Mandatory Arrest and Domestic Violence

Running head: MANDATORY ARREST AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Mandatory arrest and domestic violence
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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.

2MANDATORY ARREST AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
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.

3MANDATORY ARREST AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
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.