Controversies surrounding mandatory arrest policies and the police response to intimate partner violence

Since the early 1970s, the efforts of the battered women’s movement have led to many changes in the criminal justice response to intimate partner violence (often referred to more broadly as ‘domestic violence’) in the USA. One important reform has been the implementation of policies that encourage or mandate the arrest of offenders. However, mandatory arrest policies have been hotly debated by scholars, activists, and criminal justice system officials. In this article, I review the recent changes to the ways in which police officers respond to intimate partner violence and discuss the controversies surrounding these changes in light of recent research. I briefly consider why the literature on this topic has produced such contradictory findings and I discuss several actions that need to be taken in order to improve police response to intimate partner violence and better meet the needs of battered women