Macro-level Influences on Police Decision-making and Engagement with Victims of Serious Crimes
This project studies the influences that shape police decision-making and engagement with victims of violent crimes. How police treat victims of violent crime, in theory, is governed by the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act of 2004 and by state legislation. In practice, however, other factors seem to inform the way police work violent criminal cases, specifically: how they perceive their work, how they think about the victims they work with and how they decide what to do next in an investigation.
National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellowship Program Award
Principal Investigator
Patricia Sattler, graduate student, School of Social Welfare
Co-Principal Investigator
Nancy Jo Kepple, associate professor, School of Social Welfare
Project Dates
January 2020 – June 2022
Funding Agency
KU Student Wins NIJ Fellowship to Study How Police Engage with Victims of Violent Crime
Patricia Sattler served as the statewide victim assistance coordinator for the Nebraska Department of Justice for the last eight years of a 16-year practice career, so she’s seen firsthand how it can be difficult for law enforcement officers and victims of violent crimes to communicate and