Using Official Crime Data

10.1177/0886260503251130ARTICLEJOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE / July 2003Miller / AN ARRESTING EXPERIMENT

An Arresting Experiment Domestic Violence Victim Experiences

and Perceptions

JOANN MILLER Purdue University

This study looks at the experiences and perceptions that domestic violence victims reported with Mills’s power model. The victims’partners were the primary research participants in an arrest experiment. The following were empirically examined: the occurrence of violence following suspect arrest, victim perceptions of personal and legal power, victim satisfaction with the police, and victim perceptions of safety fol- lowing legal intervention. Race and two victim resource measures (i.e., employment status and income advantage) explained variance in perceptions of independence. A police empowerment scale was used to measure legal power. It was found that arrest affected the probability of reoccurring domestic violence. Suspect arrest and the vic- tim’s perceptions of legal power were related to perceptions of safety following police intervention. The study concludes with some implications for domestic vio- lence research, programs, and perspectives.

Keywords: domestic violence; intimate partner violence; perceptions; victim; arrest

We analyzed the victim interviews that were conducted as part of a random- ized domestic violence arrest experiment, in Dade County, Florida, that was designed to examine how police responses affected the likelihood of reoccur- ring violence. Domestic violence suspects, the primary participants in the field experiment, were assigned to an arrest or to a no arrest condition. The nature of their offenses, domestic violence, generated a second type of research participant: The victims, like the suspects, were subjected to the arrest experiment. We examined the arrest study from the victim’s perspec- tive by analyzing the interviews that were conducted soon after police inter- vention and 6 months later. We examined the victims’ reports of reoccurring violence, their perceptions of power, and their subjective experiences follow-

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Author’s Note: This study was sponsored by a Social and Behavioral Science Center Fellow- ship, Purdue University, and a Fellowship in Law and Sociology, Harvard Law School. The author is most grateful to R. Gartner, Jonathan Miller, G. D. Hill, and two anonymous reviewers who made useful comments on earlier drafts.

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ing police intervention, including their feelings of safety and their satisfac- tion with how the police responded to their preferences. We discuss this study’s implications for domestic violence explanations and programs, focusing on the importance of understanding the role of victim perceptions and empowerment.

THE SPOUSE ASSAULT REPLICATION PROGRAM

For two decades researchers have used randomized or experimental designs to study how police practices can decrease the probability, frequency, and severity of reoccurring family or domestic violence (Davis & Taylor, 1997; Ford, 1991; Maxwell, Garner, & Fagan, 2001; Sherman, 1992). There are few field experiments more controversial than the collection of six stud- ies, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, that are known as the Spouse Assault Replication Program (SARP). Endorsed by feminist advo- cates and crime control proponents alike, the earliest results were reported on television and in major metropolitan newspapers. Most urban police depart- ments in the United States, in response to the widely publicized initial experi- ment, developed mandatory or preferred arrest policies for domestic vio- lence, although some analysts issued sharp warnings of likely victim harms and injuries (Sherman, 1992).

The initial experiment was fielded in Minneapolis, and five quasi- replication studies were fielded in Omaha, Colorado Springs, Milwaukee, Charlotte, and Metro Dade County, Florida. An Atlanta experiment was also conducted, but the data were not made available to social science researchers. All the SARP studies were originally designed to explain the specific deter- rent effect of suspect arrest on reoccurring or repeated family or domestic violence. (Some of the post hoc explanations of the empirical findings are based on social control theories.) Various methods were used across the SARP sites to assign domestic violence suspects to an arrest treatment group or to a no arrest control group.

Maxwell et al. (2001) reported that the SARP studies generated at least 300 potential outcome measures. Most of them, collected at two or three points in time, focused on the suspect’s reoccurring violence that was perpe- trated against the same intimate partner. One key type of outcome measure examined the number and types of violent events that occurred following police intervention. Another important type examined time to failure, or the amount of time between the initial police response and a police record of a subsequent offense.

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The domestic violence victims were interviewed in all the SARP experi- ments, primarily to corroborate police reports or other records of suspect behavior. The typical victim interview schedule was designed to measure characteristics of the victim’s relationship with the suspect and get detailed reports of violent events and threats. In two of the experiments, Omaha and Dade County, interviewers asked the victims to disclose detailed reports of their perceptions and feelings following police intervention. This study is based on the victims of the Dade County experiment.

