Mandatory Arrest Policies
Mandatory arrest laws were implemented in the U.S. during the 1980s and 1990s due, in great part, to the impact of the Minneapolis Experiment. The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 added to the volume of legislation in the 1990s pertaining to mandatory arrest laws, affecting those states that lacked such laws themselves. The laws "require the police to make arrests in domestic violence cases when there was probable cause to do so, regardless of the wishes of the victim." Before the laws were put into effect, police officers were required to witness the abuse occurring first hand prior to making an arrest. Currently, 23 states use mandatory arrest policies. Other states leave the decision to arrest to the discretion of the responding officers.
Read more about this topic: Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment
Famous quotes containing the words mandatory, arrest and/or policies:
“Off south, the bison multiply so fast
a slaughter’s mandatory every spring
and every spring the creeks get fat
and Kicking Horse fills up.”
—Richard Hugo (1923–1982)
“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. This is the artist’s way of scribbling “Kilroy was here” on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must someday pass.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Unfortunately, we cannot rely solely on employers seeing that it is in their self-interest to change the workplace. Since the benefits of family-friendly policies are long-term, they may not be immediately visible or quantifiable; companies tend to look for success in the bottom line. On a deeper level, we are asking those in power to change the rules by which they themselves succeeded and with which they identify.”
—Anne C. Weisberg (20th century)