The Effect of Arrest On Wife Assault Recidivism

Abstract

Prior research on the effect of arrest on wife assault recidivism had equivocal results and mixed reception. Arrest is not always used in wife assault cases, and several studies suggest that arrest is influenced by incident severity rather than risk of recidivism. The present study examined the effect of arrest controlling for pre-arrest actuarial risk of recidivism, which was measured retrospectively and independently of arrest decision using the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment. In an archival study of 522 wife assault incidents with police attending, arrest was associated with pre-arrest risk for recidivism and with victim injury, incident severity, and other sample characteristics. In multivariate regression and survival analyses, arrest had no overall effect on recidivism but a small beneficial effect in lower risk cases, mostly in terms of a delayed time until recidivism. Arrest of higher risk cases could be increased by police use of a validated tool for risk assessment.