SARP Results

Results from all but one of the SARP experiments were reported, some- times to the press and often in social science journal articles (Lempert, 1989). Sherman and Berk (1984), architects of the original Minneapolis experiment, found that “the arrest intervention certainly did not make things worse and may well have made things better” (p. 269). Reports from the other experi- ments were more cautious. Analysis of the suspect data from the Colorado Springs experiment showed that arrest had no deterrent effect. Analysis of the victim interview data, however, uncovered modest deterrence, especially among employed suspects (Berk, Campbell, Klap, & Western, 1992). Pate and Hamilton (1992) reported an interaction effect between arrest and sus- pect employment status in the Dade County experiment, leading them to sug- gest that “the deterrent effect of arrest is influenced by the informal sanctions implicit in employment status” (p. 695). Perhaps worst of all, early reports based on the Charlotte, Milwaukee, and Omaha experiments concluded that arrest had either no deterrent effect, or an escalation of violence effect, by 6 months following police intervention (Dunford, Huizinga, & Elliott, 1991; Hirschel, Hutchison, & Dean, 1992; Sherman et al., 1991).

Berk et al. (1992), Sherman (1992), Garner, Fagan, and Maxwell (1995), Gelles (1993), Mills (1998), and Maxwell, Garner, and Fagan (1999) con- ducted meta-analyses of some or all of the SARP studies and reached sharply divided conclusions. Did arrest deter domestic violence? Gelles concluded that “a more complete and sobering look at . . . [the arrest experiments] indi- cates that the initial claim of the deterrent value of mandatory arrest policies may well be the social science equivalent of cold fusion” (p. 578). His posi- tion was challenged by Berk (1993a, 1993b), and more recently by Maxwell et al. (1999), who reported a slight or modest relationship between arrest and repeat offending.

Maxwell et al. (2001) pooled select data elements across all the SARP sites to resolve the basic questions advanced by the six randomized arrest

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experiments. They found no evidence to conclude that arrest escalated domestic violence. Arrest, they reported, had a small and, in some experi- ments, a statistically nonsignificant effect on suspect behavior. Most sus- pects, regardless of the type of police intervention, did not reoffend. All told, researchers who have studied empirical findings across SARP sites have reported that arrest, along with individual and social psychological attributes and characteristics, differentially affected recidivistic, misdemeanor domes- tic violence. Suspects who experienced shame as a consequence of arrest, at work or in their communities, were less likely to reoffend. However, those with relatively low “stakes in conformity” (Toby, 1957) were not likely to be deterred by arrest. The SARP studies showed that “the size of the reduction in repeat offending associated with arrest is modest compared with the effect of other factors (such as the batterer’s age and prior criminal record) on the like- lihood of repeat offending” (Maxwell et al., 2001, p. 2; see also Garner et al., 1995).

Victim Reports

Mills (1998) and Stephens and Sinden (2000) challenged any attempt to reach definitive conclusions from the SARP experiments: “It is the victims who have the most to gain (or lose) from the current [arrest] trend . . . but we know little about victims’ experiences . . . and their interactions. . . . Their voices are needed” (Stephens & Sinden, 2000, p. 535). Thus, our research was designed to complement the published SARP studies by focusing exclu- sively on the victims of one of the arrest experiments. Specifically, it advances the Pate and Hamilton (1992) study, and it takes a step in the direc- tion called for by Stephens and Sinden. We studied the Dade County victims’ reports to examine how their objective and subjective experiences were related to police intervention, including suspect arrest. Based on victim data, we analyzed reports of reoccurring violence immediately following the ini- tial police call and 6 months later. In addition, we examined perceptions and subjective experiences that were related to the arrest experiment.

PERCEPTIONS OF POWER

Mills (1998) analyzed the publications resulting from the SARP experi- ments and concluded that uniform and mandatory programs, such as the mandatory arrest of all domestic violence suspects or no-drop prosecution, fail to stop the violence and protect the victims. Women, controlled and

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abused initially by their partners, can be victimized once again by a “one size fits all” legal response that does not consider the unique person’s needs to sur- vive episodes of domestic violence. Mills also argued that the victim’s power can be enhanced by effective legal intervention that incorporates the individ- ual’s requirements and preferences. The victim, empowered by appropriate police and prosecutorial responses, can prevent revictimization.

We adapted Mills’s (1998, 1999) model to distinguish two types of power, personal power and legal power, that domestic violence victims in the Metro Dade arrest experiment perceived and could use to prevent or stop violence. We conceptualized personal power as a person’s perceived control over eco- nomic and social resources. We conceptualized legal power as perceived empowerment in response to police intervention.

Personal Power

Mills (1998) defined personal power as the social actor’s sense of control when dealing with others, including a domestic partner. We analyzed per- ceived independence as an indicator or a proxy measure for personal power. That is, we believe that the women who perceived high levels of independ- ence, relative to others, perceived higher levels of personal power.

