Policing Domestic Violence

Winner of the American Society of Journalists and Authors' prestigious Arlene Book Award. In "Police Wife," award-winning investigative journalist Alex Roslin takes readers inside the tightly closed police world and one of its most explosive secrets: domestic violence in up to 40% of police homes, which departments mostly ignore or let slide.

This book is dedicated to improving the practice of the policing of domestic abuse. Its objective is to help inform those working in policing about the dynamics of how domestic abuse occurs, how best to respond to and investigate it, and in the longer term how to prevent it. Divided into thematic areas, the book uses recent research findings to update some of the theoretical analysis and to highlight areas of good practice: ‘what works and why’. An effective investigation and the prosecution of offenders are considered, as well as an evaluation of the success of current treatment options. Policing domestic abuse can only be dealt with through an effective partnership response. The responsibilities of each agency and the statutory processes in place when policy is not adhered to are outlined. Core content includes: A critique of definitions and theoretical approaches to domestic abuse, including coverage of the myths surrounding domestic abuse and their impact on policing. An exploration on the challenges of collecting data on domestic abuse, looking at police data and the role of health and victim support services. A critical review of different forms of abuse, different perpetrators and victims, and risk assessment tools used by the police. A critical examination of the law relating to domestic abuse; how police resources are deployed to respond to and manage it; and best practice in investigation, gathering evidence, and prosecution Key perspectives on preventing domestic abuse, protecting victims, and reducing harm. Written with the student and budding practitioner in mind, this book is filled with case studies, current research, reports, and media examples, as well as a variety of reflective questions and a glossary of key terms, to help shed light on the challenges of policing domestic violence and the links between academic research and best practice.

"This practical guide to policing domestic violence offers advice on core practice areas, including investigative techniques, risk identification, assessment and management, multi-agency domestic homicide reviews and information-sharing. Approaches to help identify victims early and target offenders through the effective use of intelligence are set out along with helpful case studies and checklists." "This book provides information on all the practical measures which should be employed to protect victims and their children and hold offenders to account. The impact of domestic violence on children and other witnesses is also discussed, and the powers available to police under new legislation including the Domestic Violence Crimes and Victims Act 2004 are outlined. This book is an essential resource for all practitioners working in the field of domestic violence in the UK."--BOOK JACKET.

This study of domestic violence looks at the social, political and criminal aspects of the subject. It explores the role of police, the extent of the problem, women's experience of violence and protection and current developments in the policing and prosecution of violence against women.

This book explores the potential of domestic abuse data to assess the level of harm caused to victims and the amount of resources required to respond to it. Policing domestic abuse has become a major activity for the police service in England and Wales. Part of the police strategy is to gather hundreds of thousands of detailed records about victims and suspects – the single largest set of domestic abuse records available, but one that to date has largely unexplored by researchers. In this volume, Matthew Bland and Barak Ariel analyse three substantial datasets taken from police forces across the country and ask: · Can police data be used to derive meaningful insight? · How should we use these data to measure harm? · Just how much domestic abuse involves a repeat victim? · Does abuse get more serious over time? · Can serious domestic abuse be predicted before it occurs? This volume illustrates the scale of the challenge the police and other agencies face with reducing domestic abuse. A small proportion of individuals generate a majority of harm; this book argues that police records offer opportunities to identify these individuals before the harm occurs. Demonstrating that statistical techniques can be used to profile domestic abuse to target harm reduction strategies more precisely and even identify a sizable proportion of serious cases before they occur, this volume will be of interest to law enforcement officials, policing researchers, and policy makers interested in reducing the phenomenon of domestic abuse.

"Domestic conflict is the largest single cause of violence in America, yet police have traditionally been reluctant to make arrests for such assaults. In the past decade, however, that reluctance has been overcome, with a 70% increase in arrests for minor assaults, heavily concentrated among low-income and minority groups. Spearheading this nationwide crackdown are the 15 states and the District of Columbia which have adopted unprecedented statutes mandating arrest in cases of misdemeanor domestic battery." "In Policing Domestic Violence, criminologist Lawrence Sherman confronts the tough questions raised by this controversial approach to a complex social problem. How should police respond to the millions of domestic violence cases they confront each year, when most prosecutors refuse to pursue them? Why does arresting unemployed batterers do more harm than good? What approaches should police adopt when arrest has totally opposite effects upon "haves" and "have-nots"? Sherman, a leading police researcher, is the architect of the 1984 Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment - the first controlled test of the effects of arrest on repeat crime. Here he describes what was learned from a multi-year federal research program to repeat the experiment in Milwaukee, Miami, Colorado Springs, Omaha, and Charlotte. The results are both surprising and provocative." "In fact, arrest deters selectively. Sherman found that it effectively inhibits some offenders, but incites more violence in others. It may also deter batterers for a month or so, only to make them more violent later on. Under this policy, therefore, some women exchange short-term safety for a longer-term increase in danger. Sherman also shows that compulsory arrest reduces violence against middle-class women at the expense of those (often black) who are poor. Some advocates of the policy have endorsed this moral choice, but Sherman argues that domestic violence will continue in spite of, and sometimes because of, our attempts to stop it. Further, while it is possible to predict which couples will continue to suffer abusive behavior, it has been difficult to find effective ways of preventing chronic violence, even when arrests are made. Relying on arrest as a "fix" for domestic abuse only underscores the long neglect of underlying social problems, and Sherman calls instead for more flexible policies - such as "community policing" - that more adequately reflect the diversity of American society."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Domestic abuse is a national emergency: one in four Australian women has experienced violence from a man she was intimate with. But too often we ask the wrong question: why didn’t she leave? We should be asking: why did he do it? Investigative journalist Jess Hill puts perpetrators – and the systems that enable them – in the spotlight. See What You Made Me Do is a deep dive into the abuse so many women and children experience – abuse that is often reinforced by the justice system they trust to protect them. Critically, it shows that we can drastically reduce domestic violence – not in generations to come, but today. Combining forensic research with riveting storytelling, See What You Made Me Do radically rethinks how to confront the national crisis of fear and abuse in our homes. ‘A shattering book: clear-headed and meticulous, driving always at the truth’—Helen Garner ‘One Australian a week is dying as a result of domestic abuse. If that was terrorism, we’d have armed guards on every corner.’ —Jimmy Barnes ‘Confronting in its honesty this book challenges you to keep reading no matter how uncomfortable it is to face the profound rawness of people’s stories. Such a well written book and so well researched. See What You Made Me Do sheds new light on this complex issue that affects so many of us.’—Rosie Batty