Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment Essay

The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment was a form of testing created to examine the deterrent effect of arrest on domestic violence. The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment is known as the one of the most famous studies in the field of criminology and criminal justice. It was one of a kind stuff, nobody else uses this randomized design which made it unique. The Minneapolis Domestic Violence was implemented in 1981-1982 by Mr. Lawrence W. Sherman, director at the police foundation. The reason Mr. Sherman created the experiment because before in the early 1970s it was not much done in domestic violence cases. It was more of an in house family matter and police would use arrest as the last resort which created more serious problems.

The reason was the feminist and battered women in the 1970s up until the 1980s was calling on the police to take a stand and take domestic violence more seriously and change the current strategy they was using at the time.

The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment had a purpose and the purpose was to address an intense debate about how the police should respond to misdemeanor cases of domestic violence. The debate for this experiment was identified as the police doing little as possible, on the premises that offenders will not be punished by the courts. This gives the offender the upper hand. If they knew that nothing will happen, then they would continue with the violence. Another approach was to arbitrate disputes underlying the violence to restore peace but in the case nobody gets arrested for their wrongdoings. This approach, in opinion would not help the cause or the victim its basically a spit in the face. Send the criminal away for a day then the criminal come right back and do it again. Lastly the women groups wanted to treat domestic violence as a criminal offense subject to an arrest. The feminist groups

Also, there were cases where probable cause for the police to believe a spouse had assaulted the victim within the last few hours. In order for the case to be even considered eligible for the study the police officer must witness the assault. Not all domestic violence cases was included in the study. The cases that involved severe injury, life threatening or cases that could lead to a felony. Also, cases where both parties were injured in an assault it was not recorded either. The measure of the cases was when interviews were conducted with the victims to gather information about domestic violence involving the same suspect. The time of these officers were designed to carry a pad of report forms color-coded of the three actions was needed to get data. They was instructor to use these depending on the crime. The three pages includes; mediation, arrest, or separate. Mediation is the action or practice of meditating. Arrest is the action of seizing someone to take into custody. Separate is forming or considered a unit apart or by itself. This forms were in random order for each