NCJ Number
74303
Journal
Canadian Police College Journal Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Dated: (1980) Pages: 184-188
Date Published
1980
Length
5 pages
Annotation
In a discussion of the role of police in domestic violence, a Detroit Deputy Police chief disparages the notion that police officers can serve as therapists and advises more stringent arrest procedures to alter wife-battering behavior.
Abstract
Deputy Chief Bannon recommends that police officers be trained how to intervene in domestic violence without getting hurt or killed and be taught why wives often will not prosecute their abusing husbands. Moreover, the police should automatically make arrests if sufficient evidence is present, because the law does not require the wife to press charges for an arrest to be made. Although prosecution without the wife's consent is inadvisable, automatically arresting wife batterers may deter the crime and give the police leverage in effecting therapy for the couple. Moreover, the police should be empowered to remove wife batterers from the home in the interest of society, and should stop considering domestic violence as a civil mater when it is a criminal matter. Bannon opposes training police to act as therapists in domestic violence situations because such training discourages them from making necessary arrests.