Formal and Informal Deterrents to Domestic Violence: The Dade County Spouse Assault Experiment

Abstract

Recent formulations of deterrence theory suggest that informal sanctions mediate the effects of formal sanctions. A randomized field experiment in Dade County was designed to test the relative effectiveness of different police responses to incidents of spouse abuse. We test whether the deterrent effect of arrest interacts with the informal sanctions implied by employment status and marital status. The results indicate that, overall, formal arrest has no effect on occurrence of a subsequent assault. This overall lack of effect masks two offsetting effects: Arrest has a statistically significant deterrent effect among employed suspects, whereas arrest leads to a significant increase in subsequent assaults among unemployed suspects. The interaction effect between arrest and employment status was also statistically significant. There were no significant effects associated with marital status. The interaction effect between arrest and a composite measure of commitment based on both employment and marital status was also statistically significant. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1992. Copyright © 1992 by the American Sociological Association) Florida Deterrence Spouse Abuse Offender Domestic Violence Offender Domestic Violence Intervention Spouse Abuse Intervention Offender Arrest Adult Offender Adult Male Adult Violence Male Offender Male Violence Partner Violence Violence Against Women Police Response Police Intervention 04-02