Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Psychology

This research forms part of a larger, ongoing project led by Dr Mandy Morgan, Massey University, which addresses domestic violence from the perspective of its victims, offenders, and other service and intervention providers. This current thesis explores police officers' experiences of policing domestic violence using discourse analysis. The methodological approach stems from a social constructionist paradigm, which holds that language is active and constructive in maintaining, contesting and transforming social reality. To this end, 12 front line officers were interviewed to discuss domestic violence. The interviews were transcribed and a discourse analysis was used to identify shared social resources or discourses used by police officers in their understanding of domestic violence, the people encountered in its policing, and the problems experienced in relation to the pro-arrest policy. Officers made use of a variety of, often contradictory, discourses in their understanding of domestic violence, the people involved in it, and their role in policing it. While the analysis suggests officers continue to draw on discourses that blame victims and exonerate offenders, it also points to a discursive shift in police discourses on policing domestic violence, particularly with regard to its seriousness and dangerousness, the importance of policing it, and the utility of arrest.

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