The Preventive Effects of Arrest on Intimate Partner Violence: Research, Policy and Theory*

Abstract

Research Summary:This research addresses the limitations of prior analyses and reviews of five experiments testing for the specific deterrent effect of arrest on intimate partner violence by applying to individual level data consistent eligibility criteria, common independent and outcome measures, and appropriate statistical tests. Based on 4,032 cases involving adult males who assaulted their female intimate partners, multivariate regression analyses show consistent but modest reductions in subsequent offenses targeting the original victim that is attributable to arresting the suspect. Although the reductions attributable to arrest are similar across all five studies, other factors, such as the suspect's prior arrest record, are stronger predictors of subsequent offenses. The effect of arrest is also modest compared with the general decline in offenses toward the same victim during the follow-up period. Policy Implications:These results lend limited support for policies favoring arrest over informal police responses to intimate partner violence. However, the analyses also show that despite police intervention, a minority of suspects repeatedly victimize their partners and that factors other than formal sanctions play larger roles in explaining the cessation or continuation of aggressive behavior between intimates. These findings suggest that new policies replacing or enhancing arrest that targetIn the past quarter-century, many alternatives for the appropriate law enforcement response to intimate partner violence have been proposed, studied, recommended, adopted as policy, and enacted in federal and state laws. These alternatives have varied from doing nothing to on-scene counseling, temporary separation, and more formal criminal justice sanctions such as arrest, restraining orders, and coerced treatment (Fagan, 1996). The rationales for these policies were based on theories about deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation, victim empowerment, officer safety, and a general concern for the efficacy of criminal law regarding intimate private relationships (Fagan and Browne, 1994:3; Zimring, 1989:ll). Until the 198Os, the empirical base for assessing the extent to which the alternative policies fulfilled the promises of their theoretical rationales was thin. In the foreword to a domestic violence research report that showed domestic violence was repetitive and highly visible to police, James Q. Wilson asserted that the criminal justice field lacks "reliable information as to the consequences of following different approaches" when responding to intimate partner violence. He argued that "gathering such information in a systematic and objective manner ought to be a high-priority concern for local police and prosecutors" (Wilson, 1977:~).For the past 25 years, the law enforcement and research community has addressed Wilson's challenge by gathering systematic and objective information about alternative police responses to intimate partner violence. However, gathering information alone has not led to a clear understandi...

Situational determinants in intimate partner violence

“…The Minneapolis Domestic Violence experiment by Sherman and colleagues and the related Spousal Assault Replication Program (SARP) experiments have provided some evidence to support the deterrent effects of arrest for misdemeanor assaults (Berk, Campbell, Klap, & Western, 1992;Maxwell et al, 2002;Sherman & Berk, 1984a, 1984b. In a recent pooled reanalysis of the SARP data, Maxwell et al (2002) also found modest support for the preventive effects of arrest.…”

“…The body of literature on police strategies for handling domestic violence incidents has grown in recent years and has sparked considerable policy debate (Maxwell, Garner, & Fagan, 2002). Fagan et al (1983) found that 55% of men who had experienced informal police mediation and separation following a domestic conflict reported no subsequent assaults (Fagan, 1989).…”

The impact of length of domestic violence treatment on the patterns of subsequent intimate partner violence

“…In addition, the district attorney's computer database was searched to determine whether the victim in the new incident was the same as the victim in the original incident. In keeping with common practice in the field (e.g., Davis et al, 2006b;Feder and Dugan 2002;Maxwell et al 2002), we included only instances involving the same victim and perpetrator. To reduce measurement error, we combined the CJA arrest reports and the police complaint data into one measure that captured the number of documented police recorded incidents (e.g., arrests or crime complaints) involving the defendant and victim at any time after the treatment was assigned.…”

Growing Up in Law and Society: The Pulls of Policy and Methods

“…Conclusions depended on how recidivism was measured. Thus, a later analysis that combined the data from five replication sites found a statistically significant effect suggesting deterrence if repeat abuse was measured by later spousal interviews but found no statistically significant relationship if police records were the measure of repeat offending (Maxwell et al 2001(Maxwell et al , 2002. Although the results from this global analysis suggested arrest might prevent abuse and was unlikely to increase it, from a policy standpoint, their implications are ambiguous.…”