Mandatory Arrest and Domestic Violence

This study identifies and provides evidence on positive and negative effects of the mandatory arrest laws in deterring domestic violence incidents. It examines the ways the mandatory arrest law has affected the incidents of domestic violence and explains the effectiveness of the mandatory arrest policy of domestic violence. It further analyses the positive as well as negative impacts of the mandatory arrest policy in the United States.

Running head: MANDATORY ARREST AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Mandatory arrest and domestic violence
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MANDATORY ARREST AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Abstract
Domestic violence is a serious public issue which is prevailing the society despite of
the endeavours of various legislations to prevent it. Many countries have passed various
mandatory arrest laws for domestic violence. It mandatory arrest law requires the police to
arrest the abuser whenever an incident of domestic violence is reported. In Minnesota, an
experiment was conducted which showed that mandatory arrests reduced the incidents of
future domestic violence. The current research on domestic violence determines whether
mandatory arrest prevents or deters future acts of domestic violence. The laws of mandatory
arrest have positive as well as negative effects in deterring domestic violence incidents. This
study, therefore, identifies and provides evidence on positive and negative effects of the
mandatory arrest laws.

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1. Introduction
Background of the Study
Violence women by their domestic partners has become a common incident in
modern world which sometimes goes unreported. Women battering is the main cause of the
serious physical as well as mental injuries to women. In order to fight this issue of domestic
violence against the intimate partners, various state laws have been expanded over thirty
years to empower the police with warrantless power to arrest. States have empowered the
police to make an arrest, mandatorily, if he or she finds that there is a probable reason to
believe that an offence has been committed. In certain cases, it has been observed that
mandatory arrests were effective to deter future violence. However, in some other cases, no
effectiveness of the mandatory arrests were proved. The law relating to mandatory arrest
might have a different result on this issue. Regardless of the various attempts by the
Government for public awareness about this issue, such incidents have managed to remain in
the larger parts of the United States.
Statement of the problem
In modern times, the issue of domestic violence against the intimate partners has
become a challenging and significant concern for the society. Often, the mandatory laws of
arrest in domestic violence cases have responded positively to reduce the incidents of
domestic violence. Whereas, sometimes the known law of arrest has affected the decision of
the victims to seek the intervention of the police in these cases. It has appeared that the
certainty of arrest policy dissuades the victim from seeking the intervention of police by
reporting the abuse, as it is known to them that the consequence of police reporting may be
the immediate arrest of their intimate partners. For such reasons, it has become important to
consider the ultimate effect of the state efforts of mandatory arrest in domestic violence.

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Rationale of the Research
The importance of the mandatory arrest policy has become an issue because the aim
to treat and present domestic violence as criminal justice issue. The concern is that the
mandatory arrest laws have a different impact on different communities. In various studies it
has been found that the African American Women are noticeably reluctant to report domestic
violence incidents to the police. They prefer to handle this instances on their own. This may
happen because of their higher distrust of the criminal justice system or their belief in the
culture of communities.
This is a major concern because mandatory arrest has not always proven to be an
effective way to deter the future incidents of domestic violence. The increased rate of arrest
was the result of state mandatory laws to arrest in an incident of domestic violence. The aim
of this study is to examine the ways the mandatory arrest law has affected the incidents of
domestic violence. This study endeavours to provide the impact of mandatory arrest on the
issue of domestic violence. This study explains the effectiveness of the mandatory arrest
policy of domestic violence. It further analyses the positive as well as negative impacts of the
mandatory arrest policy in the United States. Finally, this study concludes with the findings
of the research.
Research aims and objectives
The aim of this study is to understand the importance of the contribution of mandatory
arrest laws in deterring the future incidents of domestic violence focusing on the various
experiments conducted on this topic.
The objectives of this research are:
1. To understand the domestic violence arrest laws and its effects.

