This new edition of the bestselling Responding to Domestic Violence explores the response to domestic violence today, not only by the criminal justice system, but also by public and non-profit social service and health care agencies. After providing a brief theoretical overview of the causes of domestic violence and its prevalence in our society, the authors cover such key topics as barriers to intervention, variations in arrest practices, the role of state and federal legislation, and case prosecution. Focusing on both victims and offenders, the book includes unique chapters on models for judicial intervention, domestic violence and health, and children and domestic violence. In addition, this edition provides an in-depth discussion of the concept of coercive control in domestic violence and its importance in understanding victim needs. Finally, this volume includes international perspectives in order to broaden the reader's understanding of alternative responses to the problem of domestic violence.
Despite mandates requiring annual in-service training on domestic violence for all New Jersey police officers, many officers do not receive this training. In-service training enhances the enforcement of domestic violence laws. Police officers in New Jersey, a mandatory arrest jurisdiction for the enforcement of domestic violence laws, rely heavily on their perception of the law to justify their enforcement activities. Victim¿s wishes and opinions on the enforcement of domestic violence laws have little effect on the arrest outcome in mandatory arrest jurisdictions, such as New Jersey, according to both officer¿s opinions and their reactions to hypothetical situations in this study.
Annotation Draws on data from a study of police behaviour in the field, interviews with criminal justice professionals and social service providers, and participant observations of female offender programs. Offering critical analysis of the theoretical assumptions, this book unveils a reality that looks different from what statistics on domestic violence imply.
Decriminalizing Domestic Violence asks the crucial, yet often overlooked, question of why and how the criminal legal system became the primary response to intimate partner violence in the United States. It introduces readers, both new and well versed in the subject, to the ways in which the criminal legal system harms rather than helps those who are subjected to abuse and violence in their homes and communities, and shares how it drives, rather than deters, intimate partner violence. The book examines how social, legal, and financial resources are diverted into a criminal legal apparatus that is often unable to deliver justice or safety to victims or to prevent intimate partner violence in the first place. Envisioned for both courses and research topics in domestic violence, family violence, gender and law, and sociology of law, the book challenges readers to understand intimate partner violence not solely, or even primarily, as a criminal law concern but as an economic, public health, community, and human rights problem. It also argues that only by viewing intimate partner violence through these lenses can we develop a balanced policy agenda for addressing it. At a moment when we are examining our national addiction to punishment, Decriminalizing Domestic Violence offers a thoughtful, pragmatic roadmap to real reform.
"Domestic conflict is the largest single cause of violence in America, yet police have traditionally been reluctant to make arrests for such assaults. In the past decade, however, that reluctance has been overcome, with a 70% increase in arrests for minor assaults, heavily concentrated among low-income and minority groups. Spearheading this nationwide crackdown are the 15 states and the District of Columbia which have adopted unprecedented statutes mandating arrest in cases of misdemeanor domestic battery." "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 each year, when most prosecutors refuse to pursue them? Why does arresting unemployed batterers do more harm than good? What approaches should police adopt when arrest has totally opposite effects upon "haves" and "have-nots"? Sherman, a leading police researcher, is the architect of the 1984 Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment - the first controlled test of the effects of arrest on repeat crime. Here he describes what was learned from a multi-year federal research program to repeat the experiment in Milwaukee, Miami, Colorado Springs, Omaha, and Charlotte. The results are both surprising and provocative." "In fact, arrest deters selectively. Sherman found that it effectively inhibits some offenders, but incites more violence in others. It may also deter batterers for a month or so, only to make them more violent later on. Under this policy, therefore, some women exchange short-term safety for a longer-term increase in danger. Sherman also shows that compulsory arrest reduces violence against middle-class women at the expense of those (often black) who are poor. Some advocates of the policy have endorsed this moral choice, but Sherman argues that domestic violence will continue in spite of, and sometimes because of, our attempts to stop it. Further, while it is possible to predict which couples will continue to suffer abusive behavior, it has been difficult to find effective ways of preventing chronic violence, even when arrests are made. Relying on arrest as a "fix" for domestic abuse only underscores the long neglect of underlying social problems, and Sherman calls instead for more flexible policies - such as "community policing" - that more adequately reflect the diversity of American society."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Since empirical research on domestic violence began in the 1970s, it has become clear that without intervention, significant percentages of domestic violence cases escalate into more serious incidents. However, with the exception of cases resulting in homicides, there are no reliable criminal justice statistics that document the rates of serious domestic violence incidents. What, then, are the most effective means--in terms of safety and cost--of protecting victims? Featuring writings from noted contributors, Do Arrests and Restraining Orders Work? grapples with the markedly different results of research and analyses on the effectiveness of arrests and restraining orders. This probing volume examines the proper role of arrest and the degree to which the criminal justice system can rely on restraining orders to prevent domestic and other kinds of violence. Representing a wide array of research methods, the chapters include a variety of perspectives, including those from police, prosecutors, the judiciary, and probation officers. Timely and provocative, Do Arrests and Restraining Orders Work? asks the challenging questions that will help the criminal justice system move toward effective solutions. This volume is an excellent resource for students as well as researchers and academics in criminology and for a wide array of criminal justice professionals, including police management personnel, attorneys, and policymakers.
This edition continues to address the basic questions surrounding domestic violence. Virtually all chapters have been rewritten, and material has been added on changes in prosecution criteria and on different methods to protect the victim.
Reports of mistreated children, domestic violence, and abuse of elderly persons continue to strain the capacity of police, courts, social services agencies, and medical centers. At the same time, myriad treatment and prevention programs are providing services to victims and offenders. Although limited research knowledge exists regarding the effectiveness of these programs, such information is often scattered, inaccessible, and difficult to obtain. Violence in Families takes the first hard look at the successes and failures of family violence interventions. It offers recommendations to guide services, programs, policy, and research on victim support and assistance, treatments and penalties for offenders, and law enforcement. Included is an analysis of more than 100 evaluation studies on the outcomes of different kinds of programs and services. Violence in Families provides the most comprehensive review on the topic to date. It explores the scope and complexity of family violence, including identification of the multiple types of victims and offenders, who require different approaches to intervention. The book outlines new strategies that offer promising approaches for service providers and researchers and for improving the evaluation of prevention and treatment services. Violence in Families discusses issues that underlie all types of family violence, such as the tension between family support and the protection of children, risk factors that contribute to violent behavior in families, and the balance between family privacy and community interventions. The core of the book is a research-based review of interventions used in three institutional sectorsâ€"social services, health, and law enforcement settingsâ€"and how to measure their effectiveness in combating maltreatment of children, domestic violence, and abuse of the elderly. Among the questions explored by the committee: Does the child protective services system work? Does the threat of arrest deter batterers? The volume discusses the strength of the evidence and highlights emerging links among interventions in different institutional settings. Thorough, readable, and well organized, Violence in Families synthesizes what is known and outlines what needs to be discovered. This volume will be of great interest to policymakers, social services providers, health care professionals, police and court officials, victim advocates, researchers, and concerned individuals.
