Increase in Mortality Rates of African-American Women Following Mandatory Arrest Laws: A Study in Unintended Effects

Abstract

Abstract From the late 1970s into the 1990s, 20 states in the USA passed’ mandatory arrest laws’, designed to curb domestic violence, by requiring the responding officer to arrest the offender. I show that these laws led to an increase in the mortality rates of African-American women. The increase takes place approximately four years after the law was passed and loses its statistical significance as time passes. I infer from these results that mandatory arrest laws had unintended consequences for the victims whose partners were arrested, but that these unintended consequences impacted the victims only in the few years following the law. I conclude that increased awareness of the law and offender deterrence eventually mitigates these unintended consequences. I propose a potential explanation for the increase in mortality rates, and make a policy recommendation that offenders and victims be informed about the law change if such a change is to be made.