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2. To find out the various means by which mandatory domestic violence arrests have
contributed to criminal justice system.
Research Questions
RQ 1. What are the effects of mandatory arrest law to deter future domestic violence?
RQ 2. What are the various means by which the mandatory arrest laws have contributed to
criminal justice system?
Research Hypothesis
H0. The mandatory arrest policy for domestic violence incidents will not result in deterring
future domestic violence incidents.
2. Literature Review
The effects of mandatory arrest law to deter future domestic violence
Attitude towards domestic violence has significantly progressed in the United States
in the last several years. In earlier period, the women did not have the independent legal
entity after being married to her husband. According to Zelcer (2014), because of this
patriarchal viewpoint husband had the right to use physical violence or force to control the
behaviour of their wives. He stated that this tradition was continued to the nineteenth century
until the Alabama Supreme Court gave their decision against it. In Fulgham v. State, 46 Ala.
143, 1871 WL 1013 (Ala.) , the Alabama Supreme Court restricted the right of the husband to
use physical violence over their wives. The law criminalising the spousal abuse was then
introduced in Maryland for the first time. Then the family courts were established to field the
issues relating to domestic violence. To disseminate the information about domestic partners,
President Jimmy Carter established Office of Domestic Violence in the United States
Department of Justice. In the case of Castle Rock v Gonzales 545 U.S. 748 (2005), the

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Supreme Court of United States established a mandatory arrest law stating that law requires
police officer to arrest the suspected offender of domestic violence if there is a reasonable
cause to believe that the abuse has occurred irrespective of the preference of the victim or the
discretion of the officer. There are conflicted views by the advocates on the matter of
effectiveness of mandatory arrest policy to eradicate the issue of domestic violence.
Earlier in the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment conducted in 1984, the
effectiveness arrest in any offence was examined. This experiment analysed around 314
incidents of domestic violence. The result of the experiment stated that arrest is the most
effective method to deter the domestic violence cases. This findings was published in the
New York Times in the month of April 1983, following which the New York Police
Commissioner issued an order which required mandatory or preferential arrest in a domestic
violence case. Supporting the order, the United States Attorney General issued a report that
recommended that arrest is the best law enforcement response to any domestic violence
cases. In People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson, ignited the majority of
states to enact a mandatory arrest law in domestic violence cases. Mandatory arrest law in
domestic violence cases, removes the discretion of a police officer to arrest (Holmes, 2015).
These laws has proven to combat the emergence and growth of domestic violence cases in
countries. Officers are not required to have seen the violence to issue an arrest under this
laws. The widespread awareness about domestic violence has been possible because of the
rigid law to arrest the suspect if the officer has the reasonable cause to believe that an offence
has occurred. Domestic violence is no longer supported or safeguarded within the private
boundaries, it is also considered as a serious crime. Supporters of the effectiveness of this
statute argued that such laws effectively send a vital societal message that violence against
partners is unacceptable. However, despite this progresses, domestic violence still continues
to remain as a profound and pervasive problem.

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However, Strom et al., (2014) has argued that in spite of the mandatory arrest laws
and its positive effect in deterring the incidents of domestic violence, these laws are not
beloved universally. Though the significant purpose of this statutes are powerful, yet in
operation, the mandatory arrest policy are both injurious and ineffective. The mandatory
arrest policy has significantly resulted in the increased rates of arrest of women. Lee, Zhan &
Hoover, (2013), has argued that mandatory arrest has an adverse effect on the women with
children. It also discriminates between the poor, immigrant and women belonging from
minority groups. Mandatory arrest also possess some procedural challenges.
Messing et al., (2015) has argued that mandatory arrest policy has failed to prove to
be effective as a means for reducing the domestic violence. The Minneapolis experiment did
not examine the long-term effect of mandatory arrest of the repeat offenders. The effect of
arrest in most of the cases, starts to disappear by the end of six to eight months. In another
experiment financed by the National Institute of Justice in Omaha, Nebraska, it was found
that there was no evidence which proves that mandatory arrest deters batterers. Rather, it was
found that in some cases, recidivism occurred with increased violence after the release of the
offenders. It was observed by Çelik (2013), that mandatory arrest is responsible for causing
disempowerment to the women. He argued that this statutes have failed to consider the
preference of the victim in regard to the arrest. Many of the partners do not want their other
half to be arrested because of the domestic violence. Some women merely use the
intervention of the police as a threat to use control over their abusive spouse. Mandatory
arrest statutes, takes away the opportunity from the battered women. It often happens that the
offenders are arrested against the request or wish of their wives. It subjects the women to the
presumption that state has better control over their spousal relationship than the victim. As a
result of fact, women lose control over their spousal affairs. They are deprived of their own

