is reported, historically, the police have avoided becoming involved. Traditionally, law enforcement officers have considered domestic violence incidents as not constituting a criminal offense. "Belknap (1990) noted that police perceived domestic violence incidents as being 'different' from assaults by strangers and portrayed them as 'less dangerous and less serious' for the victims" (as cited in Whetstone, 2001). Using this frame of mind, the response to a domestic violence call has little occupational value to an officer. Police believe domestic violence calls "do not constitute 'real' police work" (Buzawa and Buzawa, 1990) therefore they detest these calls.
             However, "violence by an intimate (husband, ex-husband, boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend) accounts for about 21 percent of all violence experienced by female victims, compared with 3 percent for male victims. The highest rates of non-lethal violence by an intimate are among African American women, women aged 16 to 24, women in households in the lowest income categories (less than $10,000), and women residing in urban areas" (Cole and Smith, 2004). The primary reason why police see far more domestic violence in the poor rather than the middle or upper classes is that the poor tend to excessively call the police. Buzawa and Buzawa (1990) cited this pattern in research conducted by Black (1980), who reported that a middle class white woman is more likely than a lower class black woman to live in a condition of dependency, she is more likely to live on the earnings of her husband, in a household financed by him (pp. 36). In addition, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2000) National Crime Victimization Survey, it is estimated that during any one year, 900,000 women aged 12 or older had been
             victims of violence by an intimate. The survey also found that 30 percent of all female murder victims were kille...