the present

24. study, officers were assaulted in only 6% of cases in the sample.
Nevertheless, due to the sheer
volume of domestic assault calls handled by the police in the
U.S., there still is a significant risk
of assault. For example, if the odds of assault are truly only one
in 33 (3%), and a patrol officer
in an urban area responds to at least two domestic assault calls
per week, the officer is likely to
be assaulted at least twice per year. Obviously other factors are
also at work here, however, as
the variables in the present study left more than 70% of the
variation unexplained. While an
explained variance of 30% is common among social science
studies of human behavior (Loeber
1990; Rosenthal 2001), more work needs to be done. Certain
officer characteristics (such as
skills in interpersonal communication), or situational
characteristics (such as the number of
backup officers present) may help further reduce the odds of
being assaulted. Possibilities
should be pursued in future research.
Another inference to be drawn from this study is that the five
predictors that were significantly
correlated with assaulting an officer may be reliable risk factors
that officers may use to predict
their risk of assault. Whether or not the batterer at a domestic
assault incident has most of
these five characteristics could easily be determined by a
Page 169

25. skilled police 911 dispatcher, provided that the caller has
firsthand knowledge about the
incident and is being cooperative. If the batterer appears to have
any of these five
characteristics, the responding officers could possibly be
warned of this fact prior to their
arrival. Policies could also be developed to send more backup
units than normally would be
sent if it is determined that the batterer has most of these
characteristics. However, before
these characteristics could be reliably established as risk
factors, replication of these findings
would be necessary.
As with all studies, this one had its limitations. First, because of
the age of the data it may not
have accounted for any changes in police tactics that may have
occurred over the last few
decades. Second, the data lacked information on the seriousness
of the assaults on the officers.
It was unknown, therefore, if the victim officers sustained any
injuries from these assaults, and
if the predictors varied by the seriousness of the assault.
Finally, the data lacked information on
the interpersonal interactions between the officers and the
batterer upon their arrival. What
the officers did and said at the scene may have had an
aggravating of mitigating influence on
the potential for assault. These weaknesses need to be addressed
in future research regarding
assaults on officers attending domestic assault calls.
References

26. R. R. Johnson (*) Department of Criminal Justice, University of
Toledo, 2801 W. Bancroft St.,
Mail Stop 119, Toledo, OH 43606-3390, USA e-mail:
[email protected]
1 Data obtained from Sherman, L. W. and Berk, R. A., Specific
Deterrent Effects of Arrest for
Domestic Assault: Minneapolis, 1981– 1982: Sherman, L. W.,
Schmidt, J. D., Rogan, D. P.,
Milwaukee Domestic Violence Experiment, 1987–1989: Pate,
A., Hamilton, E. E., and Sampson,
A., Spouse Abuse Replication Project in Metro-Dade County,
Florida 1987–1989: computer file
datasets; Ann Arbor, Michigan: Inter-university Consortium for
Political and Social Research,
2001. 2 While police lore frequently provides examples of
incidents where it was the abuse
victim at the domestic violence call who assaulted the officers,
the data here suggests that this
is a truly rare event. An attack on officers by a victim occurred
in less than one in a thousand
domestic violence calls recorded in these three datasets.
Alpert, G. P., & Dunham, R. G. (1999). Use of force: Overview
of national and local data.
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Bragason, O. O. (2007). Assaults against police officers: A self-

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Brown, B. (1994). Assaults on police officers: An examination
of the circumstances in which
such incidents occur. London: Home Office Research Group.
Buzawa, E., & Buzawa, C. (2003). Domestic violence: The
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Ellis, D., Choi, A., & Blaus, C. (1993). Injuries to police
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mailto:[email protected]

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30. 9–34). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
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effects of arrest for domestic
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From initial deterrence to long- term escalation: short-custody
arrest for poverty ghetto
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Copyright of Journal of Family Violence is the property of
Springer Science &
Business Media B.V. and its content may not be copied or
emailed to multiple
sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's
express written
permission. However, users may print, download, or email
articles for individual
use.
Predicting Officer Physical Assaults at Domestic Assault
CallsLiterature ReviewMethodProcedureTable 1 Comparison
between sample and excluded casesTable 2 Variable descriptive
statistics (N=1,951)ResultsTable 3 Logistic regression of
batterer characteristics on officer assault (N=1,951)Discussion
and ConclusionReferences
REVIEW
Addressing Sexual and Relationship Violence

32. in the LGBT Community Using a Bystander
Framework
Sharyn J. Potter, PhD, MPH, Kim Fountain, PhD, and Jane G.
Stapleton, MA
Sexual and relationship violence are two major public health
issues that affect an alarming number
of undergraduate students. As a result, many colleges and
universities have protocols to serve
victims of these forms of violence. Despite federal legislation
stating that all students should have
equitable experiences, current protocols and programs focus
primarily on heterosexual
students. College student victims of sexual and relationship
violence who identify as lesbian, gay,
bisexual, or transgender can face particular challenges,
including disclosure of their sexual
and gender orientations, and revictimization when seeking
services. In recent years an
increasing number of campuses have adopted bystander
prevention strategies to address sexual
and relationship violence. These strategies seek to engage
community members in the prevention
of sexual and relationship violence by training them to identify
and safely intervene in situations
where sexual or relationship violence is about to occur, is
occurring, or has occurred. In this article
we review published bystander prevention strategies that focus
on preventing sexual and
relationship violence in the campus community, and discuss
how bystander strategies are
addressing or can address relationship and sexual violence in
the LGBT community. (HARV REV
PSYCHIATRY 2012;20:201–208.)

