Police Response To Domestic Violence Essay

With regard to the evolution of police response to domestic violence. In the last four decades, criminal justice policy toward female victims of domestic violence has focused on improving legal responses to protect women and punish offenders. The focus has been on the mobilization of social institutions to increase options for formal and informal controls. Use of the legal system has dominated theories on how best to reduce domestic violence. Assumptions during these decades have underscored deterrence though arrest and prosecution of assailants or the threat of legal sanctions through civil action (orders of protection or "restraining orders") that carried criminal penalties if violated. Retribution has also been a goal where deterrence has not worked. When orders of protection have not been effectively enforced penalties for violations were minor, and they were not

Over the period these benefits have been extended beyond married women to unmarried domestic partners, to divorced or separated women and, most recently, to non-cohabiting intimate partners. Criminalization was designed to offer retribution, to incapacitate, to create social controls, to assist victims and to target batterers for criminal punishment. During the past decade these efforts have been redoubled in the nationwide trend toward pro-arrest policies by police agencies. Technology has drastically affected the manner in which police work is conducted. Advances in technology have greatly improved how officers catch criminals. There have been numerous innovations throughout the past decade that agencies are universally implementing. Innovations such the less-lethal tool the Taser, Global positioning systems, night vision, thermal imaging devices, and DNA. Technology is putting powerful tools in the hands of