JCVVS e-newsletter reviews offer a brief synopsis
of
research and programs relevant to violence and victim
studies. Brevity does not allow for comprehensive
analysis, rather key points and observations for further
review and consideration. Reviews are provided by
persons affiliated by the JCVVS and do not
necessarily reflect the position of the JCVVS or the
affiliate Universities.
Author(s):
Hilton, Harris and Rice
Title: The Effect of Arrest on Wife
Assault
Recidivism: Controlling for Pre-Arrest
Risk
Source: Criminal Justice
and Behavior,
(2007) vol. 34, 10, 1334-44.
Reviewed by: Dan Petersen
A number of victim service providers work with police
and many are involved in the training and education of
police on issues of domestic violence. The article by
Hilton and colleagues reviews arrest policies as they
relate to recidivism and suggests that police be
trained to assess for risk rather than be influenced
only by the severity of the incident to which they have
responded. Their study did find that arrests correlated
with risk of recidivism, but that police were often
inconsistent.
While there is still a lack of clarity regarding the policy
of mandatory arrests and their ability to reduce
recidivism in domestic violence situations, this study
did shed some light on some of the problems
inherent in this area of research. The authors point
out that recidivism rates have varied dependent on
such things as "follow-up duration, official reports
versus victim reports, perpetrator characteristics" (i.e.,
employment history, etc.) and variables such as drug
abuse, threats of future violence, etc. Hilton and
colleagues, however, conclude that after more than
two decades of research, the effect of arrest on
spouse assault recidivism remain unknown. As the
authors describe, the process is complex with a
plethora of intervening variables that have not been
controlled or are difficult to control leading to more
questions than answers.
However, this research study and the research
literature discussed by the authors do give some
insight into the problem. The author's summary of the
literature indicates that police are more likely to arrest
the abuser when the victim has been injured; even
though research has not clearly shown that victim
injury is related to recidivism.
What is valuable to
recognize is that police are more likely to arrest a high
risk perpetrator and that level of risk as measured by
the ODARA is associated with recidivism. This current
study did show that there was a positive association
between arrest and spousal abuse recidivism but that
this is expected when arrest are made of higher risk
perpetrators.
Unless it can be shown that arrests increase the
likelihood of recidivism, then some may still argue for
a mandatory arrest policy.
This study, when
risk
assessment was used to rank offenders, did not find
that arrests increased the likelihood of recidivism.
However, the conclusion does raise the issue of what
other interventions might actually reduce future
violence and should they include arrests as a
component.
Note: The article does reference the ODARA, Ontario
Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (Hilton, et al.,
2004) which was "developed for use by police officers
to improve accuracy of risk assessment and to aid
communication" within law enforcement and with
domestic violence professionals. The ODARA is a
thirteen item, yes or no, assessment device with good
validity. The authors of the current study cautiously
argue that providing police officers with an actuarial
tool to increase risk assessment may result in a
decrease or delay in recidivism.