33. Keywords: bisexual. bystander prevention strategies,
college, gay, lesbian, relationship and sexual
violence, transgender
From the Department of Sociology (Dr. Potter) and Women’s
Stud-
ies Program (Dr. Fountain and Ms. Stapleton), University of
New
Hampshire.
Original manuscript received 18 August 2011; revised
manuscript
received 17 December 2011, accepted for publication subject to
re-
vision 17 January 2012; revised manuscript received 9 February
2012.
Correspondence: Sharyn J. Potter, PhD, MPH, Department of
Sociol-
ogy, University of New Hampshire, 20 Academic Way, Durham,
NH
03824. Correspondence: [email protected]
© 2012 President and Fellows of Harvard College
DOI: 10.3109/10673229.2012.712838
Sexual assault of women is the most common violent crime
committed on college campuses today; one in four college
women experiences completed or attempted rape during
their college years.1 The majority of these assaults are
perpetrated by the victim’s acquaintances (e.g., classmates,
residence hall neighbors, dates) or intimate partners.1−3
College women are at higher risk for sexual assault than
peers who are not in college.4 Studies show that college men
also report unwanted sexual experiences.5,6 Recent research
indicates that 25% of women and 14% of men will experience

34. relationship violence over the course of their lifetimes.7
Exposure to sexual and relationship violence∗ is a key public
health issue and is associated with a multiplicity of negative
outcomes, including increased substance use, depressive
symptoms, health-risk behaviors, and symptoms of
posttraumatic stress disorder among various samples of
survivors.∗ ,9−13
*We use the term sexual violence to refer to a range of
behaviors that are unwanted by the recipient, including, but not
limited to, the
following: derogatory or insulting remarks about physical
appearance; persistent sexual advances that are undesired by the
recipient;
unwanted touching; and unwanted oral, anal, or vaginal
penetration. These behaviors could be initiated by someone
either known or
unknown to the recipient, including someone in an existing
relationship with the recipient. We use the term relationship
violence to refer to
a range of behaviors experienced in the con- text of any type of
intimate relationship or friendship. These behaviors include use
of physical
force or threats of force against a partner, such as slapping,
punching, throwing objects, threatening with weapons, or
threatening any
kind of physical harm. It can also include extreme emotional
abuse such as intimidation, blaming, putting down, making fun
of, and name
calling.
∗ Although the terms victim and survivor are often used
interchangeably,7 in the legal definition the term victim rather
than survivor is
used to describe a person following an assault.8

35. 201
mailto:[email protected]
Harv Rev Psychiatry
July/August 2012
Addressing Sexual and Relationship Violence in the LGBT
Community 202
The extent to which campuses are working to prevent
these problems varies widely.4 Most efforts are aimed at
heterosexual women—statistically, the most highly
represented group. But this population is not the only one
for which sexual and relationship violence is an issue.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students
represent a marginalized population at the same14 or at
higher risk for sexual and relationship violence15−18 as their
heterosexual peers. Yet the 5%–10% of undergraduate
student populations who identify as LGBT19,20 are signif-
icantly underserved by colleges’ prevention strategies for
sexual and relationship violence.
Campus efforts to combat such violence have demon-
strated mixed results regarding effectiveness, particularly
over time.21 Some prevention strategies have been viewed as
directly or indirectly victim blaming.22 Others have focused
too much on individuals or small groups (such as athletes or
fraternity members), or on criminal justice policies rather
than wider social change.23,24 Some campuses have therefore
begun to utilize a bystander approach to engage the broader
campus community—in particular, bystanders—in efforts to
reduce sexual and relationship violence on campus. In this
article we examine the extent to which the published by-
stander prevention strategies have addressed sexual and re-

36. lationship violence in the LGBT community, and we provide
suggestions to improve bystander-intervention frameworks.
SEXUAL AND RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE
EXPERIENCED BY LGBT COLLEGE STUDENTS
Campus Climate for Students Who Identify as LGBT
Sociocultural bias against LGBT people and cultures, known
as heterosexism and homophobia, can frame LGBT identi-
ties as sinful, sick, perverted, and a threat to the traditional
family.25−27 When heterosexuality is posited as the norm,
acts of violence at every level of society perpetrated against
LGBT people are justified or explained through reference to
such negative constructions.28 The climate of LGBT intol-
erance on college campuses has been well documented by
researchers.29−34 For LGBT students, college campuses are
often unwelcoming, unsafe environments, where they expe-
rience harassment,29−31 isolation, ostracization,32 and phys-
ical violence.33 LGBT students can face discrimination or
harassment from their peers (e.g., roommates, classmates,
teammates) and other members of the campus community,
including the professional staff (e.g., coaches, hall directors,
professors, administrators, campus safety, health services
staff). Harassment and discrimination from campus com-
munity members can not only make LGBT students feel
unwelcome but also reduce their self-esteem and prevent
them from seeking help from campus professionals.32,33,35
Perpetrator Tactics
Perpetrators most commonly use two tactics to control their
victims: threatening to or actually revealing the victim’s sex-
uality to others (“outing” the victim), or isolating the victim.
For many lesbians who report abuse, the abuse occurs dur-
ing their first relationship, when they are most vulnerable to

