When Not to Arrest an Abuser in a Domestic Violence Case

Almost half the the states in America have mandatory arrest provisions in domestic violence cases, and it’s widely accepted as an important step in protecting the mostly female victims of spousal or partner violence. Just last month, the legislature in Madison County, Alabama,  passed a bill that would strengthen police’s ability to make such arrests. But a new research paper raises some questions about whether mandatory arrests in every case is the right approach. It’s possible arresting an alleged abuser may be really bad for some victims’  long-term health. A follow-up of a study done 23 years ago found that that domestic violence victims whose partners were arrested on misdemeanor charges (when no injuries resulted) were more likely to have died than those whose partners were merely warned by police.  These were not the people who died because of an attack, but rather those who died years later of health-related reasons, including heart disease, cancer or other internal disorders.  Somehow, the study suggests, the emotional toll of having a partner arrested messed up their health in the years afterwards. Interestingly, the study was conducted by the same guy whose research was largely responsible for the introduction of the mandatory arrest provisions in the first place, Lawrence Sherman, now the Director of the Institute of Criminology of the University of Cambridge. “Changing your position in democracies has gotten very difficult,” says Sherman. “But as John Maynard Keynes said:  when my information changes, I alter my conclusions.”  Sherman has got some support from law enforcement circles. What Sherman originally found, in a study done in Minneapolis, was that mandatory arrests in misdemeanor cases lowered future domestic violence rates. Those who were arrested were less likely to abuse again. At the time, the late 70s, intimate partner violence was largely considered a domestic issue and not an area for police intervention. Sherman’s study, which got enormous publicity, was part of turning that understanding around. The problem was, Sherman was never able to replicate the results. In fact, in Milwaukee and other cities that had