Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment
Encyclopedia
The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment (MDVE) was a study done in 1981-1982, led by Lawrence W. Sherman
, to evaluate the effectiveness of various police
responses to domestic violence
calls in Minneapolis, Minnesota
. The study was performed with cooperation from the Police Foundation
and the Minneapolis Police Department
, and funding by the National Institute of Justice
. The results of the study had a "virtually unprecedented impact in changing then-current police practices." Subsequently, numerous states and law enforcement agencies
enacted policies for mandatory arrest
, without warrant
, for domestic violence cases in which the responding police officer had probable cause
that a crime had occurred.
intervention. Before the early 1970s, police in the United States
favored a "hands-off" approach to domestic violence calls, with arrest only used as a last resort. At the time, domestic violence cases were classified as misdemeanor
assault
cases. A 1978 court order in New York City
mandated that arrests only be made in cases of serious violence, thus officers instead made effort to mediate family disputes.
In the early 1970s, clinical psychologists
argued that police should make an effort to mediate disputes.
Statistics on incidence of domestic violence, published in the late 1970s, helped raise public awareness of the problem and increase activism
. A study published in 1976 by the Police Foundation found that the police had intervened at least once in the previous two years in 85 percent of spouse homicide
s. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, feminists
and battered women's advocacy groups were calling on police to take domestic violence more seriously and change intervention strategies. In some instances, these groups took legal action against police departments, including in Oakland, California
and New York City, to get them to make arrests in domestic violence cases. They claimed that police assigned low priority to domestic disturbance calls.
In 1978, Alfred Blumstein
and the National Academy of Sciences
issued a report, Deterrence and Incapacitation: Estimating the Effects of Criminal Sanctions on Crime Rates, which argued for an approach to domestic violence and other crime, based on social control
theories and use of deterrence
for crime control.
. Cases used in the study were misdemeanor
assault calls, which make up the bulk of domestic violence calls for service
. Both the victim and offender needed to still be present when the police arrived, in order to be included in the study.
51 patrol officers in the Minneapolis Police Department participated in the study. Each was asked to use one of three approaches for handling domestic violence calls, in cases where officers had probable cause to believe an assault had occurred:
Interviews were conducted during a 6-month follow-up period, with both victims and offenders, as well as official records consulted to determine whether or not re-offending had occurred.
The study lasted approximately 17 months, and included 330 cases.
against the same victim within the following six months. Other methods, such as counseling or temporarily sending assailants away, were deemed less effective.
and prime-time news coverage on television. Many U.S. police departments responded to the study, adopting a mandatory arrest policy for spousal violence cases with probable cause
. New York City Police Department
Commissioner Benjamin Ward
quickly issued a new mandate for officers to make arrests, after reading the results of the study in a Police Foundation report. Ward stated his belief that "arresting violent members of a household would be more effective in protecting other family members and help safeguard police officers called in to stop the highly charged quarrels. I thought it was about time to put policemen out of the counseling business and into what they really are best at, which is making arrests, then let the judge decide." With this mandate, Ward also included cohabitants
and same-sex
couples in the police definition of family. The Houston
and Dallas Police Department
s were also quick to change their approach to domestic disturbance calls, and make more arrests. Within a year, the number of police departments using arrest as a strategy in domestic violence cases jumped from 10 to 31%, and to 46% by 1986. Numerous other police departments had partially changed their approach to domestic violence cases.
In 1984, the U.S. Attorney General
's Task Force on Family Violence report drew heavily upon the Minneapolis study, in recommending that domestic violence be handled with a criminal justice
approach. Within eight years, 15 states and the District of Columbia enacted new domestic violence laws that proscribed mandatory or presumptive arrest of violent domestic offenders. By 2005, 23 states and the District of Columbia had enacted mandatory arrest for domestic assault, without warrant, given that the officer has probable cause and regardless of whether or not the officer witnessed the crime. The Minneapolis study also influenced policy in other countries, including New Zealand
, which adopted a pro-arrest policy for domestic violence cases.
laws were implemented in the U.S. during the 1980s and 1990s due to the impact of the Minneapolis Experiment
. Also, the Violence Against Women Act
of 1994 added to the fight for legislation
in the 1990s in the states
without mandatory arrest
laws. The laws “require the police to make arrests in domestic violence cases when there was probable cause to do so, regardless of the wishes of the victim.” Before the laws were put into effect, police
officers were required to witness
the abuse
occurring first hand prior to making an arrest. Currently, 23 States use Mandatory Arrest policies.