37. batterers who have the capacity to control or manipulate
information.36 For students the impact of outing may be dev-
astating and may occur on several different levels. Many stu-
dents experiment with their sexuality or come out in college.
They may not tell their parents for any number of reasons,
including being cut off from financial and emotional support,
losing parental housing during school breaks, or losing jobs
that might be their only form of support.37−40 The college
environment can offer students the opportunity to explore
same-sex relationships,36 but many such first relationships
are at high risk for relationship violence because the victims
want both to confirm their sense of self and sexual identity,
and to “fit in.” The victims may also lack confidence in what
behaviors are acceptable in intimate same-sex relationships
and may have no or minimal contact with LGBT friend-
ship/community networks, within which they could air their
concerns. The desire to fit in leaves victims vulnerable be-
cause they may take risks, explain away the violence, or lack
the vocabulary or life skills to identify, name, and act on the
violence. For those who might possess such skills and sup-
port and who might even be out, the embarrassment behind
feeling that they somehow are not expressing their sexual or
gender identities “correctly” contributes to their silence
around relationship violence and sexual assaults. These fac-
tors and the perpetrators’ awareness of them increase the
likelihood of relationship violence.41
Isolation—one of the most effective and common tactics
that batterers resort to in heterosexual relationships42—is
often easy to use against LGBT victims because they may
not be open about their sexuality and are therefore socially
isolated. Alternatively, they may have come out but been
rejected by their social groups or families. A variation on this
theme is for batterers to limit the circle of people who are
allowed to know about the relationship, as the batterer
claims that they are not “out.”41

38. Harv Rev Psychiatry
Volume 20, Number 4
Addressing Sexual and Relationship Violence in the LGBT
Community 203
Barriers to Seeking Help and Reporting
The consequences and implications of sexual and relation-
ship violence in LGBT communities are both similar to, and
different from, those of the heterosexual community. Both
heterosexual and LGBT victims of sexual and relationship
violence who seek help must disclose the crime. Students
who identify as LGBT, however, may feel uncomfortable do-
ing so; the disclosure of the crime may also involve the dis-
closure of their sexual identities or gender orientations. For
students who are not out, their perceived need to hide their
sexual identities can be a barrier to seeking services. Peo-
ple who are just coming out or who are not accustomed to
talking about their sexual orientations may find the lan-
guage required to discuss their experiences inaccessible.43
Indeed, the language of sexual and relationship violence
tends to be extraordinarily gendered; female victims are
“attacked” or “abused” by male perpetrators, but fewer ex-
pressions are available to describe same-sex assaults. This
linguistic shortfall reflects common thinking; for instance,
some people cannot fathom or may explicitly deny that a
man can sexually assault another man. Even those who are
accustomed to speaking about same-sex situations on a va-
riety of levels may find it difficult to cross the linguistic gap
after a traumatic event. It can be all the more difficult for
someone who has not yet developed the confidence, let alone
the language related to his or her LGBT identity, to make a

39. report.
Male victims of sexual and relationship violence are often
blamed for not stopping an attack—which makes it difficult
for young men to speak of sexual or relationship violence
perpetrated by other men. Reporting requires them not only
to reveal very personal information but to frame acts of vio-
lence in a manner that makes sense in heterosexist culture,
in which victims are presumed to be heterosexual women.
Indeed, the current reauthorization of the Violence Against
Women Act faces opposition—for the first time—in large
part due to the addition of provisions for services address-
ing the LGBT communities. A gay man just coming to terms
with his sexuality may find it overwhelming to negotiate a
linguistic terrain that clearly marks him as gay and as a
victim of sexual assault.
LGBT individuals who identify as members of a racial or
ethnic minority can face additional burdens in facing stereo-
types of LGBT people as white and from Western cultures
when seeking help.44,45 Similarly, they face accusations of
being traitors to their racial or cultural identities for taking
on the LGBT identity.
Although all victims may face retribution from their
friends for seeking help or reporting the crime, on many
campuses the LGBT communities are small and insulated,
and the fear of retribution can be compounded. The actual
or perceived homophobia on college campuses may
prevent LGBT undergraduate victims of sexual and
relationship violence from seeking help.
As with other marginalized groups, LGBT victims may
choose not to report violence, thereby avoiding
further stigmatization of the LGBT community.46,47
Victims may be concerned that the identification and

40. labeling of same-sex perpetrators will further compromise
the perception of relationships that already involve
negative stereotyping.48 As members of marginalized
communities, LGBT individuals—for fear of
discrimination or harassment—often have serious
reservations about accessing authority figures or disclosing
their sexuality.49 Many LGBT youth attempt to access
services or safety nets such as religious figures, school
counselors, or the police, only to be told that their sexuality
—not the actual perpetration of the violence—is the issue.
For some victims the inability to obtain support from the
system only underscores their isolation and vulnerability.47
Existing Treatments
Services for LGBT and heterosexual victims of relationship
and sexual violence commonly take the form of one-on-
one counseling, advocacy efforts, and education. On college
cam- puses, collaborations with medical facilities,
law enforcement, and campus judicial boards may be
part of these services. In the United States, services for
victims of sexual and relationship violence are rarely fully
inclusive, and the funding of services to meet the needs
of LGBT victims, in particular, is typically
inadequate.47 At the present time lesbian victims of
relationship violence have fewer options than
heterosexual victims for accessing safe and effective
services.49 Other studies have shown that some crisis staff
view same-sex relationship violence as less harmful
than heterosexual violence—a result of the
stereotypes that men can defend themselves and women
are not violent.50 Because LGBT victims are often unwilling
to report violence, statistical data reflect lower rates
of incidence than would otherwise be the case, leading
to minimal funding for direct services, advocacy, and
prevention for LGBT communities. To be most responsive

