As a part of the Partner Abuse State of Knowledge project, this systematic review provides an update on intimate partner violence (IPV) legal decision-making research from the last 10 years. We specifically reviewed how sex/gender, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity influence police, prosecutor, and adjudicator perceptions and decision-making in IPV cases. We systematically reviewed a total of 91 study-eligible articles and ascertained themes within the literature. Most notably, the research is mixed and findings were inconsistent and depended on the research focus and methodology. The most robust trend indicates White, heterosexual female victims are constructed as those most worthy of legal pursuit. This pattern was apparent in decisions to arrest, prosecute, sentence, and grant protective orders. Furthermore, some studies indicate individuals from historically marginalized groups (i.e., people of color and folx in the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community) or female-to-male-perpetrated IPV are disparately ignored by the legal system; others observe more aggressive legal action in these populations. We discuss these seemingly contradictory responses and pose ideas for future research.
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