Policing Domestic Violence: Experiments and Dilemmas

In the early 1980s, the Minneapolis Police Department participated in a ``controlled experiment'' that measured the effectiveness of arresting men who had assaulted their wives or female partners. In that study, University of Maryland criminologist Sherman ( The Quality of Police Education ) found that temporarily removing these men from the scene seemed to reduce the violence. Eventually, the U.S. Department of Justice funded evaluations (performed mostly by other criminologists) of efforts in six other cities to stop domestic violence through ``mandatory arrest'' policies, which were quickly embraced by at least 15 states. In this book written with freelancers Schmidt and Rogan, Sherman, who directs the Crime Control Institute in Washington, D.C., challenges the wisdom of mandatory arrest. Subsequent studies, he reports in this comprehensive review of police efforts to curtail domestic violence, have found that arrest reduces domestic violence in some cities, but increases it in others; lowers the incidence of domestic violence among employed offenders but not among the unemployed; and cuts domestic violence in the short run, but not necessarily over longer periods of time. This densely academic book is important reading for those concerned about violence against women, but it is more likely to be read by professionals than general readers. (Sept.)