41. and effective, direct services, advocacy, and prevention
efforts must proactively respond to the range of
vulnerabilities that offenders exploit.51,52
Harv Rev Psychiatry
July/August 2012
Addressing Sexual and Relationship Violence in the LGBT
Community 204
USING BYSTANDER PROGRAMS TO ADDRESS
SEXUAL AND RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE IN THE
LGBT COMMUNITY
In the social psychology literature, bystanders are defined
as individuals who witness criminal acts, emergency
situations, or instances where community norms are
violated.53−55 A bystander’s action or lack of action can
worsen, maintain, or improve the situation. Using research
on the effectiveness of prevention efforts, scholars and
practitioners have tried to engage bystanders as allies in
pre- venting sexual and relationship violence. Further
impetus for engaging bystanders comes from
research on perpetrator characteristics (e.g., hostility
toward women, victimization experiences)56 and situational
factors, such as community norms or community tolerance
toward sexual and relationship violence that can facilitate
or inhibit perpetrator behaviors;57−60 indeed, violence
occurs when there are motivated perpetrators, vulnerable
potential victims, and the absence of community
members who can or will intervene.61 Attention to both
perpetrator behavior and community responsibility can
facilitate effective community-level prevention efforts.
Bystander models focus on teaching bystanders active,

42. helpful behaviors to safely intervene in situations that
involve sexual and relationship violence.62
Although the use of bystander prevention strategies on
college campuses is growing, the majority of bystander
programs have not been formally evaluated, largely as a
result of limited funding and administrative time.63,64 Five
bystander programs for preventing sexual violence, as well
as one social-marketing campaign, have had evaluations
published in the peer-reviewed literature.65 The programs,
each of which utilizes a different approach, are currently in
place on college campuses in the United States and Canada.
The Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) model developed
by Katz in 1993 is one of the first violence prevention
programs using a bystander framework.66 The MVP pro-
gram, in addition to being used on college campuses, is used
with sports teams and with members of the U.S. military.
The program utilizes sports metaphors (e.g., a playbook) to
engage men in preventing violence against women.66 Since
its inception, the program has looked at the harassment of
gays and lesbians, and also at other heterosexist behaviors.
The occurrence of domestic violence and sexual assault in
same-sex couples is addressed, but the scenarios in the
play- book do not yet deal with bystander intervention
when the abuse is within LGBT relationships themselves
—but only when heterosexuals are abusing, harassing, or
talking in degrading ways about LGBT people (Jackson
Katz, personal communication).
The InterACT Sexual Assault Prevention Program is an
interactive skill-building program that seeks to increase
participants’ knowledge on the importance and effec-
tiveness of bystander interventions in preventing sexual
assault.67 While relationship and sexual violence within the
LGBT community is not a main focus, this phenomenon is

43. addressed during the program’s facilitated-discussion
component. InterACT has a separate program that is used to
address homophobia; its main focus is violence and bullying
aimed at LGBT people by heterosexuals, rather than
violence within the LGBT community (Marc Rich and
Courtney Ahrens, personal communication).
The Men’s Project68 incorporates discussion of bystander
techniques and utilizes a social-norms model of change,69,70
where peers’ perceptions of their peers’ attitudes and actions
are used to influence behavioral change. At the present time
this program does not address relationship and sexual vio-
lence in the LGBT community (Christine Gidycz, personal
communication).
The Men’s Program,71 a bystander program that utilizes
a film discussing a male-on-male rape as its focal point, does
not address sexual and relationship violence in same-sex
relationships (John Foubert, personal communication).
The Bringing in the BystanderTM in-person prevention
program trains participants to safely intervene when sexual
assault or relationship abuse is about to occur, is occurring,
or has occurred.62 The facilitator guide for this program in-
structs peer facilitators to explain that perpetrators and vic-
tims of sexual and relationship violence are not restricted to
particular sexual identities, relationships, or socioeconomic
backgrounds. “Its perpetrators and victims may be women or
men, young or old, gay, lesbian, straight or bisexual. Re-
lationship abuse affects people of all races, socioeconomic
backgrounds, and educational levels.”72
Most of the educational strategies for preventing sexual
and relationship violence are in the form of in-person pre-
vention programs, and the Know Your PowerTM Bystander
Social Marketing Campaign (developed in 2004) utilizes the
main tenets of the Bringing in the Bystander in-person

44. prevention program, in particular. The model of a social-
marketing campaign engages bystander behaviors when
sexual assault, relationship violence, or stalking is occur-
ring, is about to occur, and has occurred. The campaign, ad-
ministered campus-wide for a six-week period, utilizes 11' x
17' posters, bookmarks, table tents, full-side bus wraps,
computer pop-up screens, and products distributed with the
campaign logo.73 Studies have shown that participants who
have been exposed to, and who identified with, the
campaign images (compared to participants who report not
identifying with the images) were more likely both to believe
that they had a role to play in reducing sexual and
relationship violence and to have engaged in bystander
behaviors.73−75
During the running of a campaign, the images that ad-
dress relationship and sexual violence in the heterosexual
community (16 images) and the LGBT community (4 images)
are displayed together; the goal is to recognize that sexual
and relationship violence is not limited to heterosexual
relationships and to engage all community members to
Harv Rev Psychiatry
Volume 20, Number 4
Addressing Sexual and Relationship Violence in the LGBT
Community 205
acknowledge and safely intervene in these situations. The
first LGBT image, developed in 2006, has two scenes. In the
first scene two friends realize that another friend is lying
about the source of the bruises on his arms. The friends
realize that the bruising is not the result of a skateboard-
ing accident but has been inflicted by the victim’s abusive

