¶ … legislation related to your area of interest in human services. Explain how the legislation has impacted human services and in particular your area of interest. Include how it affects client services in this area. Be specific and provide examples.
Main Discussion Post
The implementation of mandatory arrest laws in regards to domestic violence has generated a lot of debate. These laws require an officer to make an arrest if they have probable cause that domestic violence has taken place. During the mid to late 1980's a number of states put into practice these laws as an attempt to fight domestic violence and to control police actions. However, research on the helpfulness of these laws has yielded mixed results. There is no apparent agreement among researchers, activists, victim's rights advocates, policymakers, and law enforcement officials on the effects that mandatory arrest policies have for victims...
Therefore, the verdict remains blurred on whether these laws provide the intended protection and relief to victims they were intended to, or whether they are the cause of inadvertent consequences such as increased violence (Strout, n.d.).
As attitudes have changed and reform has expanded, there has been a significant shift in the legal approach that has emphasized the criminalization of domestic violence. One important innovation in domestic violence law has been the expansion of police power to make warrantless arrests in domestic violence cases. This has been a change from the common law rule that traditionally required an officer to witness a crime in order to make an arrest. In the mid-1980's, most states moved away from this requirement and expanded police power, permitting officers to make an arrest without a warrant as long as they had probable cause to believe that domestic violence…