We hypothesized that personal power is a function of work and earned income. We expected to find that employed women and those with an income advantage within their intimate relationships had stronger perceptions of independence compared to unemployed women or compared to those with an income disadvantage. Furthermore, we hypothesized that levels of independ- ence were related to domestic violence experiences. Women with higher lev- els of personal power, we hypothesized, would be less likely to experience repeated acts of domestic violence following police intervention.

Our research hypothesis pertaining to personal power and reoccurring domestic violence was derived from the empirical studies that examine how levels of personal resources, or the control over resources, can empower vic- tims to prevent repeated violence (see, e.g., Gelles, 1993; Jasinski, 2001c; Johnson, 1992; McCloskey, 1996; Miller & Knudsen, 1999; Teichman & Teichman 1989). Being employed outside the home is a social resource, whereas income advantage is an economic resource. Employed women, in principle, have access to information, and to social resources such as friend- ships or work networks, at a higher level than unemployed women. An income advantage can give a woman greater control or access to the financial or economic resources of a household.

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Legal Power

Mills (1998) defined court system or legal power as the victims’ “percep- tions of their role in the court process” (p. 310). We believe that legal power is similar to Ford’s (1991) “power by alliance.” Ford’s concept is based on his findings from a domestic violence prosecution study (Ford, 1991; Ford & Regoli, 1993, 1998). A domestic violence victim can form a partnership or an alliance with a legal actor, a police officer or a prosecuting attorney, who con- veys respect and a concern for her safety. The alliance itself can be a powerful resource that victims can use to prevent violence. The threat to call an ally who has the power of the state to dispense in response to a criminal code vio- lation has a greater deterrent effect than the threat to call a stranger or a friend. An ally in criminal justice can also provide information and connections to a network of social service providers. Legal power, used by victims of domes- tic violence, can prevent reoccurring violence. It can also mediate the effects of arrest or other forms of police intervention, similar to how informal mech- anisms of social control mediate the deterrent effects of arrest on the suspects (Pate & Hamilton, 1992; Sherman, 1992; Toby, 1957).

Legal power represents the woman’s perceived ability to control criminal justice decisions and their consequences. We hypothesized that legal power, regardless of whether the suspect was arrested, increased when the police took legal actions that corresponded to the victim’s preferences. Further- more, we hypothesized that victims’ subjective responses to police interven- tion were related to their perceptions of legal power. We expected to find that women who were satisfied with what the police did perceived higher levels of legal power. Finally, we expected to find that women who perceived higher levels of legal power following a police response experienced greater percep- tions of personal safety.

RESEARCH METHODS

A Randomized Field Experiment

The data we analyzed are from the victim interviews that were conducted as a part of the Dade County, Florida, arrest experiment from the SARP. The principal investigators of the experiment designed the study to explain how legal and informal sanctions deter misdemeanor domestic violence perpetra- tors from repeated acts of abuse or violence (Pate & Hamilton, 1992; Pate, Hamilton, & Annan, 1994). Whereas Pate and Hamilton (1992) focused on the suspects and the consequences of formal and informal social controls,

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this study focused on the victims. Thus, our research was designed to com- plement Pate and Hamilton’s work. We examined empirically what the police did in response to a domestic violence call, characteristics of the victim and the suspect, the victim’s perceptions of personal and legal power, and victim reports of domestic violence following police intervention.

The Dade County arrest experiment, conducted over a 3-year period, used a unique, two-assignment design. Police randomly assigned each case to an arrest or to a no arrest condition. Independently, they randomly assigned 50% of the cases to a police Safe Streets Unit for counseling and follow-up investi- gation. We examined arrest and Safe Streets assignment as two types of experimental conditions that could influence recidivistic domestic violence. Arguably, close police follow up, the hallmark of the Safe Streets Program, is like intensive probation that is used to prevent recidivistic criminal behavior.

Of the assigned responses (arrest versus no arrest), 90% were actually delivered in the Dade County experiment. The misassignment rate, or depar- tures from the treatment or control group assigned, was higher in Dade County than it was in some of the other sites (e.g., Milwaukee or Omaha) but lower than it was in Charlotte (13%). Across all the SARP sites, the average misassignment rate was approximately 3% (Maxwell et al., 2001). Sherman (1993) argued that the misassignment rate, albeit considerably higher than the ideal, does not severely challenge the internal validity of the study.

A total of 50.4% of the suspects were arrested, as assigned, and a total of 39.5% of the suspects were not arrested, as assigned. A correlation analysis (not reported here in table form) showed that departures from the conditions assigned were not related to the following characteristics, which have been found in previous research to be related to the occurrence of domestic vio- lence: a woman’s pregnancy, employment status, marital status, or race or ethnicity (see, e.g., Jasinski, 2001a, 2001b; McCloskey, 1996; Straus & Gelles, 1986). Likewise, personal and relationship characteristics were not correlated with the second type of treatment assigned (i.e., the assignment of the case to the Safe Streets Unit for follow-up investigation and counseling).