45. boyfriend. In the next scene one friend offers to take the
victim to the campus rape crisis center. In the second LGBT
image, developed in 2009, there are three scenes that il-
lustrate bystanders supporting their friends after the oc-
currence of a sexual assault. The first two scenes highlight
female victims. In the third scene a male victim discloses
that he has been sexually assaulted. His male friend tells
him that he believes him. In the third LGBT image, devel-
oped in 2011, a college party scene is taking place; a female
is being emotionally abusive to her girlfriend. In the image
the bystanders identify and label the abuse and devise a
strategy to safely intervene to help their friend. In the
fourth LGBT image, also developed in 2011, two friends are
sitting in a local pizza shop. One of them, a potential per-
petrator, describes how he has met a man online and that
he plans on “hooking up” with this man, regardless of what
the man wants. The friend labels his friend’s plan as the
perpetration of a sexual assault and tries to convince him to
change his mind.
The nascent field of engaging community members as
active bystanders to recognize and safely intervene when
they anticipate or witness sexual and relationship violence
provides an opportunity to prevent violence not only in the
majority campus community but also in marginalized cam-
pus communities (e.g., LGBTs and the disabled). Programs
that engage community members as both bystanders and
victims work to break down the isolation that threatens
potential victims.76 Anti-LGBT stigma may prevent non-
LGBT students from intervening, because of either fears of
association or an inability to identify violence in a situation
involving LGBT students. As college and university officials
continue to develop strategies to address relationship and
sexual violence in the heterosexual and non-heterosexual
communities, care must be taken that all members of the
larger community feel comfortable providing and seeking

46. help.
PROPOSED DIRECTIONS FOR THE FIELD, AND
CONCLUSION
Any bystander, whether LGBT or heterosexual, who en-
counters an instance of sexual or relationship violence in
the LGBT community should be able to recognize the vi-
olence and to intervene in situations where violence is
occurring—regardless of the sexual orientation of the vic-
tims and perpetrators. Bystanders who intervene must also
be taught, however, how to explain their empathic behavior
to their peers and family members (by suggesting, for exam-
ple, that LGBT relationships can be healthy and should be
respected), who may otherwise ridicule their choice to inter-
vene and may even see their advocacy as going against social
norms and supporting such relationships.77,78 Intervening
bystanders may be required to cope with guilt by association,
including potential violence directed toward them. In fact,
because of the potential for violence, agencies such as the
New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-violence Project send
outreach workers into the field in pairs (or more) as a safety
measure.
As college administrators implement prevention strate-
gies to reduce sexual and relationship violence in the LGBT
community, it must be remembered that these two types of
violence are not the same as hate violence. That said, within
marginalized communities, all three types of violence can be
intertwined; research indicates the prevalence of hate
crime–related sexual assault among gay or bisexual men
ranges from 3.0% to 19.8% of all such assaults and among
lesbian or bisexual women, from 1% to 12.3%.79 Sexual and
relationship violence and hate violence require unique
approaches, each with its own appropriate messaging and

47. effective interventions. While the strategies addressing the
different forms of violence cannot be interchanged, neither
should they be developed in isolation. Only if campus
administrators address these issues will all students be free
to pursue their optimal intellectual and emotional growth
during their college or university years.
Although some of the bystander prevention strategies ad-
dress the discrimination and bullying that is faced by LGBT
students,66,67 most do not. There are a few exceptions.62,73
These findings are problematic considering the prevalence of
sexual and relationship violence in the LGBT undergraduate
community and the unique barriers that LGBT students face
when seeking help. The use of strategies to engage members
of the broader community in preventing sexual and
relationship violence within and against the LGBT com-
munity needs to be increased. Furthermore, when victims
who identify as LGBT seek help, they often find counselors
that are ill equipped to offer support;14,48,80 counselors must
be trained to provide professional and culturally competent
services to LGBT victims. Finally, since the LGBT
community is heterogeneous, efforts need to be made to
understand why some groups access support and others do
not.81
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of
interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content
and writing of the article.
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articles for individual use.
SEXUAL AND RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE EXPERIENCED
BY LGBT COLLEGE STUDENTSCampus Climate for Students
Who Identify as LGBTPerpetrator TacticsBarriers to Seeking
Help and ReportingExisting TreatmentsUSING BYSTANDER
PROGRAMS TO ADDRESS SEXUAL AND RELATIONSHIP
VIOLENCE IN THE LGBT COMMUNITYPROPOSED
DIRECTIONS FOR THE FIELD, AND
CONCLUSIONREFERENCES

60. Received 06/19/12
Revised 12/18/12
Accepted 01/09/13
DOI: 10.1002/j.1556-6676.2014.00154.x
Research
Perceived Racism as Moderator
Between Self-Esteem/Shyness
and Psychological Distress
Among African Americans
Ruth Chu-Lien Chao, Joseph Longo, Canzi Wang,
Deepta Dasgupta, and Jessica Fear
In the spirit of the mission of social justice in counseling, this
study examined perceived racism as a moderator on the
association between self-concept (i.e., self-esteem, shyness) and
distress among African Americans. The authors
examined whether perceived racism changed the relationship
between self-esteem/shyness and psychological dis-

