Dual Arrest Research Paper

States around the country have given police the right to make warrantless arrests on in partner violence and has even limited their ability to use discretion by implementing mandatory arrests. This has made the job of the police much more difficult because they must go about handling situations like domestic violence delicately. It does not make it any easier now that the term “domestic violence” has now grown into an umbrella term including disputes between adults and children, blood relatives, and couples who sometimes are and are not married. Because the job of the police involves so many different factors and the changing social climate, it’s become quite difficult to discern whether or not having mandatory arrest laws are helpful. They

The story of Crystal Bram, wife of Tacoma Police Chief David Brame, is a picture perfect case of how many women are trapped and beaten by the men they love. Chief Brame had his wife on a schedule like no other. He would time her on how much time it would take to get to and from the store, how long to walk to and from the mailbox, and always when was David (their son) coming home? Crystal wasn’t every other woman though; her husband was the Chief of Police in Tacoma, Washington. With her husband’s position with the police department Crystal found it hard to get the proper assistance she needed. When she confronted him about stopping the abuse and control on her life, he would respond to her asking, “Who are you going to call? One of my buddies?” Eventually she did report this issue to the police, only for it to fall on deaf ears , and the City Manager prevented further investigation. When a journalist reported what Crystal had brought up, the president of the Tacoma police union threatened the writer. Crystal eventually filed for divorce. In response her husband accused her of having a bad temper and physically abusing him for multiple years also. Crystal was only about 5 foot tall and 100 pounds. This story has a sad ending as Chief Brame used his police duty weapon to fatally shoot Crystal and then turned the gun on himself. (Carter, 2003)

Domestic violence, or intimate partner violence, is a common problem. As a result, the criminal justice adapted to demands, especially from feminists, who bemoaned the poor response of police, and in turn, the justice system by instituting mandatory arrests. However, mandatory arrests have proven that just like protection or restraining orders, they are not effective in deterring domestic violence (Davis, 2008). Similarly, the arrests do not have a substantial effect on recidivism and create undue procedural complications for the criminal system (Zelcer, 2014). On the contrary, proponents of the approach, argue that it has a deterrent effect on the perpetrators and that it can even protect offer immediate protection for the victims (Clark, 2010). Nonetheless, using statistical evidence and arguments from scholarly sources, this position paper will expose the inefficiencies and constitutional inconsistencies that make mandatory arrests harmful for the batterer, victim, and the criminal justice system.

Domestic violence is a crime that occurs regularly within the United States. It claims millions of victims each year. There is not a specific cause to establish why domestic violence occurs. However, it has been documented that domestic violence is a product of physical, emotional, sexual, psychological, and any other forms of torture or torment that the particular abuser wishes to employ to gain control or power over their victims (Gosselin, 2005). Due to the complexity of this crime, many criminologists and socialologists have studied its causes and the effects in order to determine social policies and additional theories to better understand the causation of domestic violence. The social policies and theories that are developed from

The feminist movement and women’s advocacy groups identified domestic violence as a serious issue and demanded for a change in the police response (Feder and Henning 2005). In conjunction with the release of the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment’s research findings that arrest deterred future acts of violence and aided in lowering recidivism rates, many states enacted the new police policies to facilitate the arrest of domestic violence perpetrators. Previously, officers assessed the scene and interviewed the parties then decided the best course of action based on the facts collected. Historically, police officers used discretion in “street-level decision making ranging from decisions on whom to stop, when to write a ticket, and when to follow agency policy” (Phillips and Sobol 2010:100). Yet, some research has suggested that the enactment of mandatory arrest laws “require a specific action, eliminating an officer’s discretion to ignore, stretch, or only provisionally apply criminal law” (Phillips and Sobol 2010:100). The dichotomy of such laws eliminated officer discretion thus leading to the increase of arrests of victims and perpetrators alike. Hirschel et. al. (2008) found that the existence of mandatory arrest laws produced higher arrest rates across all three relationship categories of intimate

Domestic violence calls to the police became popular in the 1970’s and 1980’s. History indicates that these calls were considered “family matters” that should be handled by its family. Following the landmark case of “Thurman vs. The city of Torrington”, that garnered a severe financial penalty for the police for failure to respond, changes occurred. In this case, Tracy Thurman was awarded $2.3 million when she sued the city of Torrington, CT police department for their failure to arrest her abusive husband.