The data we used to examine personal and legal power were taken exclu- sively from victim interviews for two reasons. First, we were interested in how arrest and other police responses were related to the victims’ experi- ences. Second, although there is a substantial research literature on the SARP experiments, most studies, including the only one that examined pooled data across all sites, analyzed suspect behavior. Because the victims were the con- cern in this research, we examined how their personal and legal power can be enhanced and thus used to prevent reoccurring or repeated domestic violence.

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Interviews with the Dade County victims were conducted in Spanish or in English, shortly after the initial domestic violence incident occurred (i.e., the event that made the suspect and his partner eligible for the field experiment) and 6 months later. The victims were paid $20 for each completed interview. A total of 595 victims completed the first interview, but only 385 victims completed the follow-up or second interview. The study’s attrition rate, simi- lar to all the other SARP studies, has no verifiable explanation, although it likely includes refusals from fearful women and the inability to locate women who moved away from the suspects (Sherman, 1992). The analysis of the data based on the second interviews, because of the high attrition rate, was conducted for exploratory purposes only.

Measures

Victims, shortly after police intervention, reported to female interviewers whether the domestic violence had continued. They also reported the type and number of violent events that they experienced following the police call. During their second or follow-up interviews, the victims reported the number of physical assaults, threats, and property damage incidents that had occurred. Based on victim responses during the first interview, we con- structed a variable to indicate whether physical violence occurred subsequent to a police call. Based on responses to the follow-up interview questions, we counted the number of times a victim was hit, threatened, or experienced property damage. We also constructed a summed scale to represent the total number and type of incidents that victims reported over a period of 6 months.

Both interview schedules included items to measure each domestic part- ner’s employment status, all sources and levels of income, levels of educa- tional attainment, marital status, household composition, and whether the victim and the suspect lived together. The initial interview included a single question that asked victims how independent they are. Independence was used to measure perceptions of personal power in this study. It was coded on a 5-point scale, in the direction of independence.

We constructed a measure of the victim’s income advantage that is based only on categories of earned income: victim’s earned income divided by sus- pect’s earned income. Values greater than 1.0 indicate that the victim had an earned income advantage. Values less than 1.0 indicate that the victim had an earned income disadvantage. Zero values indicate no earned income for one or both domestic partners.

A single question asked how safe victims felt following police interven- tion. Responses ranged from very unsafe (coded 1) to very safe (coded 4). The victims reported whether they wanted the suspect arrested (yes or no) and

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how satisfied they were, measured on a 4-point scale and coded in the direc- tion of very safe, with what the police did in response to domestic violence calls.

Six semantic-differential type items were used to measure legal power, or the victim’s perceptions of how she was affected by the action that the police took: (a) helpless or powerful, (b) out of control or in control, (c) afraid or brave, (d) weak or strong, (e) discouraged or encouraged, and (f) hesitant or determined. Respondents rated each item on a 7-point scale that was coded in the direction of high levels of perceived power. Responses to the seven items were summed to form a legal power scale. The Cronbach’s alpha (i.e., the reliability measure for the summed scale) is .903.

The follow-up interview measured acts of violence that were perpetrated by the suspect within 6 months after police intervention. A summed scale was created to represent the total number of times the suspect threatened the vic- tim, the number of assaults perpetrated, and the number of times the suspect damaged the victim’s property. The Cronbach’s alpha for the reoccurring violence scale is .804.

During the second or follow-up interviews, victims indicated how likely or willing they were to call the police in the future if necessary. Willingness to call was rated on a 3-point scale, in the direction of more likely to call. Vic- tims rated the amount of stress they experienced in their relationships, coded on a 0 to 4-point scale in the direction of increased stress. They told inter- viewers whether the suspect recognized the wrongfulness of domestic vio- lence. “Do not know” responses were coded 0.5, no responses were coded 0, and yes responses were coded 1.0.

RESULTS

A Descriptive Profile

No segment of the adult population is immune to domestic violence. How- ever, certain types of women, especially poor and minority women, are more likely to be victimized and much more likely to be trapped within abusive households (Hampton & Gelles, 1994; Mann, 1996; Richie, 1996; West, 1999). Moreover, police arrests and court actions affect a disproportionate number of African Americans, relative to their representation in U.S. society or their representation in the population of criminal offenders (Davis, 1997; Gottfredson & Jarjoura, 1996; Hagan & Albonetti, 1982; Humphrey & Fogarty, 1987; Jacobs & O’Brien, 1998; Klein, Petersilia, & Turner, 1990; McCoy, 1997; Wortley, Macmillan, & Hagan, 1997). The Dade County arrest

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experiment, conducted in the urban area ranked seventh in the nation in Latino population, appears to reflect the deeply institutionalized race dispar- ity in the legal arena. The Dade County population, according to the 1990 U.S. census, was 20.5% African American, yet 42.6% of the suspects in the Dade County experiment were African American. Compared to Anglo women, African American women are much less likely to call the police to arrest domestic violence suspects, or to use court procedures to stop the vio- lence (Lee, Thompson, & Mechanic, 2002; Weis, 2001). However, African American men, and their partners, were vastly overrepresented in the Dade County experiment.

