Violence and Sexual Assault Offenders, Essay Example

First and foremost, the case in the Shelbyville Times is patently absurd: that a couple could be arrested for doing no more than hurl Cheetos at each other is staggering in ludicrousness. That said, it does seem to me that even under extant statutes mandating arrest, this case could have been better handled: after all, the couple did not harm each other, and the “violence” consisted of a gesture that was so trivial as to be a non-issue with regards to law enforcement. At most, the couple should have received a warning to not disturb the peace. It is clear to me that mandatory arrest policies are ill-advised and based on faulty conceptions. The sheer absurdity of this case makes me think that even in light of mandatory arrest policies, the officer(s) in question could have forborne from arresting the couple, and gone with a warning instead. Thus, the outcome is probably not the inevitable outcome of mandating arrest, even if it was informed and driven by the officer’s/officers’ understanding of the character of the situation with respect to the law.

It was good to learn that out of 77 cities surveyed, some two-thirds reported that they responded to the incidence of domestic violence with greater staffing (U.S. Conference of Mayors [USCM], 2010, p. 2). I do think it is probably a good thing that most of the cities require a minimum of two officers to respond to these calls, given, as the report noted, the potential volatility of these situations (p. 2). I found the responses very encouraging, and indicative that the problem is being addressed. The fact that so many cities, some 72 percent, have “a shelter or safe haven for victims of domestic violence”, is certainly an example of best practices as well (p. 3). Certainly it is also an encouraging thing to note that some eighty-three percent of the cities in question reported the existence of public/private partnerships for the intended purpose of reducing domestic violence (p. 3). The approach taken by Daughters of Penelope in Mobile, Alabama is very sound: “to help victims of domestic violence regain social and economic independence” (p. 7).

What Felson and Pare (2007) found was that in fact, police are very unlikely to arrest women who have assaulted their male partners (p. 447). By way of comparison, while a man who assaults his female partner has about .38 predicted probability of arrest, a woman who assaults her male partner has only a predicted probability of arrest of .15 (p. 447). This is indeed a significant difference. In fact, the pattern stood out decidedly in their findings: the police were very reluctant to arrest women for domestic violence against their male partners, perhaps because of conventional ideas about gender (p. 452). Specifically, it is generally presumed that a man is capable of protecting himself from a woman, while a woman may need help against a man (p. 452). Chivalry may also be at work here, in the attitude of police officers, especially males, towards female suspects (p. 452). Thus, following Felson and Pare, paternalist attitudes and conventional gender expectations seem to be at work here, and they would appear to be responsible for the asymmetry.

Mandatory arrest policies certainly seem to rely on faulty ideas of “deterrence”. First and probably foremost, specific deterrence is the theory that a rational decision-maker will not assault their partner, or at least will be much less likely to, if they know that they will be arrested if their partner calls the police (Buzawa, Buzawa, & Stark, 2012, p. 168). In other words, this is the economic argument: potential offenders will restrain themselves from harming their partners, because it would be irrational given the high cost of doing so, i.e. arrest and prosecution. However, this theory makes a staggering assumption: namely, that all offenders are rational, and will operate on these rational, economic motives (p. 168). Crimes of passion, assaults committed while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, and confidence that the offender has their victim firmly under their control, such that the victim will not call the police: all of these most certainly mitigate against special deterrence. Thus, deterrence theory is flawed, and cannot serve as the basis for a sound mandatory arrest policy in instances of domestic violence.

References

Buzawa, E. Buzawa, C. and Stark, E. (2012). Responding to Domestic Violence: The Integration of Criminal Justice & Human Services (4th Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Felson, R. B., & Pare, P.-P. (2007). Does the criminal justice system treat domestic violence and sexual assault offenders leniently? Justice Quarterly, 24(3), pp. 453-459. DOI: 10.1080/07418820701485601

United States Conference of Mayors. (2010). Washington, D.C.: City Policy Associates.