In this article the authors present the results of an experiment conducted to test the relative effectiveness of three police responses to spouse abuse: (a) advising, and possibly separating the couple; (b) issuing a citation to the offender; and (c) arresting the offender. Cases that met specified eligibility criteria were randomly assigned to one of the three treatments and were then tracked for a period of at least 6 months to discern whether recidivism had occurred. Measures of recidivism were obtained through use of both official police records and victim interviews. Analysis of prevalence, incidence, and time to failure rates indicated that arrest was no more effective than the other two treatments at deterring subsequent abuse.

This article focuses on what female victims of domestic violence expect the police to do when they call for assistance during an abusive incident and whether there is an association between their desire for formal intervention and subsequent victimization and offender aggression. The 419 victims interviewed in this study had a variety of expectations ranging from simply warning to arresting the offender. A combination of victim characteristics, offender characteristics, and incident characteristics was predictive of victim desire for arrest, and victim desire for arrest was significantly associated with subsequent threat of abuse and actual abuse of the victim. The implications of these findings for preferred and mandatory arrest policies are discussed.

Traditionally, even when the police have arrested suspected spouse abusers, prosecutors have been reluctant to follow through with prosecution. Using a sample of 424 cases in which abusers were either arrested on the scene or issued citations for court appearance, this research study investigates whether characteristics surrounding the offense (such as cause of the argument and victim injury), offender characteristics (such as prior record and substance abuse), or victim characteristics (such as relationship with the offender and substance abuse) most impact the prosecution's decision to prosecute. The policy implications of the findings are also discussed.

Efforts to stem the tide of spouse abuse have recently focused on the role of law enforcement. Pivotal hopes have been placed on the possibility that the arrest of abusers might constitute a more effective deterrent than traditional police responses. Awakened to the scope of this problem in the mid-1970s, both the public and social scientists began foraging for ways to combat a problem of epidemic proportions.

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