Criminology: Domestic Violence Experiment
Nowadays, an existence of constructed information about the specific issue may help to resolve a lot of problems. Speaking about the field of criminology, especially crimes of intimate and family violence, successful researches play the role of the informative tool that can explain the causes of the criminal conduct under particular circumstances as well as to propose the ways of how to reduce the negative tendency. One of such researches is Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment conducted by Lawrence W. Sherman and Richard A. Berk in 1980 (Davis, 2008). The main achievement of this very study that changes police response to domestic violence nationwide and shapes a current response to intimate partner violence in America was establishing the fact that arrest is the best possible variant of police action when talking about the reduction of such crimes.
According to the results of the survey, three potential police responses to domestic violence class were determined – to arrest, to advise, and to send the suspect away. Consequently, speaking about the percentage of suspects repeating violence over six months for each police action, the researchers came to the following outcomes:
Arrest – 10%;
Advise – 19%;
Send suspect away – 24% (Gosselin, 2014, p. 52).
Hence, it is possible to focus on the most effective method of dealing with the perpetrators. At the same time, one should understand that the results the MDVE presented helped to overview the current tendencies in police approaches. It means that this survey pointed out that arrest is the best choice for the police officers when considering the ways of reducing the crimes of intimate and family violence. This how the gathered evidence may provoke a serious change in police response to domestic violence nationwide and shape current response to intimate partner violence in America.
To sum up, successful conduction of such researches as Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment may lead to the changes in police responses according to the gathered information.
References
Davis, R. (2008). The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment. Police One. Retrieved from https://www.policeone.com/police-products/training/articles/1690819-The-Minneapolis-Domestic-Violence-Experiment/
Gosselin, D.K. (2014). Heavy hands: An introduction to the crimes of family violence. Western New England University: Pearson Education, …
