Interrogating police work spillover and intimate partner violence: experiences of female civilian survivors in Uganda

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a symptom of gender inequality. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 5), announced the call to achieve gender equality, and to have more vigorous efforts, including legal frameworks to counter deeply rooted gender-based discrimination that have caused increased cases of violence by intimate partners. The police force in Uganda is a government organ, mandated with keeping law and order. However, cases of intimate partner violence are witnessed among police families. A qualitative study was conducted to examine the influence of police work on intimate partner violence (IPV) against female spouses. We employed An Integrated Ecological Framework to interrogate police work spillover and its influence on IPV. Findings confirm that civilian female spouses of police officers experienced IPV resulting from the nature of husbands’ work. Abrupt transfers and work overload while on deployments separated couples for long and resulted into serious but often ignored cracks in family relationships. It is this that triggered IPV. We recommend more staff recruitment to reduce officers’ work overload, review of the police standing orders, construction of more institutional houses, training officers on IPV prevention and introduction of counselling services in police barracks to mitigate of IPV.