NCJ Number
138537
Date Published
1992
Length
459 pages
Annotation
Written for criminal justice personnel, elected officials, victims' rights advocates, policy analysts, and scholars, this volume analyzes the findings and policy implications of a multiyear Federal research program to repeat the 1984 Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment, the first controlled test of the effects of arrest on recidivism.
Abstract
The experiment was undertaken to analyze the effects of police responses to misdemeanor domestic violence. It was based on the assumption that the main goal of police intervention is to reduce the risk of repeat violence by the suspect against the same victim in the future. The results revealed that arrest was more effective in accomplishing this goal than was mediation or sending the suspect out of the home for the night. The experiment was repeated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Miami, Florida; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; and Charlotte, North Carolina. Findings revealed that arrest deters selectively. Thus, it effectively inhibits some offenders, but it incites more violence in others. It may also deter batterers for a month or so, only to make them more violent later. Its effects are also related to the victim's socioeconomic status. Findings indicated the need to replace mandatory arrest policies with policies that provide more options and that reflect the findings of recent research. Tables, chapter notes, index, appendixes providing methodological information and additional results, and more than 350 references (Publisher summary modified)