Citation

Davis RC, Smith BE, Taylor B. Criminol. Public Policy 2003; 2(2): 263-282.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, American Society of Criminology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1745-9133.2003.tb00125.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Research Summary: Mandatory and pro-arrest policies in domestic violence incidents have increased strains on prosecutorial and court resources. They have also brought to prosecutors many cases in which victims never wanted batterers charged and prosecuted. Prosecutors are faced with the dilemma of (a) screening out difficult cases up front and expending resources on fewer but more winnable case or (b) prosecuting a larger number of cases as adequately as resources will allow. We studied a natural experiment that resulted when the Milwaukee prosecutor liberalized his screening policy to double the number of domestic violence case filings. After the new screening policy was implemented, time to disposition doubled, convictions decreased, the prevalence of pretrial crime increased, and victim satisfaction declined.