Other States leave the decision to arrest to the discretion
of the responding officers.
, police
often were not able to arrest individuals suspected of domestic violence
. In an article from the California Law Review
titled “Domestic Violence as a Crime Against the State,” Michaela Hoctor explained that “when officers did respond to a domestic violence call, they usually attempted to mediate the dispute. This "mediation" consisted of a variety of approaches, including attempts by officers to convince the parties to reconcile immediately at the scene or to use formal alternative dispute resolution programs.”
The debate
over Mandatory Arrest is still underway, as many people believe it has negative effects on the assailant
, victim, and their family
members including but not limited to the breakdown of the family, the economic deprivation of the victim, the trauma
associated with separation of families, and the lack of childcare in situations of dual arrest. Sometimes when police respond, they arrest
both parties involved in a domestic violence
situation. As described by Margaret Martin in the Journal of Family Violence, “The practice of dual arrest, the arrest of two parties, usually a man and a woman engaged in a ‘domestic dispute,’ has arisen in localities which employ presumptive and mandatory arrest”. Police are more likely to arrest both parties if the primary aggressor is female
However, not every domestic violence
situation results in dual arrest. Police Officers are trained to deduct who the primary aggressor is in a domestic violence
dispute, leading to the arrest of the assailant
and not the victim.
simply based on probable cause
to believe an act of domestic violence
has been committed, while others do not allow for an arrest after a specific amount of time following the incident. For example, in Alaska
the police cannot make an arrest if the abuse occurred more than 12 hours prior to notification Police
are specifically trained to assess the situation and decide whether they have the required probable cause
to make an arrest. For instance, Wisconsin
has a list of requirements that must be met before an officer can arrest a suspect. These include the age of the suspect(s), their relationship to the victim(s), and whether the act could be considered an intentional assault
. The officer must also be able to identify the “predominant aggressor”
(NIJ), in 2008, “when victims and offenders were intimate partners, police made no arrests in 50.1 percent of incidents, one or more arrests in 48.0 percent of incidents, and dual arrests in 1.9 percent of incidents”
In regards to same-sex relationships, the arrest rates for domestic violence
were the same as those for heterosexual couples. For all intimate
partner relationships, offenders were more likely to be arrested if the incident of violence was a serious aggravated assault. The NIJ also reported that “arrest occurred more frequently in cases involving intimate partners if the offender was white” and “cases involving intimate partners and acquaintances were more likely to result in arrest if the offender was 21 or older”
, whereas in other jurisdictions arrestees might be sent home much quicker.
Randomized experiments look at causal effects
for the group as a whole. Conclusions may be made that may apply to most individuals in the group, but not all individuals, with some possibly experiencing negative effects of the intervention. In some cases, arrest may provoke the abuser and increase the possibility of more retributive violence.
Mandatory arrest is based on deterrence theory, which includes the assumption that the offender is making rational decisions
. In the case of domestic violence, the offender
often shows little rational behavior.
, Charlotte, North Carolina
, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
, Miami-Dade County, Florida
, and Colorado Springs, Colorado
. In Metro-Dade, 907 cases were used, compared to 1,200 cases in Milwaukee and over 1,600 cases in Colorado Springs.
Some of these studies have produced different results than the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment. The Colorado Springs study found several police responses that were slightly more effective, including restoring order, providing crisis intervention, issuing emergency protection orders, or arresting offenders, and that there is no singular approach for police dealing with domestic violence cases. Altogether, the five replication studies produced mixed results, with three studies finding that offenders who were arrested experienced higher levels of recidivism. The other studies showed a modest but statistically significant reduction in re-offending for those arrested.
