In an attempt to determine whether arresting offenders for domestic violence is a deterrent, this longitudinal study examined the effects of reporting and arrest on the repeat of assaults against intimate partners.
Experimental studies of the effects of arrest on domestic violence may have missed the incidents that have the highest risk of being repeated, incidents that are not reported to the police. This study, supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, was based on a longitudinal design applied to data on intimate partners from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), for the years 1992 to 2002, which includes both misdemeanors and felonies, male and female offenders, and couples in different types of relationships. The study examined the effects of reporting and arrest on the repeat of assaults against intimate partners. In addition, the study examined whether the offender retaliated if the victim reported the incident or signed a complaint against the offender, and whether the effects of arrest and reporting depended upon the situational characteristics of incidents and the social-demographic characteristics of offenders. The data sample included 2,564 respondents who were victimized by their spouses, ex-spouses, or other intimate partners. The analysis suggests that police involvement has a strong deterrent effect while the effect of arrest is small and statistically insignificant. The study concludes that a deterrent effect of arrest has not been demonstrated convincingly. If arrest does have an effect, that effect is likely to be too small to have policy implications. References, tables