Monday, April 16, 2012

Mandatory arrest


Mandatory arrest policies over the years have varied. From the rule of three that stated it was okay to beat your wife as long as the object you used was no longer then three inches, to a wide use of police discretion of the officer. That brings us to where we are presently a mixture of discretion and mandatory arrest. Mandatory arrest should be in place for all departments for domestic abuse calls. The evidence is overwhelming that when an arrest is made the numbers for recidivism are lower. It shows that the victims of domestic battery do not have to be afraid to call the police anymore and gives them hope for change and empowerment. The safety of the officers is also a key role when it is shown that a disturbance has occurred at the residents before police officers know what they are going in to instead of being blindsided by the events of the house.
            The most important issue for the criminal justice system is recidivism rate. The key goal of the criminal justice system is to rehabilitate and punish offenders for breaking the law. Domestic battery is one of the most significant crimes that have a reoccurring recidivism. In a study it shows how the rate of recidivism has drastically decreased due to the mandatory arrest in Virginia homicides decreased from 12 or 13 down to 1 in the first six months (Lang, 1986). These numbers speak for them self it is not a coincidence that when mandatory arrest is active that these rates go down. Although these numbers show the extremes of the matter and doesn’t focus only on domestic abuse, it shows a clear decrease when mandatory arrest is implicated. In 2005, 1,181 females were murdered by an intimate partner. (FBI, 2005) From the same report in 1976 the number of females killed was 1,587. That is as far back as the data would go. Showing a decrease of 231 women, this number is pretty substantial considering the number of domestic batteries is considerable higher than what it was in 1976. Mandatory arrest has played a key role in this. Before officers would go to the house and it was up to the officer’s discretion on to make an arrest or not, now that a mandatory arrest is present they are taking that hostile situation and moving it. At times when the police officer shows up the victim will not want to press charges because of fear of what might happen to them or embarrassment and often when the cops show up the situation becomes more hostile for all the parties involved. By taking away the batterer it removes the situation.  
            By having a mandatory arrest program in place it shows that the victim doesn’t have to be afraid of the batterer. It gives them a source of empowerment knowing that they no longer have to take this type of abuse any more or knowing it will never happen again. When the victim no longer has to worry about the abuse any more they are able to look back and see the signs that lead up to it. I grew up watching domestic abuse for years cops were called and often no arrest was made. One time the officer even insulted my mother and took my dad’s side, 3 years ago that officer was arrested for domestic abuse. But my father was never arrested all the times the police were called out to my house. Except for one night while I was in second grade cops came arrested him gave my mom information about how to get out of abusive relationships within the week we were living at a house specifically designed for domestic abuse victims. I strongly believe if a mandatory arrest policy would have been in placed my mother would have got out of that situation sooner, because it was not until my dad was arrested that she finally knew that she could leave. My dad was in jail for three days and then he was required by the court to attend anger management and substance abuse classes because of his drinking. Since then my parents got a divorce and my dad has remarried with no incidents.
            When an arrest is made at a location it goes on file in the system. This is key for officer safety because they now know what situation they are going to. They are able to tell if this is an extremely violent atmosphere they are going in to that involves weapons or if it is verbal arguments. In 2010 the number of police officers killed in domestic cases was second to only traffic accidents (FBI, 2010). When talking with my aunt who is a detective with Kankakee County Sheriff’s, she told me that when she was a patrol officer responding to a domestic was the most dangerous call to get. She said that “when you go in you have no idea what the situation is going to be like or at what level it is at now. Sometimes they are both sitting and waiting and others they are still physically fighting.” By having a mandatory arrest policy in place sometimes they were able to get an idea of what the situation was going to be like by having the information they need, and in criminal justice information is the officers’ best friend.
            Mandatory arrest should be mandatory for all police departments. It has been shown that when mandatory arrest is in place there is a clear decline in recidivism, the victim is giving a source of empowerment and officers are safer. The biggest problem when reporting statistics for domestic abuse is the dark figure domestic abuse is one of the biggest crimes that go unreported. If it was reported more I feel these number would be even more staggering.
(FBI.COM UCR)

15 comments:

  1. First of all, I'd just like to say that I am very sorry that you were put in that position as a young child. No child deserves to witness domestic violence, but I am glad that you have chosen a career path that could potentially help other victims like your mother. Like you, I also believe in mandatory arrest policies but have a couple concerns about it. I have learned in previous classes that one turn off from mandatory arrest policies is that if the woman knows her husband will be sent to jail, she may be less likely to call upon the police officer's help knowing what the repercussions are. Therefore, it may lead to more domestic violence in the home that would go unrecorded. I think that many police officers need to be trained better in terms of siding with the victim and have a generous heart when it comes to helping the victim after the abuse has happened. Overall, I too have known friends of mine who have been in abusive relationships and would be more than happy to reinforce the three strikes law.

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  2. The main problem here is that certain Women are afraid to call the police now knowing that an arrest needs to be made. These women are scared because they usually depend on the man financially. Also by arresting the abuser in many cases just makes him more angry will cause further harm to the wife. However, in any CJS matter there will always be positives and negatives. The positive would be that an abused person can call the police and know they will get justice on arrival. That could cause some problems later, but for now its a good temporary fix to get an abuser out of the home.

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  3. I can see both point of views on this matter. The two being to have a mandatory arrest protocol established, but I also understand how if the individual gets arrested he/she could come back angrier. I have heard about many cases in where the person accused comes back and ends up murdering the victim, or if nothing is done it leads to greater harm or murder. This is a very difficult situation to deal with. The most important aspect of this is the police's discretion. It all comes down to how the officer's gut feeling is. The best way to try and fix this problem is to better educate and train police officers on the matter of domestic abuse. By doing this it will allow a police officer to use his best judgement/discretion on how to go about the incident.

