Pro-arrest Policies Research Articles

Spotlight on Juvenile Justice: Girls in the System

In 1980, girls were 4 times less likely to be arrested than boys. During the 1990s, a surge of juvenile arrests gained national attention, with the arrest rate for girls increasing faster than the arrest rate for boys.1 In response to this increase, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) convened the Girls Study Group in 2004 to better understand girls involvement in delinquency. Prior to 2004, much of the research and programming had focused on boys, as boys have always accounted for the majority of youth arrests. Amongst their findings, the study group attributed the arrest rate gender disparity to mandatory and pro-arrest policies which more strongly affected the likelihood of arrest for girls than boys.2

Are We Comparing Apples and Oranges? Exploring Trauma Experienced by Victims of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse and by Court-Involved Women Who Have Used Force in Relationships.

Due to the enactment of mandatory and proarrest policies, there has been a sharp increase in the number of women arrested for use of force against an intimate partner. Many of these arrested women are also victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and experience high levels of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Our study explores experiences of two groups: 80 women who self-refer into survivor groups or individual counseling sessions facilitated by a trained counselor and 86 court-involved women who have been arrested on an IPV/abuse (IPV/A)-related charge and (in lieu of more substantial punishment) participate in an intervention/treatment program. The current research asks, "What do trauma measures tell us about women who voluntarily seek IPV/A victim support groups and about women court-mandated to a treatment program?" Using measures of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), post-trauma distress, and danger assessments, we explore these two groups. Our findings demonstrate that within the three measures used, women who voluntarily sought victim counseling services had a higher mean compared with women arrested for use of force against an intimate partner. Yet, both groups are significantly different from the general population in terms of having experienced significant trauma. Both groups of women report significantly higher levels of ACEs, post-trauma distress, and danger assessments compared with the general population, indicating that women who experience IPV/A or women who use force in relationships may share more similarities than differences. In addition, we explore the ways in which different relationship characteristics and treatment trajectories might help explain the differences present between these two groups of women. We conclude with a discussion of policy and treatment implications.

Arresting Women: Pro-arrest Policies, Debates, and Developments

Police departments across North America have adopted pro-arrest policies in intimate partner violence (IPV) cases with the intent of constraining police discretion and providing better protection for IPV victims. It has been suggested that an unintended consequence of pro-arrest policies has been an increase in the number of women arrested for IPV when their behavior is defensive rather than aggressive. Concern about inappropriate arrests of women is particularly pronounced in cases of dual arrest. This study examines the arrests and court processing of 2,736 women in heterosexual relationships accused of IPV offences in Winnipeg, Canada. The characteristics of accused and court processing of dual and sole arrested women are examined. Dual arrested women are less likely to be prosecuted than sole arrested women. We explore whether an effective ‘primary aggressor’ policy can reduce dual arrests, which are the cases most likely to be dropped at the prosecution level.

“They Arrested Me—And I Was the Victim”: Women’s Experiences With Getting Arrested in the Context of Domestic Violence

Since the implementation of mandatory and pro-arrest policies, there has been a sharp increase in the number of women arrested for violence against intimate partners; many of these women are also victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). Through questionnaires and interviews, this study uncovers the experience of getting arrested from the perspective of women who were both victims of IPV and arrested in IPV-related incidents. Women reported that their arrest was unexpected, led to multiple losses and collateral consequences, and served as a turning point in their relationships. Findings support emergency intervention services that include alternatives to arrest for women experiencing IPV.

Policing Juveniles

This study analyzed the National Incident Based Reporting System data from 2000 to 2004 to determine how domestic violence arrest policies, along with incident, offender, and victim characteristics, influence arrest outcomes in violent incidents committed by juveniles against their parents. The authors’ primary interest was to assess whether the enforcement of domestic violence arrest laws, coupled with increased police involvement in familial disputes, has contributed to the decreasing gender gap in juvenile arrests for violent offenses. Results indicated that domestic violence arrest policies had positive effects on arrest outcomes both for juvenile females and males accused of assaulting a parent, as juveniles were more likely to be arrested in states with mandatory or pro-arrest policies than in states with discretionary arrest policies. However, there was also evidence that, beyond the effects of the domestic arrest laws, girls became increasingly more likely to be arrested for assaults against parents over the 5-year study period relative to boys. The implications for these findings are discussed, including the importance of a better understanding of how police respond to domestic violence incidents involving juveniles.

Specialised justice responses to domestic violence cases

One innovative justice system response, since the beginning of the nineties, has been the development of specialised domestic violence courts in different countries. These new mechanisms for dealing with cases...

