Discretionary Power Against Domestic Violence Case Study 2022

Running head: DISCRETIONARY POWER AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Discretionary power Against Domestic Violence
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

DISCRETIONARY POWER AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
1
CJ 230 Project Three Template
Domestic Violence Presentation
Discretionary
Decision
Laws and
Discretion
Agency’s
Culture
Amount of
Discretion
Internal and
External
Discretion
Situation
1
In the given
situation, it is upon
the discretion of
the police officer
whether to arrest
the man who hit
his wife or whether
to ignore it as the
husband and wife
had both
reconciled and
were regretful of
the chaos. It was
hence decided to
warn the husband
of the
consequences of
his action and
leave the situation
there.
Although the
General laws of
Rhode Island [R.I.
Gen. Laws § 12-29-
3 (b)] asks a law
enforcement
officer to arrest
anyone who has
assaulted another,
resulting in bodily
injury to the
victim, however,
the law
enforcement
officers are vested
with the
discretionary
power to decide
whether to make
the arrest or not.
Although the law
makes him bound
to arrest the man
as he has clearly
assaulted his wife;
however, they do
not have a
previous record of
domestic violence.
A law
enforcement
agency sees
different cases of
domestic
violence, some of
which are true
and some of
which are made
up. They go
through a huge
volume of cases,
some of which
could be handled
through
discretion and
mediation
between the
parties involved.
The police officer
has been given
discretionary
power to a
certain limit, till
the point he/she
does not
overlook or
ignore a serious
criminal act.
Situations like
matrimonial
banter where
husband and
wife both are
apologetic about
the chaos of
their fights,
could be dealt
with a warning
rather than an
arrest in every
case.
Internally, the
policed officer shall
take a note of the
case as an
instance of
domestic violence
concerning this
particular couple,
although without
making an arrest.
However,
externally, the
husband needs to
be given a warning
of his action while
the wife needs to
be informed that
she could reach
out for help
against any future
domestic violence
incident (Epstein &
Rejc, 2006).