61. tress by investigating a sample of 394 African Americans. With
a moderation analysis, the authors found signifcant
interaction effects of Self-Esteem × Perceived Racism and
Shyness × Perceived Racism on distress.
Keywords: self-esteem, shyness, perceived racism,
psychological distress, African Americans
Given the importance placed on individualism in Western
culture, self-concept has been critical in understanding
people’s psychological issues from the Western perspective.
Moreover, it is hardly surprising that self-concept has been
described as one of the most pivotal personality attributes
related to psychological distress (Marsh, Trautwein, Lüdtke,
Köller, & Baumert, 2006). Self-concept has two indexes, self-
esteem and shyness, which indicate how much people believe
in themselves in terms of their sense of personal value and
comfortableness with others (Cheek & Buss, 1981). Specif-
cally, individuals with higher self-esteem tend to have better
mental health and are more resilient in the face of adversity
compared with those with low self-esteem (Marcussen, 2006).
Shyness, the other component of self-concept, is defned as
“one’s reaction to being with strangers or casual acquain-
tances: tension . . . feelings of awkwardness and discomfort”
(Cheek & Buss, 1981, p. 330). Shyness is associated with high
negative emotionality, negative affectivity, personal distress,
low positive affect, and low constructive coping (Eisenberg,
Fabes, & Murphy, 1995).
Many scholars (e.g., Cowden, 2005; Harris, 2010; Mar-
cussen, 2006) have found that self-concept can positively or
negatively relate to psychological distress, which refers to
the current or past level of overall experiences of symptoms,
intensity of symptoms, and number of reported symptoms
(Derogatis, 1993). With regard to the association between

62. self-concept and psychological distress, there are two types
of studies: one investigates the relationship between self-
esteem and psychological distress (e.g., Abe, 2004; Cassidy,
O’Connor, Howe, & Warden, 2004), and the other explores
the relationship between shyness and mental health (e.g.,
Cowden, 2005).
According to Ratts (2011), one important component in
the social justice mission in counseling is to alter or recognize
oppressive environmental conditions such as racism. Unfor-
tunately, the context of the prior studies shows that a gap still
exists between the prior studies and the call from the social
justice mission. The prior research used a univariate perspec-
tive, which could only answer the direct association between
self-concept (e.g., self-esteem, shyness) and psychological
distress, but may not ft with the emerging commitment of
the social justice mission in counseling-related professions
(e.g., Goodman et al., 2004; Lum, 2003; Ratts, 2011; Ratts,
Toporek, & Lewis, 2010). Among the burgeoning topics
most directly relevant to social justice are correlates and
consequences of injustices, including racism and prejudice.
The harmful nature of racism has been a crucial experience
for African Americans. Perceived racism could be a proxy
for actual experiences of racism, and it refers to one’s ap-
praisals of the stressfulness of the racist events (Landrine
& Klonoff, 1996). Indeed, evidence has accumulated during
the past decade to suggest that reports of perceived racism
Ruth Chu-Lien Chao, Joseph Longo, Canzi Wang, Deepta
Dasgupta, and Jessica Fear, Department of Counseling Psychol-
ogy, University of Denver. Correspondence concerning this
article should be addressed to Ruth Chu-Lien Chao, Department
of
Counseling Psychology, Morgridge College of Education,
University of Denver, 1999 East Evans Avenue, #260, Denver,
CO 80208

63. (e-mail: [email protected]).
© 2014 by the American Counseling Association. All rights
reserved.
Journal of Counseling & Development ■ July 2014 ■ Volume 92
259
mailto:[email protected]

64. Chao, Longo, Wang, Dasgupta, & Fear
are related to mental health and symptoms of psychological
distress (e.g., Fischer & Shaw, 1999). There is evidence to
suggest that, in addition to being harmful, perceived racism
varies among African Americans (Clark, Anderson, Clark,
& Williams, 1999; Landrine & Klonoff, 1996). Levels of
perceived racism relate to how African Americans manage
the association between stress and mental health (Kaiser,
Major, & McCoy, 2004).
Mahalik, Pierre, and Wan (2006) suggested that self-con-
cept, including self-esteem and shyness, was commingled
with perceived racism to such a degree that it was diffcult
to determine the association between self-concept and psy-
chological distress without considering perceived racism.
For example, among African Americans, perceived racism
was associated with lower self-esteem and higher psycho-
logical distress, which subsequently may make it diffcult
to initiate a conversation with strangers (Clark et al., 1999;
Fischer & Shaw, 1999). African Americans with higher
perceived racism had lower use of counseling services and
greater diffculty in trusting culturally different counselors.
Applying the current literature of the relationships between
self-esteem/shyness and psychological distress to African
Americans without considering their perceived racism would
miss the mission of social justice in counseling (Fischer &
Shaw, 1999; Kaiser et al., 2004; Ratts, 2011). To fulfll the
mission of social justice, which recognizes and alters op-
pressive environmental conditions, we examined the role of
an oppressive environment condition (i.e., perceived racism)
to better understand the relationship between self-esteem/
shyness and psychological distress.