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    1. I agree training officers may be more effective than mandatory arrest.

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  4. This is a very interesting article because I have read studies that state the best way to resolve and reduce recidivism for domestic disputes is to arrest and separate the people involved. The police usually arrest the person who didn't make the 911 call. Mandatory arrest does pose many problems though. If someone getting abused knows that calling the police will lead to arrest it may deter them from calling. Some people even though getting abused don't want to see their significant other arrested. They may also depend on them financially or fear further and/or more severe abuse. I believe mandatory arrest would lead to many domestic abuse cases going unreported. While it may deter some from being abusive I think it negative deters the person getting abused from calling the police.

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  5. Nice blog and topic. I agree that there needs to be specific mandatory arrests in each police department. Certain mandatory arrests will vary as you go from county to county, obviously, so this needs to be taken into account. Domestic violence definitely falls into a category of mandatory arrest in my opinion. People (usually women) living in fear is not OK. If the police will simply just tell the man to stop and figure out the matters on their own, women will continue to be afraid of even calling. Arrests will absolutely lower domestic violence recidivism and I agree that it should be a mandatory arrest when it happens. In justice, the victim needs to be protected and mandatory arrests will definitely help.

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  6. Nice post, ya I completely agree that all departments should have a mandatory arrest policy for such situations. I feel like it does show the victim that he/she does have the freedom to leave at anytime without fear of retaliation and also in some cases when the offender is taken away for a couple days, he is given time to cool off and avoid a worse situation.

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  7. I'm glad that you decided to pursue a career that can help people that have gone through the same situation. I will say that I completely agree that all police departments should have a mandatory policy on arrest when it comes to domestic violence. It gives people the time to think, and chill out about the situation. I used to be in a cadet program where were we were called onto a domestic scene and It was hard for me to deal with for the first time because there was 3 young children involved and it broke my heart. I feel that victims need to be protected overall.

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  8. I see that too, most women just do not call the police because they are scared to lose their means to money if there man is locked up. or some of them do not call because they are scared that will make the guy more angry at them and will try to hurt them even more. There are just so many reasons people do not take action anymore if they are being abused. I think if they are they need to really think about life because no one should be treated like that. No one deserves to be beaten for no reason. People who are in a violent relationship I think need to get out of that or it will never end.

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  9. If someone were arrested every time someone complained that their spouse hit them, the jails would topple over from being overcrowded. There has to be clear and concise physical proof or the person has to be so in fear for their life that they themselves are willing to be taken to a shelter. Even if there is clear proof, the victim has to be willing to press charges or the police cannot do anything. In IL, if an officer is called back to the same house within 24 hours of a prior call for abuse, someone has to be taken into custody. Look, to be blunt, if you are getting beat by your significant other, PRESS CHARGES!!! There shouldn't have to be a mandatory arrest law for domestic cases. People need to learn to make the right decision when the police are there and we would not be having this debate.

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  10. I am all for prevention of domestic violence but I am not sure if mandatory arrests is the way to go. I think that the same results can be made if the aggressor at the scene is removed and made to go somewhere else for the night, and yes if the police have to be called back then the aggressor needs to be arrested. Things can often be very exaggerated by people involved in domestic violence cases. I think that if a police officer removes the aggressor and gives the victim the same information about community services to help whether it be financially or emotionally; the same results can often be achieved verses just throwing someone in jail.

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  11. I personally do not think that mandatory arrests are the cure all. I think maybe it could be mandatory that one of the people involved has to leave and not be allowed back for say forty-eight hours or something. I think the problem with mandatory arrest is they take the possibility of diffusing the situation out of the equation. I have personally witnessed a situation where the female was the aggressor in a domestic disturbance and the department had a mandatory arrest policy. The officer even though every witness and there were three stated that the female was the problem, the male involved was the one arrested. I realize that most domestics involve the male as the offender but it is possible for the female to be the offender. I think that in this particular situation if the department did not have a mandatory arrest policy one of the people involved would have been allowed to just leave to diffuse the situation. The female involved was related to an officer from this department so there was no way she was going to be the one arrested. I realize that it is good to get one of the people involved out of there and keep them away for a period of time; I'm just not convinced that mandatory arrest is the only or best way to go about reached the desired ends.

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  12. I can see both sides of the issue. I think police officers should have the discretion in most if not all situations. It's up to the criminal justice players to make the just and ethical decision. that being said, I think every department should strongly suggest that every domestic violence situation be handled thoroughly the day/night of the instance. If its cut and dry (rarely is) that one person is being abused then an arrest must be made. I like the mandatory policy many departments have, where they will remove the accused from the house and send them somewhere.

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  13. There is no excuse for domestic violence. It makes me sick to my stomach, however I do not believe mandatory arrest is necessary. The department should keep records of individuals and make a police report for every single case to know if it continues, but arresting for domestic violence can be abused by spouses. Even worse women may be scared to call the police since they know it will result in an arrest and possible jail time. The cases for domestic violence are extremely varied and those who cause it are troubled and may need help and counseling.

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  14. Very interesting regarding the domestic violence being a high recidivism factor. I find it very intriguing that the criminal justice system has not implemented a type of mandatory anger management or counseling for this type of crime. Domestic Violence has no place in society and should be dealt with seriously. When an individual harms another individual in the instance of domestic violence, treatment should be sought along with counseling.

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