Approximately 21% of the couples in the experiment were Latino, 20% were Anglo, and the remaining couples were mostly Asian American. Most couples (79.4%) were married at the time, and 80% had at least one other per- son, usually a child, living with them. Both the suspects and the victims tended to have completed their formal education by earning a high school diploma (71% of the suspects and 61% of the victims). At the follow-up inter- view, 62% of the victims reported that they were employed and that 82% of the suspects were employed.

Arrest and Reoccurring Domestic Violence

Table 1, based on the first victim interviews, shows the effect of arrest on a binary-coded variable that indicates whether the victims experienced reoc- curring physical violence shortly after police intervention. ANOVA was used

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TABLE 1: Victim Reports of Violence Following Police Intervention, Suspect Assigned to Control or Experimental Groupsa

More Violence Since Police Intervention (Yes or No)

Treatment or Control Group (Actually Delivered) M SD n

No arrest, no Safe Streets (control group) 0.31 0.46 71 Arrest only 0.14 0.35 95 Safe Streets only 0.24 0.43 73 Both arrest and Safe Streets 0.18 0.39 100

Range 0-1 Overall M 0.21 Overall F (group differences, post hoc Tukey test) 2.761* (no arrest and no Safe

.Streets, and arrest only)

a. An ANOVA was run. *p < .05.

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to examine the statistical significance of differences in mean values across groups, with a post hoc Tukey test to identify significant differences across pairs of groups.

Overall, 21% of the victims reported that at least one episode of violence followed the police intervention. We found that arrest, according to the Metro Dade victims, had a moderate, short-term effect on reoccurring domestic vio- lence. Of the victims in the control group (i.e., those whose partners were not arrested or assigned to a Safe Streets Unit), 31% experienced subsequent acts of violence shortly after the police call. Of the victims whose partners were arrested (but not assigned to Safe Streets), 14% experienced reoccurring vio- lence after the police call. The post hoc Tukey test showed that the only statis- tically significant difference in reoccurring domestic violence was found between the control and the arrest-only treatment group.

Personal power. An ordinary least squares regression model was specified (see Table 2) to explain variance in the victim’s perception of independence (personal power) as a function of suspect arrest, race, marital status and living arrangements, and the victim’s social and economic resources. We found that suspect arrest was not significantly related to the victim’s perception of per- sonal power. This supports Mills’s (1998) distinction between the two types of power that women can experience within their interpersonal relationships: A legal response to violence was not related to perceptions of personal power.

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TABLE 2: Personal Power—Victim Perceptions of Independencea (n = 595)

Independent Variable b SE β t

Suspect arrested 0.018 0.116 .006 0.158 Anglo suspect –0.642 0.134 –.173*** –4.783 Married couple –0.540 0.146 –.137*** –3.705 Couple lives together –0.564 0.128 –.164*** –4.418 Suspect employed –0.790 0.155 –.196*** –5.104 Victim employed 0.847 0.133 .258*** 6.362 Victim earned income advantageb 0.289 0.121 .099* 2.383

Intercept 4.180 0.202 20.668 Adjusted R2 (F) .246*** (27.335) M (SD) 3.200 (1.601)

a. A 5-point rating scale (1 = totally dependent, 5 = not dependent at all) was used, and an ordi- nary least squares model was run. b. Victim earned income advantage = victim’s earned income divided by suspect’s earned income. Range = 0.05 to 4.80. Values less than 1.0 indicate victim’s disadvantage. Values greater than 1.0 indicate victim’s advantage. A zero value indicates that either partner was unemployed at the time of the police response. *p < .05. ***p < .001.

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A woman abused by an Anglo man in the Metro Dade County experiment, compared to a woman abused by an African American or Latino man, experi- enced less personal power. Richie’s (1996) gender entrapment theory offers a counterintuitive explanation for this finding. Richie argued that a dual expo- sure to racism and sexism makes African American women unusually vul- nerable to domestic violence. The physical and emotional consequences of violence within the home discourage women from reaching outside to social control agencies that are presumed to be racist. Instead, many African Ameri- can women are empowered by their relationships with friends and family to control behaviors within their intimate relationships. African American women are likely to “speak openly and directly about the violence in their homes” (Weis, 2001, p. 156). Anglo women, however, are far more likely than minority women to “deal silently with their ‘secret’” of domestic vio- lence. They work to maintain the ideology of the “‘good’ white family life” (Weis, 2001, p. 156). The contradiction, experiencing abuse while talking up the “good husband,” can diminish or destroy perceptions of personal power or independence.

