Citation

Garner JH, Maxwell CD. J. Aggression Maltreat. Trauma 2000; 4(1): 83-114.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1300/J146v04n01_05

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The six domestic violence police arrest experiments and several precursor studies stand unique in their research contribution to criminology and public policy. Together, these studies have significantly informed the debate about the deterrent effects of criminal justice sanctions and about the importance of how police can respond effectively to domestic violence. The strong methodological rigor of the six arrest experiments was a notable accomplishment, and set new standards for future criminological research. Early reviews synthesizing many results from the six arrest experiments typically concluded that the deterrent effect of arrest was not significant, however, these reviews generally did not meet the methodological rigor of the five replication experiments. Two recent attempts using different approaches for systematically combining results across multiple studies have concluded that there is a significant deterrent effect from arrest. This finding is variant from early reviews. Based upon data gathered from victim interviews, these two studies suggest that contemporary policies requiring preferred or mandatory arrest may be providing protection for victims though there is little change in the prevalence of police response over time. These studies have also taught us that methodological rigor is required throughout the scientific process, and not just during the data collection and analysis stages. The authors conclude that for several reasons there will likely be no further research testing for the effect of arrest on domestic violence and that current debate concerning how other aspects of the criminal justice system should respond to domestic violence seems less willing to be informed by the rigorous research and experimentation.