In the replication studies, arrest seemed to help in the short run in some cases, but those arrested experienced double the rate of violence over the course of one year. Criminologists do not fully understand the reasons why deterrent effects do not last over time. But they suggest that abusers may initially fear punishment, though many cases do not make it all the way through the criminal justice process. If the victim is uncooperative during investigation, the prosecutor
may choose not to pursue the case. If the case is pursued through the criminal justice system, sometimes the resulting sentence
is minor. Subsequently, fear that the abuser has of punishment may have diminished.
In 1993, Janell Schmidt and Lawrence W. Sherman recommended that police be given more structured discretion, with a menu of options the officer could choose from in each situation.
Lawrence W. Sherman
Lawrence W. Sherman is an academic criminologist. In 2006, he was elected Wolfson Professor of Criminology at the Cambridge Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University, where he was appointed founding director of the Jerry Lee Centre for Experimental Criminology in 2008...
, to evaluate the effectiveness of various police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
responses to domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
calls in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
. The study was performed with cooperation from the Police Foundation
Police Foundation
The Police Foundation, of Washington, DC, is a non-profit foundation dedicated to helping the police be more effective in doing their job. It was founded on July 22, 1970 by the Ford Foundation, and has continued to receive its primary support from that foundation, although it now has a large...
and the Minneapolis Police Department
Minneapolis Police Department
The Minneapolis Police Department is the police department for the city of Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Formed in 1867, it is the second oldest police department in the state of Minnesota, after the Saint Paul Police Department . A short-lived Board of Police Commissioners existed...
, and funding by the National Institute of Justice
National Institute of Justice
The National Institute of Justice is the research, development and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice. NIJ, along with the Bureau of Justice Statistics , Bureau of Justice Assistance , Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention , Office for Victims of Crime ,...
. The results of the study had a "virtually unprecedented impact in changing then-current police practices." Subsequently, numerous states and law enforcement agencies
Law enforcement agency
In North American English, a law enforcement agency is a government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws.Outside North America, such organizations are called police services. In North America, some of these services are called police while others have other names In North American...
enacted policies for mandatory arrest
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
, without warrant
Warrant (law)
Most often, the term warrant refers to a specific type of authorization; a writ issued by a competent officer, usually a judge or magistrate, which permits an otherwise illegal act that would violate individual rights and affords the person executing the writ protection from damages if the act is...
, for domestic violence cases in which the responding police officer had probable cause
Probable cause
In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which an officer or agent of the law has the grounds to make an arrest, to conduct a personal or property search, or to obtain a warrant for arrest, etc. when criminal charges are being considered. It is also used to refer to the...
that a crime had occurred.
Background
Domestic violence historically has been viewed as a private family matter that need not involve government or criminal justiceCriminal justice
Criminal Justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...
intervention. Before the early 1970s, police in the United States
Policing in the United States
Law enforcement in the United States is one of three major components of the criminal justice system of the United States, along with courts and corrections. Although there exists an inherent interrelatedness between the different groups that make up the criminal justice system based on their...
favored a "hands-off" approach to domestic violence calls, with arrest only used as a last resort. At the time, domestic violence cases were classified as misdemeanor
Misdemeanor
A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...
assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
cases. A 1978 court order in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
mandated that arrests only be made in cases of serious violence, thus officers instead made effort to mediate family disputes.
In the early 1970s, clinical psychologists
Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...
argued that police should make an effort to mediate disputes.
Statistics on incidence of domestic violence, published in the late 1970s, helped raise public awareness of the problem and increase activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
. A study published in 1976 by the Police Foundation found that the police had intervened at least once in the previous two years in 85 percent of spouse homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
s. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, feminists
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
and battered women's advocacy groups were calling on police to take domestic violence more seriously and change intervention strategies. In some instances, these groups took legal action against police departments, including in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
and New York City, to get them to make arrests in domestic violence cases. They claimed that police assigned low priority to domestic disturbance calls.
