THE FAILURE OF ARREST TO DETER SPOUSE ABUSE

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.