Police-preferred Arrest Policies (From Woman Battering: Policy Responses, P 49-72, 1991, Michael Steinman, ed. -- See NCJ-129473)

• NCJ Number: 129476
• Author(s): J D Hirschel; I Hutchison
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 24 pages
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This analysis of police policies that make arrest the preferred law enforcement response to woman battering concludes that such policies are unlikely to represent a simple solution to the problem of battering and that long-term efforts are needed to address the causes of family violence.

Abstract

Arrest policies are limited because police officers are not legally empowered to make arrests in many situations: the offenders have left the scene in half the cases, arrest results in widely varying outcomes in different communities, and the arrest policies are based on the results of a single experiment. Furthermore, many abusers have been arrested before, and it is naive to expect that arrest and incarceration will have a deterrent impact on many or most of them. The "preferred arrest" policies are more common than mandatory policies, although the forms of the policies and the circumstances under which arrest is recommended vary widely. A questionnaire survey of 25 police departments with preferred-arrest policies and telephone interviews with women's advocate organizations in the same cities showed differences among police personnel and external groups regarding the definition and implementation of these policies. Tables, note, and 44 references