65. Self-Esteem, Perceived Racism, and
Psychological Distress
Self-esteem refers to an individual’s overall evaluation or
appraisal of his or her worth and encompasses both beliefs
about oneself and emotions. It refers to how people feel
about themselves, such as feeling competent and pos-
sessing a positive self-attitude (Marcussen, 2006). Theo-
retically, self-esteem infuences the way people are and
their sense of personal value. Self-esteem also affects the
way people feel and act in the world and how they relate
to others. Those with high self-esteem may believe that
they have good qualities, a perception that is critical in
maintaining low psychological distress. In recent years, a
growing body of research has supported the vulnerability
model, which states that low self-esteem operates as a
risk factor for psychological distress (Harris, 2010; Orth,
Robins, & Roberts, 2008). Individuals with low self-esteem
are assumed to have fewer coping resources and thus are
prone to distress, whereas those with high self-esteem
are assumed to have suffcient coping strategies, which
prevent them from spiraling downward into psychologi-
cal distress. Empirically, high self-esteem has been found
to be negatively associated with psychological distress,
but low self-esteem may signifcantly exacerbate people’s
psychological maladjustment (Orth et al., 2008).
Although the relationship between self-esteem and psy-
chological distress has been established, when applying this
relationship to African Americans, the precise mechanisms
of in what conditions and among whom self-esteem may
lead to distress have not yet been determined. In other words,
conceptualizing a direct association between self-esteem and
psychological distress for African Americans may lead to two

66. diffculties. First, Mahalik et al. (2006) found that African
Americans’ development of self-esteem closely relates to
their racial identity and discrimination. Szymanski and Gupta
(2009) found that among African Americans, perceived rac-
ism was negatively associated with self-esteem but positively
associated with distress. Our study attempted to further ad-
vance the literature on self-esteem, perceived racism, and
psychological distress by conceptualizing perceived racism
as a moderator that may change the mechanism between
self-esteem and distress.
Second, Klonoff, Landrine, and Ullman (1999) reported
that perceived racism is a ubiquitous part of many Afri-
can Americans’ experiences. More than 90% of African
Americans have experienced racist events in their lifetime
(Landrine & Klonoff, 1996). Indeed, racism is insidious in
society and permeates many aspects of African American
life. Jones (1997) suggested that the experience of racism is
multidimensional and can be classifed by using a tripartite
typology: individual racism, institutional racism, and cultural
racism. Because racism could be experienced by African
Americans on almost a daily basis, Landrine and Klonoff
(1996) suggested that the assessment of the degrees of racism
or appraisal of the racist experience may be more important
than measuring the types of racism. For example, two African
Americans may experience the same racist event, and yet
one may fnd it very stressful or be severely hurt whereas the
other dismisses it (Landrine & Klonoff, 1996). In addition,
perceived racism can signifcantly affect African Americans’
mental health. The more racism that African Americans ex-
perience, the higher the levels of psychological distress they
report (Fischer & Shaw, 1999).
An understanding of the role of perceived racism would
seem to be of great importance to counselors when they serve
African Americans. In other words, while we continue to work

67. toward the social justice mission (i.e., a better understanding
of racism), it is inevitable to examine how perceived racism
may change the established association between self-esteem
and distress. Furthermore, we also work to identify under what
conditions (i.e., high vs. low perceived racism) is self-esteem
negatively associated with the distress of African Americans.
Understanding the role of perceived racism could allow coun-
selors to determine among whom (i.e., African Americans
Journal of Counseling & Development ■ July 2014 ■ Volume 92
260

68. Perceived Racism Among African Americans
who perceive high vs. low racism) psychological distress
can be minimized regardless of the levels of self-esteem. We
thus conceptualized that the association between self-esteem
and distress among African Americans may depend on the
extent of racism that the individual perceives. When African
Americans perceive high levels of racism, their self-esteem
may be vulnerable to psychological distress. Yet, when African
Americans perceive low levels of racism, they may be able
to maintain low psychological distress across different levels
of self-esteem. Therefore, our frst hypothesis was that per-
ceived racism moderates the relation between self-esteem and
psychological distress among African Americans. However,
when perceiving less racism, African Americans would be
able to maintain low psychological distress across different
levels of self-esteem. Taken together, although prior studies
have addressed perceived racism, almost none addressed it as
a moderator variable. Thus, we examined perceived racism as
a moderator, rather than simply repeating past studies on the
direct effects between self-esteem and psychological distress.
Shyness, Perceived Racism, and
Psychological Distress
According to Cheek and Buss (1981), shyness is a person-
ality characteristic or a component of self-concept and is
characterized by the discomfort and inhibition that may occur
in the presence of others. Conceptually, shy people tend to
be aware of themselves as social objects more than people
with low shyness. Given that shy people tend to feel tense
and awkward, they may have higher levels of psychological
distress (Eisenberg et al., 1995). Empirically, shyness is pre-
dictive of later psychological and social functioning (Beer,

