Interventions for Cases of Spousal Abuse, Estimates

¶ … interventions for cases of spousal abuse, estimates place yearly cases of women beaten by husband at nearly 2 million (Rue, 1996). Improved records on such incidents have documented the connection between domestic violence and cases severe enough to cause an arrest for either assault of homicide in recent years. By some reports, cases of domestic assault or homicide followed police calls to the address for reports of spousal abuse in 85% of the cases. In addition, in 50% of the cases, threats of violence were made before the incidents (Egan, 2001).

Although a small number of cases of spousal abuse are wife against husband (Rue, 1996), the great majority involves the wife as victim. Experts on spousal abuse believe that in such marriages, the relationship begins as a loving relationship but that gradually the definition of "love" is distorted and includes emotions of jealousy and suspicion. As the marriage progresses, however, typically one spouse, usually the husband, becomes more and more suspicious and controlling of the other spouse.

Anger follows as the suspicious spouse realizes that he cannot fully control what his wife does and does not do. Efforts to control escalate into violence. Often the wife becomes passive in an effort to avoid criticism or physical attacks, but since the husband's responses to the relationship are out of control, often wives cannot fully prevent angry responses from her partner (Rue, 1996).

Over the last 20 years, recognition that sometimes the only answer is for the wife and any children to leave the marital home and go to a safe location such as a women's shelter designed to protect women from out-of-control spouses (Rue, 1996). Recognizing the problem, law enforcement agencies have researched what the most effective responses are to domestic abuse calls. Nancy Egan of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice put together an Annotated Bibliography of research regarding best police practices for domestic violence calls. She described three types of responses.

The first is "mediative." (Egan, 2001), where the police do not arrest anyone, but attempt to act as peacemakers, staying at the site until the situation calms down and the reported offender is no longer acting angrily. Often a referral to counseling services is included. The second is called "presumptive," where it is up to the officers at the scene whether to make any arrests or not.

The third is called "mandatory," where the local police agency has a firm policy that all cases of domestic abuse must result in an arrest of the abuser if the evidence exists, even if the charge will only be a misdemeanor (Egan, 2001). One effect of this policy is that the arrests document the pattern of abuse, providing valuable information for later calls from the same family, as marital violence often escalates over time (Rue, 1996).

Egan's research shows that police officers are more likely to make these arrests when their police department has clear guidelines about handling such situations, including arrest guidelines (Egan, 2001). The result of this early research was that the United.