NCJ Number
207463
Journal
Crime & Delinquency Volume: 50 Issue: 4 Dated: October 2004 Pages: 565-589
Date Published
October 2004
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This study examined the link between police officers' perceptions of their departmental policies regarding the handling of domestic-violence cases and arrest outcomes in such cases, with attention to "dual" arrests (arrest of both parties in a domestic-violence incident).
Abstract
The officers (n=299) were selected from public-safety training centers that provided inservice training to experienced and rookie officers in North Georgia. The officers were randomly assigned to read one of six scenarios of a domestic-violence call, record their thoughts about the incident, and then select one of eight choices for responding to the incident. The scenarios varied by injury condition and prior abuse history. The dependent variable was the officer's arresting decision (arrest the man only, arrest both parties, or no arrest). Respondents were asked about their understanding of departmental policies that governed actions in domestic-violence cases. When both parties were injured, 45.8 percent of the officers chose to arrest both parties, 17.7 percent chose to arrest the husband only, and 36.5 percent used an informal option such as mediation, counseling, and the preferences of the parties. When only the wife was injured, 8 percent of the officers chose dual arrest, 71.3 percent chose arrest of only the husband, and 20.7 percent selected an informal option. Injury to the husband did not affect officers' perception of whether the wife acted in self-defense or had attacked her husband in the past. Findings suggest that the officers used their prior expectations and knowledge of injuries to rate injury severity. Officers who believed that their department supported dual arrests were more likely to arrest both parties. Officers who perceived that their departments favored the arrest only of the primary aggressor were more likely to arrest the husband only. When both parties were injured, officers were likely to arrest both parties. Experienced officers were more likely than rookie officers to use dual arrest. The study concludes that officers apparently follow agency directives in responding to domestic-violence incidents, suggesting that dual arrests might be reduced if police departments adopt policies that discourage dual arrests without first conducting an investigation to determine whether the arrest of both parties is justified. 4 tables, 9 notes, and 59 references