We found that a victim’s perception of personal power was negatively related to being married and to living with the suspect. The disadvantage of marriage for some domestic violence victims has been documented empiri- cally by family violence researchers, and it is explained by criminal opportu- nity theory (McCloskey, 1996; Miller & Knudsen, 1999; Straus & Gelles, 1986). Domestic violence victims who are married to their offenders often have little control over economic and social resources. Threats to leave a mar- riage can result in the escalation of violence. Yet being married to, and living with a domestic violence perpetrator, increases his opportunities to commit reoccurring acts of violence.

In support of our research hypothesis, we found that employed victims, compared to unemployed victims, perceived more personal power. The greater the earned income advantage a victim had within her interpersonal relationship, the more personal power she perceived. However, personal power, contrary to our research hypothesis, was not related to whether the victim experienced reoccurring violence following a police response. We found (not reported here in table form) no significant empirical relationship between a victim’s perception of independence and her report of domestic violence following police intervention.

Legal power. We measured legal power with six items from the victim interviews and used ANOVA to examine whether the arrest of a partner per se was related to the degree of legal power perceived by the victims. All the

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responses to the separate items were coded in the direction of increased power, reflecting the degree to which victims felt more powerful, in control, brave, strong, encouraged, and determined in response to the action taken by the police.

The summed scale showed a high level of inter-item reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .903), but there was no significant difference in the legal power scores across the victim-participant groups (not shown here in table form). We noted, however, a distinctive pattern in the data. Victims whose partners were arrested, compared to those whose partners were not arrested, scored slightly higher on each item of the legal power scale. These “non- findings” are potentially informative because they support Ford’s (1991) argument that a criminal justice response can help a victim form an alliance with a legal actor. The alliance may protect the victim from an escalation in violence.

Table 3 shows the results of a regression model that was specified to explain variance in legal power as a function of suspect arrest, the victim’s preference for arrest, race, and the victim’s satisfaction with the police response. We found that arrest per se was negatively related to perceptions of legal power. It is quite possible that many women in the experiment wanted the police to respond to their domestic violence problems but not to arrest their partners (Mullings, 1997; Weis, 2001). This premise is supported empirically. We found that if a victim wanted the police to arrest a suspect and the police did arrest the suspect, the victim perceived a higher level of legal power. The more satisfied she was with the police action that was taken, whether or not the police action included arresting the suspect, the more legal power she perceived. These findings clearly support Mills’s (1998, 1999) argument that effective responses to domestic violence are those that reflect

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TABLE 3: Explaining Variance in Perceived Legal Powera (n = 588)

Independent Variable b SE β t

Suspect arrested –2.097 0.819 –.102** –2.560 Anglo suspect –3.319 0.866 –.141*** –3.832 Victim wanted and got suspect arrested 2.319 1.174 .077** 1.980 Victim satisfied with police action 3.444 0.291 .453*** 11.838

Intercept 18.026 1.109 16.250 Adjusted R2 (F) .213*** (40.792) M (SD) 29.900 (10.148)

a. A 6-item scale was used (alpha = .903), and an ordinary least squares model was run. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

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the victim’s preferences and autonomy. A legal response that respects the victim’s needs can have positive consequences. It can partner the victim with a powerful social control agent and empower her to prevent reoccurring violence.

The analysis shown in Table 4 partly supports Mills’s (1998, 1999) argu- ment. We found that suspect arrest was positively related to a victim’s percep- tion of safety. Feeling safe was not related to race or to the victim’s satisfac- tion with the police action that was taken. However, perceptions of safety were significantly related to perceptions of legal power. The more legal power a victim perceived, the safer she felt following a domestic violence incident. The analysis permits the inference that arrest can increase percep- tions of safety, even for some victims who preferred the police to stop the vio- lence without arresting the domestic violence suspect.

Six-Month Follow-Up Interviews

Due to the high attrition rate among the victim-participants in the Dade County experiment, we analyzed the 6-month follow-up interviews as an exploratory study. We drew inferences from our empirical findings only for the purpose of encouraging discussion.