In 1978, Alfred Blumstein
Alfred Blumstein
Alfred Blumstein is an American scientist and the J. Erik Jonsson University Professor of Urban Systems and Operations Research at the Heinz College and Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University...
and the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
issued a report, Deterrence and Incapacitation: Estimating the Effects of Criminal Sanctions on Crime Rates, which argued for an approach to domestic violence and other crime, based on social control
Social control theory
In criminology, Social Control Theory Travis Hirschi fits into the Positivist School, Neo-Classical School, and, later, Right Realism. It proposes that exploiting the process of socialization and social learning builds self-control and reduces the inclination to indulge in behavior recognized as...
theories and use of deterrence
Deterrence (legal)
Deterrence is the use of punishment as a threat to deter people from committing a crime. Deterrence is often contrasted with retributivism, which holds that punishment is a necessary consequence of a crime and should be calculated based on the gravity of the wrong done.- Categories :Deterrence can...
for crime control.
Methodology
The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment looked at effectiveness of methods used by police to reduce domestic violence, using 25 randomized field experimentsRandomized experiment
In science, randomized experiments are the experiments that allow the greatest reliability and validity of statistical estimates of treatment effects...
. Cases used in the study were misdemeanor
Misdemeanor
A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...
assault calls, which make up the bulk of domestic violence calls for service
Calls for service
Calls for service generally refers to assignments that are typically distributed to public safety professionals that require their presence to resolve, correct or assist a particular situation...
. Both the victim and offender needed to still be present when the police arrived, in order to be included in the study.
51 patrol officers in the Minneapolis Police Department participated in the study. Each was asked to use one of three approaches for handling domestic violence calls, in cases where officers had probable cause to believe an assault had occurred:
- Send the abuser away for eight hours.
- Advice and mediation of disputes.
- Make an arrest.
Interviews were conducted during a 6-month follow-up period, with both victims and offenders, as well as official records consulted to determine whether or not re-offending had occurred.
The study lasted approximately 17 months, and included 330 cases.
Findings
Arrest was found to be the most effective police response. The study found that arrest reduced the rate by half of re-offendingRecidivism
Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior...
against the same victim within the following six months. Other methods, such as counseling or temporarily sending assailants away, were deemed less effective.
Policy response
The results of the study received a great deal of attention from the news media, including The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and prime-time news coverage on television. Many U.S. police departments responded to the study, adopting a mandatory arrest policy for spousal violence cases with probable cause
Probable cause
In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which an officer or agent of the law has the grounds to make an arrest, to conduct a personal or property search, or to obtain a warrant for arrest, etc. when criminal charges are being considered. It is also used to refer to the...
. New York City Police Department
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
Commissioner Benjamin Ward
Benjamin Ward
Benjamin Ward was the first African American New York City Police Commissioner. Ward was one of 11 children and was born in the Weeksville section of Brooklyn, New York.-Military and Police experience:...
quickly issued a new mandate for officers to make arrests, after reading the results of the study in a Police Foundation report. Ward stated his belief that "arresting violent members of a household would be more effective in protecting other family members and help safeguard police officers called in to stop the highly charged quarrels. I thought it was about time to put policemen out of the counseling business and into what they really are best at, which is making arrests, then let the judge decide." With this mandate, Ward also included cohabitants
Cohabitation
Cohabitation usually refers to an arrangement whereby two people decide to live together on a long-term or permanent basis in an emotionally and/or sexually intimate relationship. The term is most frequently applied to couples who are not married...
and same-sex
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
couples in the police definition of family. The Houston
Houston Police Department
The Houston Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency serving the City of Houston, Texas, United States and some surrounding areas. Its headquarters are in 1200 Travis in Downtown Houston....
and Dallas Police Department
Dallas Police Department
The Dallas Police Department, established in 1881, is the principal law enforcement agency serving the city of Dallas, Texas.-Organization:The department is headed by a chief of police who is appointed by the city manager who, in turn, is hired by the Dallas City Council...
s were also quick to change their approach to domestic disturbance calls, and make more arrests. Within a year, the number of police departments using arrest as a strategy in domestic violence cases jumped from 10 to 31%, and to 46% by 1986. Numerous other police departments had partially changed their approach to domestic violence cases.
In 1984, the U.S. Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
's Task Force on Family Violence report drew heavily upon the Minneapolis study, in recommending that domestic violence be handled with a criminal justice
Criminal justice
Criminal Justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...
approach. Within eight years, 15 states and the District of Columbia enacted new domestic violence laws that proscribed mandatory or presumptive arrest of violent domestic offenders. By 2005, 23 states and the District of Columbia had enacted mandatory arrest for domestic assault, without warrant, given that the officer has probable cause and regardless of whether or not the officer witnessed the crime. The Minneapolis study also influenced policy in other countries, including New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, which adopted a pro-arrest policy for domestic violence cases.
