Police Role: Using Discretion? (From Policing 'Domestic' Violence: Women, the Law and the State, P 81-110, 1989, Susan S M Edwards, -- See NCJ-121616)

• NCJ Number: 121619
• Author(s): S S M Edwards
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 30 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Because British chief police officers have considerable discretion in exercising police powers granted them under substantive law, they have focused on street crime and public order and have treated domestic violence as of little consequence.

Abstract

The independence of chief constables in determining policing policies is discussed in detail, with emphasis on how the attitudes of chief constables influence arrest decisions of patrol officers. In enforcing public order police tend to act often on suspicion and over-enforce the law, while private order violations such as domestic violence, are under-enforced. These approaches do not reflect unfettered discretion but result instead from policy decisions, or the lack of them. Approaches by and attitudes of police in London and Kent in policing domestic violence are reported, with emphasis on how the moral perspective of police influences the degree to which they enforce civil and criminal laws dealing with domestic violence. The private attitudes of the mostly male police force tend to treat violence against women as inconsequential.