Table 5 shows that the three different types of reoccurring domestic vio- lence that were measured by the follow-up victim interviews were not affected by suspect arrest. We contend that on average, the victims in the Dade County arrest experiment were unlikely to have experienced long-term benefits as a consequence of suspect arrest. We also noticed that the standard deviations, especially for batteries and threats (shown in Table 5), are sub-

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TABLE 4: Victim Felt Safea (n = 588)

Independent Variable b SE β t

Suspect arrested 0.974 0.122 .327*** 7.964 Anglo suspect –0.007 0.129 –.002 –0.057 Victim wanted and got suspect arrested –0.221 0.173 –.051 –1.279 Legal power 0.044 0.006 .302*** 7.122 Victim satisfied with police action –0.028 0.048 .025 –0.572

Intercept 1.991 0.199 10.027 Adjusted R2 (F) .177*** (26.212) M (SD) 3.83 (1.67)

a. A 4-point rating scale (1 = very unsafe, 4 = very safe) was used, and an ordinary least squares model was run. ***p < .001.

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TABLE 5: Six-Month Follow-Up Interviews, Victim Reports of Reoccurring Violencea

Number of Times Number of Times Number of Times Hit or Battered Property Damaged Threatened

Treatment or Control Group (Actually Delivered) M SD n M SD n M SD n

No arrest, no Safe Streets control group 0.47 1.05 76 0.07 0.27 76 2.66 12.06 76 Arrest only 0.46 2.14 106 0.28 1.98 106 1.17 5.87 106 Safe Streets only 0.49 1.12 75 0.17 0.81 75 1.83 11.63 75 Both arrest and Safe Streets 0.26 0.88 115 0.06 0.27 115 0.59 2.48 115

Range 0-20 0-20 0-90 Overall M 0.41 0.15 1.42 Overall F 0.604 0.824 1.031

a. An ANOVA was run.

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stantial. It is possible that for some victims, suspect arrest, without Safe Streets follow up, resulted in an escalation of battery and threats. For other victims, arrest could have prevented repeated acts or threats of violence.

In Table 6, a summed scale (Cronbach’s alpha = .804) that represents the total number and types of reoccurring domestic violence is regressed on the victim’s subjective experiences. We found that victims who, according to their reports, experienced relatively high levels of stress in their marital or intimate relationships also experienced higher levels of reoccurring violence. Those who reported that the suspects realized the wrongfulness of domestic violence reported less reoccurring violence.

Personal and Legal Power

Our research hypotheses, derived from Mills’s (1998, 1999) power model, were partly supported by the analysis of the victim interviews that were con- ducted as part of the Dade County arrest experiment. Women victimized by Anglo suspects, ceteris paribus, perceived less personal power within their intimate relationships and less legal power. Employed victims and those who had an income advantage within their interpersonal relationships reported relatively higher levels of personal power. In principle, personal power gives victims a tool or an instrument to prevent reoccurring domestic violence. Empirically, we could not, however, confirm the expected relationship between the victim’s personal power and the suspect’s desistance of domestic violence following a police response.

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TABLE 6: Victim Reports of Domestic Violence Following Police Intervention, Sum of Number of Times Hit, Threatened, and Property Damaged (alpha = .804) (n = 345)

Independent Variable b SE β t

Victim’s perception of relationship stress 0.363 0.128 .157** 2.838 Victim thinks she is more likely to call

police in future 0.160 0.212 .039 0.754 Suspect realizes wrongfulness of

domestic violence –1.312 0.321 –.229*** –4.082

Intercept 0.414 0.701 Adjusted R2 (F) .102 (12.948)*** M (SD) 0.834 (2.619)

a. An ordinary least squares model was run. **p < .01. *** p < .001.

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A police response to domestic violence, including suspect arrest, can increase the victim’s legal power that can be used to prevent reoccurring vio- lence. The more satisfied a victim was with the police action that was taken, the more legal power she perceived. Victims who experienced high levels of legal power felt more safe as they anticipated and controlled future social interactions with their partners.

Six months following police intervention, it was the level of stress within a relationship and the victim’s perception that the suspect recognized the wrongfulness of domestic violence that were related to the probability of reoccurring violence. Based on these findings, we posit that the most reason- able criminal justice and social service responses to domestic violence are those that consider the victim’s needs by taking into account her subjective experiences, her cultural and social resources, and her personal and legal resources. In addition, the most effective responses are likely to be those that convincingly demonstrate, to the suspect, the wrongfulness of domestic violence.

DISCUSSION

Method Issues

The limitations of this study are clear. The research participants, all women, were in heterosexual relationships and experienced at least one inci- dent of misdemeanor domestic violence that was brought to the attention of the police. The victim-participants in the arrest experiment do not represent victims in Dade County, or domestic violence victims in other areas of the United States. Most serious are the disadvantages imposed by the short-term (6 month) victim follow-up period and by the unacceptably high attrition rate among the research participants.