Presumptive Arrest in Partner Assault: Use of Discretion and Problems of Compliance in the New Zealand Police

Since pro-arrest policies in domestic violence became popular in the United States in the 1980s, numerous western countries have followed suit. In most cases, research has shown that implementation of the policies has fallen short of expectations, with arrest rates that are surprisingly low. In New Zealand, pro–arrest strategies have been employed since 1987 and results have been similar. This article argues that one of the reasons for noncompliance in New Zealand (and probably elsewhere), is that the complexities of domestic violence situations make pro–arrest difficult to apply in practice. Moreover, in order to protect themselves from official criticism for deviating from policy, in this study frontline police sometimes filed incomplete or inaccurate incident reports. This made it hard to determine exactly how well the policy was being implemented and whether or not it was working.

Group Work with a New Population

An unanticipated consequence of pro-arrest policies for domestic violence is the arrest of women. With the resultant creation of court-ordered groups to accommodate this new population, a thorough understanding of the motivations, contexts, and consequences of women's use of violence is needed. Widely used current treatment models are reviewed, and a model is proposed. This model incorporates aspects of group process (group leadership, group development, mutual aid, self-determination, and member roles) and group content (safety issues, dynamics of abuse, anger management, children's issues, coping strategies, empowerment and community resources, exploring prior victimizations, relationship issues, and self-nurturing).

Enhancing Safety and Rehabilitation in Intimate Violence Treatments: New Perspectives

Linda G. Mills, PhD, JD, LCSWa Peggy Grauwiler, LCSWa Nicole Pezold, MAa Over the last 30 years, safety has been the driving concern in developing treatments for intimate violence and has significantly shaped systematic responses to this problem. One approach has been to develop coordinated community response models that encourage close collaboration among system and service providers to offer more comprehensive, wrap-around services to better guarantee safety.1 Yet another approach has been to legally or physically separate batterers from victims. Pro-arrest policies, which were first introduced in the 1980s, address the safety of female victims by ensuring male batterers are held legally accountable for their offenses and are separated, at least briefly, from their victims.2 Restraining or no-contact orders are also designed to legally separate batterers from victims, while the shelter system seeks to provide women victims a safe place away from home, should they need it. In time, women victims expressed their desire for treatment programs for their partners rather than arrest and incarceration.3 Courts began referring offenders to Batterer Intervention Programs (BIPs) such as the Duluth Model, where male batterers were treated in groups in isolation from their victims.3 This rehabilitation strategy has reinforced the trend to separate female victims from abusive male partners to address each party’s legal and treatment needs individually. Such strategies have been designed almost exclusively to address male violence perpetrated against females and ensure female victims’ safety, while ignoring the fact that intimate violence afflicts both women and men.4,5 As a result, much of the relevant theory and research has been similarly focused on a gendered conception of intimate violence. While this article reviews and answers the concerns of this literature, it underscores as well that new, more inclusive treatments may be applied to the complex range of intimate violence cases. It is also important to acknowledge that criminal justice strategies often overlook the fact that many couples remain inextricably bound for a variety of reasons, regardless of intervention or divorce.4,5 Despite no-contact orders or the threat of future violence, offenders and victims often have continued contact during or after state interventions.4,6 Although no consistent evidence exists on how many women stay or leave, perhaps as many as half of victims persist in their relationships—and if they do leave, research shows that this process

A Comparison of Men and Women Arrested for Domestic Violence: Who Presents the Greater Threat?

Recent increases in the number of women arrested for domestic violence raise important questions about implementation of proarrest policies, equivalency of intimate partner aggression across genders, and management of female domestic violence offenders. This study compares demographic characteristics, criminal history variables, and the past domestic violence history of men (n = 5,578) and women (n = 1,126) arrested for domestic assault against a heterosexual intimate partner. Using victim reported information and data collected by local criminal justice agencies, we found that female arrestees were significantly less likely than males to have histories that warrant concern regarding the potential for future violence. Implications of these findings are discussed.

INCREASING THE PROPORTION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ARRESTS THAT ARE PROSECUTED: A NATURAL EXPERIMENT IN MILWAUKEE*

Research Summary: Mandatory and pro‐arrest policies in domestic violence incidents have increased strains on prosecutorial and court resources. They have also brought to prosecutors many cases in which victims never wanted batterers charged and prosecuted. Prosecutors are faced with the dilemma of (a) screening out difficult cases up front and expending resources on fewer but more winnable case or (b) prosecuting a larger number of cases as adequately as resources will allow. We studied a natural experiment that resulted when the Milwaukee prosecutor liberalized his screening policy to double the number of domestic violence case filings. After the new screening policy was implemented, time to disposition doubled, convictions decreased, the prevalence of pretrial crime increased, and victim satisfaction declined.Policy Implications: The results do not support the idea that domestic violence cases can be readily prosecuted without regard for victim desires. To commit to such a policy would require a substantial commitment of additional staff, resources to collect additional types of evidence, and a willingness to try a substantially larger number of cases.

