The prevalence of officer-involved domestic violence cases in Mongolia: From the perspective of support service providers

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research empirically explores the pattern and prevalence of officer-involved domestic violence associated with the enforcement of the currently amended Law to Combat Domestic Violence in Mongolia. After a thematic analysis of seven semi-structured interviews with service providers in Mongolian national human rights and non-government organizations, three main themes emerged regarding the relationship between officer-involved domestic violence and the legal enforcement processes of criminalizing domestic violence: (a) officer-involved domestic violence is more prevalent than domestic violence committed by the general population in Mongolia, (b) law enforcement poorly implements the domestic violence law, and (c) officer-involved domestic violence is an intersectional issue exemplifying one of the biggest oppressions to deal with. I argue the bidirectional nature of this relationship: Not only do law enforcement officers’ attitudes contribute to the poor implementation of domestic violence law, but police supervisors contribute to the unsuccessful criminalization of domestic violence by justifying their intimate partner violence under the name of police reputation, maintaining a code of silence in the militarized police culture, and weakening the criminal justice system.