This study also makes clear the advantages of an experimental field design. We pose two crucial questions that all experiments should ask and answer: Did the Dade County arrest experiment cause harm to domestic vio- lence victims? We found no evidence that victims faced an increased likeli- hood of reoccurring violence as a consequence of the arrest experiment. Did the failure to arrest those randomly assigned to a control group cause victim harm? We conclude, ironically, that it did not. Arrest may have had a statisti- cally significant albeit weak effect on the probability of reoccurring domestic violence.

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Responses to Domestic Violence

Our analysis of the Metro Dade victim data contributes to the literature on social and legal responses to domestic violence. We conclude that personal and legal power are subjectively experienced perceptions that can be effec- tive resources for domestic violence victims. Legal actors can form partner- ships with victims by recognizing that each person is unique and faces cul- tural, economic, family, and emotional circumstances that can increase or decrease the probability of reoccurring violence. Partnerships and alliances empower victims. They are, however, precluded by police or court actions that fail to consider the unique victim’s characteristics and needs.

Perceptions of personal power can be reaffirmed by legal power. Together, personal and legal power can be used to influence and control the suspect’s behaviors, as they simultaneously assure the victim’s perceptions of safety.

This research, because it is based on an arrest experiment that included an extremely disproportionate representation of African American victims, accentuates the need for domestic violence programs to appeal to our African American communities. Police arrests, safe shelters, and prosecution pro- grams have been the preferred solutions for domestic violence problems in the United States since the mid-1970s. However, many African American women remain unwilling to turn to safe shelters because they are not “cultur- ally friendly” (Nelson, 2002, p. 2). In other research (Miller, 2002), we found that African American victims were compelled to move from a safe shelter to a homeless shelter to avoid assault by Anglo clients within the domestic vio- lence shelter.

Other victims refuse to call the police to avoid turning their partners over to a criminal justice system that, they perceive, discriminates against African Americans (Nelson, 2002, p. 4). African American victims can be empow- ered by police and other sociolegal actors who recognize the circumstances that the individual African American victim and her community encounter. Oliver (2000) illustrated the possibilities. He recognized the limits of typical domestic violence programs that are based on what he called a “one size fits all” model, and he urged the development of prevention and intervention pro- grams that are based on African American popular culture. He cited success- ful programs that focus on culture-specific radio campaigns, gospel music, and African American icons in public service announcements. Some advo- cates may argue that only our urban areas with the most diverse populations and the healthiest fiscal conditions can afford the culturally diverse programs that are needed to respond to the various types of domestic violence victims in the United States. We agree with Oliver and with Richie (2000) who

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reminded advocates that “the assumed race and class neutrality of gender violence led to the erasure of low-income women and women of color from the dominant view” (p. 1135). No city and no intervention program can afford to ignore all the violence and all the victims.

Future Research and Domestic Violence Perspectives

Social science theories of domestic violence tend to explain the reoccur- rence or desistance of battery and threats of violence (Miller & Knudsen, 1999). Many feminist perspectives examine the consequences of patriarchy for women in general and for specific women within their intimate relation- ships (Dobash, Dobash, Cavanagh, & Lewis, 2000). Other feminists plait race and class into their explanations (Richie, 1996; Weis, 2001). We offer three modest suggestions for the continued development of perspectives that focus on what women can do to prevent and stop domestic violence.

First, we argue that domestic violence theory and research should con- tinue to focus on explaining the subjective experiences of women. Emotions and perceptions, such as empowerment, stress, and feeling safe, can have important effects for women who face the risk of domestic violence. Emo- tions and perceptions are central because outside actors, the police or extended family members, do not share a bedroom with a potential abuser.

Second, we argue that a woman’s culture, her resources, and her connec- tions to legal actors can enhance perceptions of personal and legal power. Cultural and social resources can empower women to talk and disclose shared problems, thus insulating women from the dangers of isolation. Shared accounts can protect individual women. Financial resources, espe- cially earned income, can empower women by making them agents of social control within an intimate relationship. Legal alliances can enhance percep- tions of safety and trust.

Third, we take the feminist position that the only reasonable explanation of domestic violence is one that considers simultaneously the unique person and the intersection of race, gender, and class in U.S. society. We contend that it is absolutely unacceptable for any woman to be subjected to the injuries of domestic violence. Concomitantly, we contend that an explanation of domes- tic violence that fails to address race and class differences is insufficient.

Although “every woman” can be a victim of domestic violence, according to the slogan, I realize full well that I sit comfortably in my office to write about a problem that too many women, often poor, homeless, and minority women, will not get the opportunity to avoid.

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JoAnn Miller is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Purdue University. Her research and interests focus on social problems, social inequalities, and interpersonal violence. She and Robert Perrucci are the editors of Con- temporary Sociology.

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