Assignment 2: Strategic Impact

‘The Domestic Violence Experiment’ was conducted in 1981-1982 by the Minneapolis police department and the Police Foundation. The purpose of the experiment was to test how police should handle domestic violence incidents (Sherman & Berk, 1984).  Prior to the experiment, it was found that the approach that police officers were using to address domestic violence were less effective. As offenders were arrested, they received corporal punishment which could not deter future crimes. The clinical psychologists suggested that police officers should shun from making an arrest and concentrate on building peace through mediation or arbitration. Other groups such as the women's group proposed that there should a mandatory arrest to all criminal offenses (Sherman & Berk, 1984). The failure to deter crime and the suggestion from different groups influenced the need to conduct an experiment to find the most effective approach.

 In the experiment, a lottery selection or random assignment was used and three approaches were employed; suspects involved in misdemeanor assaults were arrested, or sent from the scene or given advice (Sherman & Berk, 1984). After employing these approaches, the research staff started follow-up for a period of six months to assess whether there would be future crimes after police intervention.  During the follow-up, the victims were interviewed to measure the victimization (Sherman & Berk, 1984).  The experiment used 314 cases and only 205 responded to the interviews. 

 The results show that a higher number of unmarried couples were involved in domestic violence cases. During the six month follow-up, police officers recorded the formation corrected by research staff on offenders repeating the offense and they also interviewed the offenders on whether they repeated a similar offense (Sherman & Berk, 1984). The police officers found that the arrest approach showed an improvement than the approach of sending suspects away. Suspects who were sent away repeated offenses two times. The suspects who received advice treatment also repeated the offense twice.  Therefore, the arrest approach remains the best approach to deter future crimes.  However, one factor that make the arrest approach effective is taking time to listen to the victim (Sherman & Berk, 1984). By listening to them, the suspects recognize their mistakes and changes behavior.  According to my opinion, the results met the purpose of the experiment. Note that the main purpose was to find the most effective approach that police officers can use to deter future domestic crimes. The researchers discovered the effects of different approaches and they concluded that sending suspects and giving them advice are an ineffective approach but arrest is the best approach.

Even though the experiment has some limitations such as the use of the small size of suspects, arresting suspects in jail overnight,  failure to consider unemployment and other social  factors, and lack of research replication,  the generalizability is that arrest is the best approach police officers can use to deter future crime (Sherman & Berk, 1984). The policy implies that police officers should use arrest to deter crime.  Hovmand et al (2009) add that since domestic violence is a major problem affecting today's society, the only solution to this problem is the use of mandatory arrest policies to deter domestic violence. However, the author reports that even though mandatory arrest is the best option, recent studies have shown that women are arrested more than men. The authors propose the solution to the disproportionate arrest of women and states that community cooperation will help the police officers gain information concerning the victims and offenders and as a result, they will maximize victim safety and assailant accountability (Hovmand et al, 2009). In general, the authors suggest that the model of system dynamics and multiple stakeholders will help the police officers understand the social dynamics.

 The main effects of Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment regarding crime control strategy is that the public, as well as the police, have gained awareness about the domestic violence and they will support the mandatory arrest policies to deter future domestic crimes not only in Minneapolis but also in other nations. As a result, there will be more arrest of domestic voice and reduction of re-offending.  The higher arrest will involve both domestic violence cases and stranger cases. Note that traditionally, police ignored arrest of domestic cases and other related cases but they focused on negotiating, counseling, separation of the parties, or threatening the suspect (Hirschel et al, 2007). These approaches could not deter crime but they motivate the domestic assailants to re-offend. This happened in many cities and women continued to suffer from domestic violence since the men were not arrested despite the report of violence.  Remarkably, the experiment will have a positive effect in that police will respond to the domestic violence in both married and unnamed couples and make an arrest. Rather than giving advice, physical separation or mediation, the police will arrest the offenders on reasonable ground. The arrested offenders will suffer from embarrassment, lose community attachment, and a result, they will reduce future violence (Hirschel et al, 2007). Thus, police officers, as well as the jurisdictions, should take mandatory arrest as the prosecution strategy as it will benefit both the offender and the victim. The experiment has impacted the way police handle crimes since they can now use empirical analysis and apply mandatory activities to reduce recidivism (Hirschel et al, 2007).  With respect to the experiment, the mandatory arrest is the best crime control strategy as it deters crime.

 

References

 

Hovmand, P. S., Ford, D. N., Flom, I., & Kyriakakis, S. (2009). Victims arrested for domestic

violence: unintended consequences of arrest policies. System Dynamics Review: The

Journal of the System Dynamics Society, 25(3), 161-181.

 

Hirschel, D., Buzawa, E., Pattavina, A., & Faggiani, D. (2007). Domestic violence and

mandatory arrest laws: To what extent do they influence police arrest decisions. Journal

of  Criminal Law & Criminology, 98, 255.

 

Sherman, W., & Berk, R. A. (1984). The Minneapolis domestic violence experiment. POLICE

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