Policing Domestic Violence: The Problem-Solving Paradigm

• NCJ Number: 179299
• Author(s): Lawrence W. Sherman; Heather Strang
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 33 pages
• Sale Source: University of Maryland
• Publication Format: No Format Available
• Publication Type: Conference Material
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper presented at the conference 'Problem-Solving Policing as Crime Prevention' Stockholm, 1996

Annotation

This paper examines the current state and future directions of the police problem-solving approach to preventing domestic violence.

Abstract

To exemplify the state-of-the-art in applying problem-solving techniques to policing domestic violence, the paper uses data, policies and practices of the San Diego, CA, Police Department. The paper reviews the problem-solving paradigm in policing and its relationship to the scientific method. It compares police knowledge and practice to the goals of the paradigm, element by element. It concludes with two major implications of the domestic violence experience: the need for continuing revision in scientific "truth," and the even greater need to improve police measurement and management of the various types of domestic violence. A cultural evolution in policing must develop to support the scientific revolution of the problem-solving paradigm. This cultural evolution can move forward most rapidly by a growing partnership between police and criminologists or other professional scientists, such as the public health community in the case of domestic violence. References