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29 J. Offender Rehab. 1 (1999)

handle is hein.journals/wjor29 and id is 1 raw text is: Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Vol. 29 (1/2), 1999. Pp. 1-21. D 1999 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Police Response to Domestic Violence HEATHER C. MELTON University of Colorado ABSTRACT This article reviews published works covering police response to domestic violence. Issues reviewed include historical data, impetus for change, empirical studies on effectiveness, critiques of research paradigms, rationales and objections in relation to mandatory arrest policies, victim and offender characteristics that affect police response, and alternative response for police intervention. The weight of the literature seems to suggest that mandatory arrest policies may not universally achieve positive goals. More- over, some studies show that police agencies do not work effectively with other social welfare agencies. Future research should seek alternative police interventions that yield more integrated methods for societal response to do- mestic violence. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: getinfo@haworthpressinc.com <Website: http://www.haworthpressinc.com>] KEYWORDS Police, domestic violence Domestic violence is a social problem that has increasingly been targeted as a phenomenon in need of social control. At the forefront of this issue is the debate surrounding the role police play in their response to domestic vio- lence. Historically, police response has been severely limited and confined to a policy under which officers ended up chronically distancing themselves from a task they felt did not belong under their jurisdiction. In the 1970s, amidst pressure from feminists and battered-women's advocates for the crim- inalization of the act of domestic violence, many sociologists, police chiefs,