69. 2002). Shyness is positively associated with neuroticism
and negatively associated with extroversion, two personality
traits of the Big Five scale (Ryan & Xenos, 2011). Shyness
is often thought to be associated with anxiety or generalized
negative affect, and its relation to psychological distress has
been reasonably well documented. Research has also found
that shyness is associated with depression (Beer, 2002), low
self-esteem, and loneliness (Cheek & Buss, 1981). Thus,
based on the current literature, shyness could be a risk factor
for psychological distress.
Although shyness could be a vulnerability factor for psy-
chological distress, it is still unknown or questionable if this
association is valid among African Americans. For example,
African Americans may feel uncomfortable when encounter-
ing strangers because of shyness or perceived racism from an
unwelcoming stranger. Or perhaps the extent of the racism
that African Americans perceive exacerbates their shyness on
distressed feelings. To date, there has been no rigorous test
of the association between shyness and psychological distress
among African Americans. Joiner (1997) suggested that
the association between shyness and psychological distress
should be considered within the context of a targeted popula-
tion. Given the fact that many African Americans encounter
racist events (Landrine & Klonoff, 1996) and that the way in
which it is experienced is a unique stressor for this popula-
tion (Clark et al., 1999; Harrell, 2000), it seems appropriate
to include perceptions of racism in the association between
shyness and distress among African Americans. Thus, a goal
of our study was to explain, at least in part, when and how
shy African Americans become psychologically distressed,
by using interactive views between shyness and perceived
racism on symptoms of distress.
The reason that perceived racism could be a moderator

70. that changes the association between shyness and distress
could be due to a variety of issues (Eisenberg et al., 1995).
First, when African Americans perceive more racism, they
may be more vulnerable to shyness, which has been associ-
ated with distress. African Americans who perceive more
racism tend to have less resilience and fewer resources
to manage daily stress than those who perceive less rac-
ism (Beer, 2002). Second, although shyness is associated
with psychological distress, more important for African
Americans, it is suggested that higher level of perceived
racism may make shy African Americans more vulner-
able to distress. For African Americans, shyness involves
an internal experience of emotional isolation, whereas
perceived racism creates an even deeper sense of social
marginalization and relational disconnection. Moreover,
when African Americans are disturbed by racism, they
may become lonely and frustrated and may be unable
to manage their shyness, which in turn leads to greater
psychological distress (Cowden, 2005). That is, African
Americans’ perceived high levels of racism are predicted
to worsen the association between shyness and distress.
Finally, because shyness does not assume high levels of
perceived racism, some shy African Americans may still
perceive low levels of racism. Such low levels of perceived
racism may make African Americans more confdent and
relaxed when encountering strangers.
Thus, low perceived racism may buffer against shyness on
negative social and health consequences, and African Ameri-
cans reporting low perceived racism may be able to maintain
low psychological distress no matter how shy they are. The
present reconceptualization thus asserts that shyness will
buffer against psychological distress when African Ameri-
cans perceive low levels of racism-related stress (i.e., per-
ceived racism moderates the relation between shyness and
psychological distress among African Americans). In other

71. words, when feeling shy, African Americans who perceive
low levels of racism may have a buffer that differentially
affects the association between shyness and psychological
distress (Clark et al., 1999). Thus, our second hypothesis was
that perceived racism moderates the relationship between
shyness and psychological distress among African Ameri-
Journal of Counseling & Development ■ July 2014 ■ Volume 92
261
Chao, Longo, Wang, Dasgupta, & Fear
cans. The less racism perceived by African Americans, the

72. more buffered the relation is; however, those who perceive
high levels of racism would lack the buffer against shyness
on distress. Therefore, we examined perceived racism as a
moderator between shyness and psychological distress rather
than simply addressing the direct effects between shyness
and psychological distress.
The Present Study
In an effort to advance the social justice mission of counseling
and psychology, we expanded the current literature on the
associa-
tion between self-concept and psychological distress for African
Americans. Contextualizing this association based on African
Americans’ experiences with racism serves two purposes: First,
it addresses the emergent social justice mission imperative in
counseling; and second, it facilitates counselors’ cultural
sensitivity
when serving this population. Because perceived racism affects
the lives of many African Americans, we constructively tested
our
two hypotheses with a sample of nonclinical African Americans.
Our frst hypothesis aimed to determine whether perceived
racism
moderates the association between self-esteem and
psychological
distress. Our second hypothesis examined whether perceived
rac-
ism moderates the association between shyness and
psychological
distress. We hope that our fndings will assist African Americans
in dealing with the association between self-concept and
distress,
as well as help advance the current literature on self-esteem and
shyness in the face of racism. We placed the association
between
self-esteem/shyness and psychological distress in the mission of

73. social justice via conceptualizing perceived racism as a
moderator
to this association.
Method
Power Analysis
A power analysis was conducted by using G*Power 3.1.2
(Erdfelder, Faul, & Buchner, 1996) to estimate the sample
size. A sample size of 386, 55, and 26 was needed for a small,
medium, and large effect size, respectively. In our study, a
sample size of 394 would detect a two-way interaction effect
with a small to medium effect size and a power of .80.
Participants
Our study participants were 394 African American students
from one historically Black university in the mid-Atlantic
region of the United States. Specifcally, there were 212 (54%)
women and 177 (45%) men; fve participants did not identify
their gender. Most participants were undergraduate students
(17% freshmen, 14% sophomores, 23% juniors, 26% seniors,
and 20% graduate school). The participants had declared ma-
jors in biology, engineering, education, or psychology. About
77% of participants were 25 years of age or younger. All par-
ticipants were informed that their participation was voluntary
and reassured that all information would be kept anonymous.
Instruments
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965).
The RSES is a 10-item scale that assesses an individual’s
self-esteem. It uses a 4-point Likert-type response, ranging
from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree), with higher
scores indicating higher self-esteem. The RSES has a more
than adequate coeffcient alpha of .92 and a test–retest cor-