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healing process in this cases. The arrest becomes a temporary solution if the women did not
have an active role in making the decision to get her abusive partner arrested.
In addition to this, Tatum & Pence (2015) argued that mandatory arrest statutes has
led to an increased number of arrested women. In which states that mandatory arrest policy
has been adopted, the number of arrest of women has increased. A confusion arises when the
police has to decide who the primary or initial aggressor was. Mandatory arrest policy has led
to dual arrests in certain situations. In some of the domestic violence cases, the victim was the
primary aggressor. If the women was the arrested for being abusive, they lose access to the
battered women shelters for a temporary period. They are not even granted the protection of
automatic restraining order. The fear of arrest of both the partners or dual arrest provides
disincentive to ask for the intervention of the police. Mandatory arrest policy cause a
difficulty for the women with children. If the women are arrested, the law relating to child
custody disfavour the mother. Even if the mother was the victim of violence, children may be
removed from the home after the incident. Compulsory involvement of state is not sufficient
for improving the lives of women materially. The fear of losing the custody of a child may
deter the women from calling the police.
Mandatory arrest law have often negative effects on the poor, immigrant and the
women belonging from minority communities. Mandatory arrest have a very negative effect
based on the race of women. Among the American communities, arrest laws reduces the
frequency of repeat offences in half. Whereas, in African American women, mandatory arrest
increases the repeat violence by about one third (Sherman & Harris, 2015). In this group,
arrest encourages the rates of severity of the violence within the batterers who engages in
such violent behaviour repeatedly. This is often regarded as the proud and angry effect.
Repeat violence is often noticed among the unemployed people. However, the result is
opposite within the employed people. Therefore, mandatory arrest statute have an adverse

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effect on the poor communities which have a higher than average unemployment rates.
Minority women also face threats of dual arrests and police brutality, which prevents them
from reporting any violence. The immigrant women also faces the chilling effect of
mandatory arrest. They have the fear of deportation in their mind if they report an incident of
violence. They feel that if their partners are convicted in a domestic violence offence, they
will be dragged out of the country. The threat of cultural isolation as a result of arrest
prevents and discourages the immigrant women from reporting the incident of domestic
violence to the police. Mandatory arrest law, imposes a high cost upon the minority,
immigrant and poor women.
Gover et al., (2013) found that the unnecessary procedural challenges in mandatory
arrests laws causes substantial harms to the victims. As the office of the District Attorney
lack the sufficient resources to pursue a weaker case, the individuals arrested in the
mandatory arrest states are not always prosecuted. Each process of arrest takes about three to
four hours, which increases the costs of the public agencies. The mandatory arrest policies for
every domestic violence incidents cost the local government to invest millions of dollars for
the additional police, court services, jails and prosecutions. This is also a reason behind the
overcrowding in jails. As a result, the mandatory arrest statute exacerbate recidivism andalso
causes other consequences for women.
The various means by which the mandatory arrest laws have contributed to criminal
justice system
Victims seeking intervention of the police is the first agency of contact of the issue
with criminal justice system. Without the report of the incidents, the issue of domestic
violence goes unnoticed. Mandatory arrest, in some of the cases, has successfully reduced the
rate of incidents and provided the victims with the statutory framework. Modern criminal