Mandatory arrest policies
Mandatory arrestArrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
laws were implemented in the U.S. during the 1980s and 1990s due to the impact of the Minneapolis Experiment
Experiment
An experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...
. Also, the Violence Against Women Act
Violence Against Women Act
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 is a United States federal law. It was passed as Title IV, sec. 40001-40703 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, , and signed as by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994...
of 1994 added to the fight for legislation
Legislation
Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...
in the 1990s in the states
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
without mandatory arrest
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
laws. The laws “require the police to make arrests in domestic violence cases when there was probable cause to do so, regardless of the wishes of the victim.” Before the laws were put into effect, police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
officers were required to witness
Witness
A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about an event, or in the criminal justice systems usually a crime, through his or her senses and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event first hand is known as an eyewitness...
the abuse
Abuse
Abuse is the improper usage or treatment for a bad purpose, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, sexual assault, violation, rape, unjust practices; wrongful practice or custom; offense; crime, or otherwise...
occurring first hand prior to making an arrest. Currently, 23 States use Mandatory Arrest policies.
Other States leave the decision to arrest to the discretion
Discretion
Discretion is a noun in the English language with several meanings revolving around the judgment of the person exercising the characteristic.-Meanings:*"The Art of suiting action to particular circumstances"...
of the responding officers.
History of mandatory arrest policy in the U.S.
Prior to the implementation of mandatory arrest policies in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
often were not able to arrest individuals suspected of domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
. In an article from the California Law Review
California Law Review
The California Law Review is the flagship law journal of UC Berkeley School of Law . Founded in 1912, the Review was the first student law journal published west of Illinois....
titled “Domestic Violence as a Crime Against the State,” Michaela Hoctor explained that “when officers did respond to a domestic violence call, they usually attempted to mediate the dispute. This "mediation" consisted of a variety of approaches, including attempts by officers to convince the parties to reconcile immediately at the scene or to use formal alternative dispute resolution programs.”
The debate
Debate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
over Mandatory Arrest is still underway, as many people believe it has negative effects on the assailant
Assailant
Assailant is a Swedish power metal band formed in 2004 formerly signed on the label Dockyard 1. Their debut album Nemesis Within was released in May 2006.-The Sound:...
, victim, and their family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
members including but not limited to the breakdown of the family, the economic deprivation of the victim, the trauma
Trauma (medicine)
Trauma refers to "a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident." It can also be described as "a physical wound or injury, such as a fracture or blow." Major trauma can result in secondary complications such as circulatory shock, respiratory failure and death...
associated with separation of families, and the lack of childcare in situations of dual arrest. Sometimes when police respond, they arrest
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
both parties involved in a domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
situation. As described by Margaret Martin in the Journal of Family Violence, “The practice of dual arrest, the arrest of two parties, usually a man and a woman engaged in a ‘domestic dispute,’ has arisen in localities which employ presumptive and mandatory arrest”. Police are more likely to arrest both parties if the primary aggressor is female
Female
Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...
However, not every domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
situation results in dual arrest. Police Officers are trained to deduct who the primary aggressor is in a domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
dispute, leading to the arrest of the assailant
Assailant
Assailant is a Swedish power metal band formed in 2004 formerly signed on the label Dockyard 1. Their debut album Nemesis Within was released in May 2006.-The Sound:...
and not the victim.
