The Behavioural Motivations of Police Officers Engaged in Domestic Abuse Incident Work

This paper explores domestic abuse police work by considering the behavioural motivations of officers. It is underpinned by a study using classic grounded theory to examine how officers behave when carrying out police incident work in England. This study identifies that the motivating driver of off...

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Main Author: Daniel P. Ash
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sociology Press 2022-12-01
Series:Grounded Theory Review: An International Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://groundedtheoryreview.org/index.php/gtr/article/view/439
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author Daniel P. Ash
author_facet Daniel P. Ash
author_sort Daniel P. Ash
collection DOAJ
description This paper explores domestic abuse police work by considering the behavioural motivations of officers. It is underpinned by a study using classic grounded theory to examine how officers behave when carrying out police incident work in England. This study identifies that the motivating driver of officers engaged in domestic abuse incident work viz. their main concern, is the continual management of threats to their social identity. Officers seek to understand whether a particular incident’s circumstances provide them with an opportunity to behave like an archetypal British police officer. Upholding archetypal identity is their main concern, and officers resolve their main concern by balancing value and effort (the core-category in this study). The main concern and core category, as a theoretical framework, provide a grounded theory through which officer interactions can be understood as a continuum of behaviours, conceptualised as identity retreat and identity deconstruction. Officers alternate between these behaviour types when seeking to uphold their archetypal identity as they manage incident outcomes. This study has implications for police practitioners and policymakers seeking to understand the motivation of officers when engaged in domestic abuse work and its impact on incident outcomes and officer behaviours.
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spelling doaj-art-d06699bfc09a4d5c84e73029e8b020e82025-08-20T03:23:57ZengSociology PressGrounded Theory Review: An International Journal1556-15421556-15502022-12-012102The Behavioural Motivations of Police Officers Engaged in Domestic Abuse Incident WorkDaniel P. Ash This paper explores domestic abuse police work by considering the behavioural motivations of officers. It is underpinned by a study using classic grounded theory to examine how officers behave when carrying out police incident work in England. This study identifies that the motivating driver of officers engaged in domestic abuse incident work viz. their main concern, is the continual management of threats to their social identity. Officers seek to understand whether a particular incident’s circumstances provide them with an opportunity to behave like an archetypal British police officer. Upholding archetypal identity is their main concern, and officers resolve their main concern by balancing value and effort (the core-category in this study). The main concern and core category, as a theoretical framework, provide a grounded theory through which officer interactions can be understood as a continuum of behaviours, conceptualised as identity retreat and identity deconstruction. Officers alternate between these behaviour types when seeking to uphold their archetypal identity as they manage incident outcomes. This study has implications for police practitioners and policymakers seeking to understand the motivation of officers when engaged in domestic abuse work and its impact on incident outcomes and officer behaviours. https://groundedtheoryreview.org/index.php/gtr/article/view/439Classic Grounded Theorypolice officersdomestic abuseEnglandarchetypal identity
spellingShingle Daniel P. Ash
The Behavioural Motivations of Police Officers Engaged in Domestic Abuse Incident Work
Grounded Theory Review: An International Journal
Classic Grounded Theory
police officers
domestic abuse
England
archetypal identity
title The Behavioural Motivations of Police Officers Engaged in Domestic Abuse Incident Work
title_full The Behavioural Motivations of Police Officers Engaged in Domestic Abuse Incident Work
title_fullStr The Behavioural Motivations of Police Officers Engaged in Domestic Abuse Incident Work
title_full_unstemmed The Behavioural Motivations of Police Officers Engaged in Domestic Abuse Incident Work
title_short The Behavioural Motivations of Police Officers Engaged in Domestic Abuse Incident Work
title_sort behavioural motivations of police officers engaged in domestic abuse incident work
topic Classic Grounded Theory
police officers
domestic abuse
England
archetypal identity
url https://groundedtheoryreview.org/index.php/gtr/article/view/439
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