9MANDATORY ARREST AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
justice system has taken an active part to eradicate the issue of violence against women. In
Thurman v City of Torrington (1984) the right to get police protection in a case of domestic
violence was ensured. In 1994 the Violence against Women Act was introduced, which
justified grants to support the pro-arrest policies in various states. As a part of this major
concern, U.S. Police Department has adopted the mandatory arrest laws for spousal violence
cases which have probable cause to arrest. The District of Columbia and 23 states, by the end
of 2005, had enacted and adopted mandatory arrest for domestic violence, without any
warrant (Corvo & Spitzmueller, 2017).
However, it was argued that the opportunity to alternative reforms were dismissed
because of the immediate intervention of the police. This laws present a desire to adopt a
punitive approach to the incidents of violence.
3. Methodology
Research Philosophy
Research philosophy in this study was to analyse and evaluate the study in detail.
Three types of research philosophy is there, which are, realism, interpretivism and positivism.
As per Vaioleti (2016), to develop a detailed and in-depth analysis of any study, positivism
research philosophy is most effective. To examine and evaluate the contribution of
mandatory arrest law in deterring future incidents of domestic violence, interpretivism
research philosophy has been selected.
Research design
As stated by Panneerselvam (2014) research design refers to the action of specific
method of data collection and analysis. There are three types of research designs, namely, the
analytical, explanatory and exploratory. Out of these three designs, analytical research design
is used to analyse and understand a study in a descriptive way. The exploratory research

10MANDATORY ARREST AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
design helps to analyse the concept in the initial stage of the study and the exploratory
research design helps to analyse and develop a relation between the two considerable
variations of this study (Flick, 2015). It was found by Ledford & Gast (2018) that objectives
and data requirements must be defined in conclusive study. Analytical research design is used
in this study to gain the detail idea of mandatory arrest laws in relation to deterring future
incidents of domestic violence.
Data collection method
Two kinds of data collection methods are used to evaluate a study, namely primary
and secondary data collection. This study will be evaluated based on the secondary data
collection method. Data for this study has been collected from the offline resources like
books, journal and newspaper articles.
Data analysis technique
In order to evaluate the qualitative data, the collected data shall be evaluated with the
help of a framework analysis, which consists stages like identification of thematic
framework, familiarization, and interpretation.
Research Limitations
The qualitative data collection method in this present study indicates the limitation of
the study that the analysis should be made on the basis of the secondary data. Additionally,
the availability of the journals related with the issue was limited in number. It also faces
certain limitation regarding the budget and time.
Ethical Consideration
Ethical issues are the major challenges in the way of evaluating academic study,
specifically, if the study has to deal with a huge set of secondary data collected from books

11MANDATORY ARREST AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
and journals. The researcher ensure that the data sources are properly acknowledged and no
information has been tampered in this study.
3.Conclusion
The problem of future domestic violence cannot be completely deterred with the help
of mandatory arrest statutes, as mandatory arrest laws have certain serious drawbacks. This
research specifically identifies those drawbacks in the mandatory arrest laws with the help of
secondary research. This paper shows that the implications of mandatory arrest laws in
domestic violence cases have resulted in the reduction of report of this kind of violence,
though the issue has managed to prevail in the society. Therefore, a strict law is required to
replace this statute which creates a fear in the mind of the victims. This research concludes
that mandatory arrest is not sufficient to combat the issue, rather an effective law is required
to prohibit the source of domestic violence. This research would be useful for any future
research in this field. This report suggests that the policy or practice to deter future domestic
violence should focus on the root cause of the crime rather than making arrest after its
occurrence. Future, practices or policies developed on the basis of the outcome of this
research will be helpful to eradicate domestic violence. This research will be helpful for
considering the removal of the issue from its root cause.

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