Police Responses to Woman Battering: Victim Advocates' Reports

Most of the research on police responses to battered women has been conducted by surveying or observing the police or by using forms completed by the police. This study takes a unique approach by using data collected by advocates for battered women in two agencies in a large metropolitan area of the United States. In 1992 shelter (refuge) workers and workers at a women victims' hotline agency developed a one-page form to be filled out by advocates for woman battering calls they received in person (not over the phone). The forms were specifically designed to assess the reasons why the police were called and what was their response. Two-hundred-and-fifty-nine forms were completed and provide the data base for this study. The study found that the police responses (both positive and negative) differed according to which victim advocacy agency was involved, whether the responding department was the major urban department (which had a pro-arrest policy) or one of the surrounding smaller departments (without pro-arrest policies), whether a threat of violence was a reason why the police were called, and whether a weapon was involved. The remaining three reasons why the police were called rarely impacted on their responses; that is, whether a reason the police were called included a sexual assault, property damage, or a violated TPO/TRO. Notably, whether a (non-sexual) physical assault was a reason the police were called was never related to any of the police responses.

Conflicting Consensus

Limited research exists on the extent to which the public supports the criminalization of domestic violence, and whether people believe police pro-arrest policies will deter future offending. Based on conflict theory, it is hypothesized that there will be differences in support for criminalization between powerful (i.e., middle to upper class Caucasian men) and less powerful demographic groups (i.e., women, minorities, and the economically and educationally disadvantaged). Data were collected from a randomized telephone survey of Alabama residents and analyzed using ordered regression models. Results indicate that a majority of respondents agreed with a pro-arrest policy for domestic violence; however, age, education, income, and gender subgroup differences offer support for the conflict model. An additional finding that domestic violence victimization plays a significant role in the formulation of respondents' attitudes toward these policies needs to be more closely investigated.

Law Enforcement Officers' Attitudes about the Appropriate Responses to Woman Battering

The debate over the appropriate police response to cases of battered women has intensified over the last two decades, with the majority of the research focusing on the deterrent aspect of pro-arrest policies. By contrast, this study is an examination of 324 law enforcement officers' reported attitudes and preferences regarding arrest and mediation and attitudes about battering victims and offenders. Overall, the findings include far more support for mediation than arrest, and a general tendency of officers to view women claiming to have been battered as non-credible and unworthy of police time. The variable that most strikingly differentiates officers is departmental affiliation, followed by race and sex. These findings affirm the plight of battered women when appealing to the police for assistance, as well as the importance of the departmental orientation and subculture in terms of predicting police response.

A review of domestic violence arrest statistics in a police department using a pro-arrest policy: Are pro-arrest policies enough?

This study examined domestic violence arrest statistics in a sheriff's department that does not utilize a community approach and provides little police training on domestic violence. In reviewing all domestic violence reports (n=1870) over a 12-month period, less than one-third (28.8%) of the domestic violence cases ended in arrest. Even the most serious charges (aggravated batteries) were more likely to end without an arrest (62.6%) than with an arrest (37.4%). Although results showed that more men were identified (88.4%) and arrested (91.6%) as batterers than women (11.6% and 8.4%, respectively), closer analyses revealed that arrested women were more often charged with more serious charges (60%) than arrested men (26.0%). Finally, gender and race data indicated that while four-fifths (84.6%) of black females were arrested on felony charges, less than one-fifth (19.5%) of white males were arrested on the same charge. These findings demonstrate a need for further research on factors that may affect pro-arrest policy effectiveness.

Review essay on the law enforcement response to spouse abuse: Past, present, and future

In this review article the authors critically assess the role of law enforcement in spouse abuse. After discussing definitional issues and tracing the evolution of attitudes and treatment of the physical abuse of wives, they examine the extent to which spouse abuse occurs. The role of law enforcement then is examined from both a historical and a theoretical perspective, and research studies of the law enforcement response are evaluated. Particular attention is paid to current pro-arrest policies. The article concludes with a discussion of policy issues and suggestions for the future.

Unintended Side Effects of Pro-Arrest Policies and Their Race and Class Implications for Battered Women: A Cautionary Note

Increasingly, arrest appears to be the disposition of choice for combatting violence between intimate partners. However, the ramifications of such policies may differentially impact on female victims, particularly those battered women with fewer resources and alternatives who have traditionally placed a greater reliance on police intervention. The residual effects of pro-arrest policies may operate subtly, becoming indiscernible through quantitative analyses of follow-up data and emerging only when qualitative methodologies are employed in conjunction with quantitative methodologies. Although pro-arrest policies are one way to attack the problem of woman battering, the policies become problematic if they disproportionately affect women from minority and lower socio-economic groups, facilitating negative consequences, including possible reoccurrences of violence. This paper raises some of the pertinent issues involved when research fails to capture or address the potential implications of pro-arrest strategies once implemented, and suggests ways to explore the extent and ramifications of these effects.