Circumstances for Arrest
Some states will arrestArrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
simply based on probable cause
Probable cause
In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which an officer or agent of the law has the grounds to make an arrest, to conduct a personal or property search, or to obtain a warrant for arrest, etc. when criminal charges are being considered. It is also used to refer to the...
to believe an act of domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
has been committed, while others do not allow for an arrest after a specific amount of time following the incident. For example, in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
the police cannot make an arrest if the abuse occurred more than 12 hours prior to notification Police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
are specifically trained to assess the situation and decide whether they have the required probable cause
Probable cause
In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which an officer or agent of the law has the grounds to make an arrest, to conduct a personal or property search, or to obtain a warrant for arrest, etc. when criminal charges are being considered. It is also used to refer to the...
to make an arrest. For instance, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
has a list of requirements that must be met before an officer can arrest a suspect. These include the age of the suspect(s), their relationship to the victim(s), and whether the act could be considered an intentional assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
. The officer must also be able to identify the “predominant aggressor”
Arrest Rates
According to the National Institute of JusticeNational Institute of Justice
The National Institute of Justice is the research, development and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice. NIJ, along with the Bureau of Justice Statistics , Bureau of Justice Assistance , Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention , Office for Victims of Crime ,...
(NIJ), in 2008, “when victims and offenders were intimate partners, police made no arrests in 50.1 percent of incidents, one or more arrests in 48.0 percent of incidents, and dual arrests in 1.9 percent of incidents”
In regards to same-sex relationships, the arrest rates for domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
were the same as those for heterosexual couples. For all intimate
Intimate
Intimate may refer to:* Intimate examination, a physical examination for medical purposes that includes examination of the breasts, genitalia, or rectum of a patient...
partner relationships, offenders were more likely to be arrested if the incident of violence was a serious aggravated assault. The NIJ also reported that “arrest occurred more frequently in cases involving intimate partners if the offender was white” and “cases involving intimate partners and acquaintances were more likely to result in arrest if the offender was 21 or older”
Criticism
The study was subject of much criticism, with concerns about its methodology, as well as its conclusions. The follow-up period of six months was short, and not able to capture the episodic and cyclical patterns that may occur with domestic violence. Also, Minneapolis may have been unusual, in that they kept arrestees overnight in jailJail
A jail is a short-term detention facility in the United States and Canada.Jail may also refer to:In entertainment:*Jail , a 1966 Malayalam movie*Jail , a 2009 Bollywood movie...
, whereas in other jurisdictions arrestees might be sent home much quicker.
Randomized experiments look at causal effects
Causality
Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....
for the group as a whole. Conclusions may be made that may apply to most individuals in the group, but not all individuals, with some possibly experiencing negative effects of the intervention. In some cases, arrest may provoke the abuser and increase the possibility of more retributive violence.
Mandatory arrest is based on deterrence theory, which includes the assumption that the offender is making rational decisions
Rational choice theory
Rational choice theory, also known as choice theory or rational action theory, is a framework for understanding and often formally modeling social and economic behavior. It is the main theoretical paradigm in the currently-dominant school of microeconomics...
. In the case of domestic violence, the offender
often shows little rational behavior.
Replication
Through the Spouse Assault Replication Program (SARP), the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment was replicated in several other cities, beginning in 1986. The cities included Omaha, NebraskaOmaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
, Miami-Dade County, Florida
Miami-Dade County, Florida
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the state of Florida. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 2,496,435, making it the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States...
, and Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
. In Metro-Dade, 907 cases were used, compared to 1,200 cases in Milwaukee and over 1,600 cases in Colorado Springs.
Some of these studies have produced different results than the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment. The Colorado Springs study found several police responses that were slightly more effective, including restoring order, providing crisis intervention, issuing emergency protection orders, or arresting offenders, and that there is no singular approach for police dealing with domestic violence cases. Altogether, the five replication studies produced mixed results, with three studies finding that offenders who were arrested experienced higher levels of recidivism. The other studies showed a modest but statistically significant reduction in re-offending for those arrested.
In the replication studies, arrest seemed to help in the short run in some cases, but those arrested experienced double the rate of violence over the course of one year. Criminologists do not fully understand the reasons why deterrent effects do not last over time. But they suggest that abusers may initially fear punishment, though many cases do not make it all the way through the criminal justice process. If the victim is uncooperative during investigation, the prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
may choose not to pursue the case. If the case is pursued through the criminal justice system, sometimes the resulting sentence
Sentence (law)
In law, a sentence forms the final explicit act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime...
is minor. Subsequently, fear that the abuser has of punishment may have diminished.
In 1993, Janell Schmidt and Lawrence W. Sherman recommended that police be given more structured discretion, with a menu of options the officer could choose from in each situation.