In "Policing Domestic Violence," criminologist Lawrence Sherman confronts the tough questions raised by this controversial approach to a complex social problem. How should police respond to the millions of domestic violence cases they confront

In order to combat domestic violence, many states passed laws and legislation requiring police to make warrantless arrests in response to all domestic violence calls. Harvard scholar, Radha Iyengar, who has studied domestic violence related homicide and the effects of mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence, suggests that although these policies were created to help victims, the solution of mandatory arrests in domestic violence incidents, led to many negative consequences; putting many women in danger, rather than helping them (Iyengar). Though designed to deter violence by offenders, mandatory arrest laws make women more vulnerable to being arrested themselves, lead abuse in domestic violence disputes to become more severe, and deter women from reporting violence to police (Strout).

The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment is also known as (MDVE), was an experiment that evaluated the effectiveness of the police when they responded to domestic violence calls in Minneapolis. This experiment was conducted during early 80’s for over a year by Dr. Lawrence W. Sherman who at the time was the Director of Research at the Police Foundation that is a non-profit foundation to assist police department to become extra effective and by the Minneapolis Police Department with all the monetary support from the National Institute of Justice. The results were mix showing a deterrent effect for arrest and impacted the current police practices during the early 80’s. Ten years later, numerous law enforcement agencies implemented policies to enforce mandatory arrest, without any warrant, for domestic violence cases where the police officer had probable cause for an arrest since a crime had occurred.

According to the Role of Police in Combating Domestic Violence in the United States (Butzer, Bronfman, Stipack, 1996), the Domestic Violence Reduction Unit (DCRU) introduced in 1993 in Portland Oregon, as a three-year experiment, representing a new way for police departments of doing work. Prior to the experiment, officers process where very superficial, addressing only the actions demonstrated at the time. As a result, officers are now prepared to handle domestic abuse calls. Furthermore, follow-up occurs the next day to provide support for the victim.

Many of the victims, as well as abusers, experience same issues that are faced by civilians. Though society looks to law enforcement to intervene in domestic violence situations, law enforcement officers themselves may also be experiencing like situations at home. Law enforcement officers may be abusers as well as victims of domestic violence. It is essential that they receive the same help as civilians receive. It is not something to be ashamed of; it is a serious problem that needs special attention. Abusers show similar signs and causes, as well as victims experience similar abusers and abuse. What is the truth of officer-involved domestic violence?

Domestic Violence is one of the most common crimes that occur, however not all of them being reported. There are many effects and causes to this behavior in law enforcement officers that have been studied by many researchers doctors, authors, and the media. The victims of domestic violence from law enforcement officers (mostly being women) are affected by this greatly on a higher level than regular women who aren’t married to police officers or, as they have much more to lose if such acts were ever reported on their spouses. There are many theoretical causes of domestic violence from law enforcement officers, which effect their victims greatly, making it almost impossible for them to report any offense without some type of

Domestic Violence is one of the most common crimes that occur, however not all of them being reported. There are many effects and causes to this behavior in law enforcement officers that have been studied by many researchers and doctors, authors, and the media. The victims of domestic violence from law enforcement officers (mostly being women) are affected by this greatly on a higher level than regular women who aren’t married to police officers, as they have much more to lose if such acts were ever reported on their spouses. There are many theoretical causes of domestic violence from law enforcement officers, which effect their victims greatly, making it almost impossible for them to report any offense without some type of consequence of

Domestic violence used to be considered a private family matter and was not considered a societal problem until feminists in the 70's started pushing the matter. Beginning in the 1970’s, social policy toward female victims of domestic assaults focused on improving legal response and

According to data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), in 2003 to 2012, domestic violence accounted for almost a quarter of all violent crimes committed. According to the same survey conducted, only 55% of those domestic violence crimes were reported to the police. Based on a study that was conducted on past domestic violence crimes, there was a decline of domestic violence from 1994-2003 but in recent years, depending on the type of intimate partner violence, each either had a small increase or stayed the same (Truman, 2014).