The police have actively intervened in intimate partner violence (IPV) since the 1980’s to hold batterers accountable by legal punishment, to prevent future violence, and to provide victims’ safety. However, research results of the effectiveness of the police intervention are inconclusive. Moreover, the majority of studies focused on batterers, overlooking victim-related factors in examining the effectiveness of the police intervention. This paper used the National Crime Victimization Survey from 1987 to 2003 to examine whether arrest of batterers has an effect in reducing revictimization.
Overall, younger, separated victims are more likely to be revictimized than the older, married women. Rape or sexual assault victims and those without injury from the previous victimization are more vulnerable to revictimization. Also, IPV incidence rates declined by half, and arrest rates of batterers were doubled from 1987 to 2004. With regard to the effect of arrest, the study results support the specific effect of arrest on victims’ safety. Logistic regression analysis of data from 2,462 victims showed that when the police arrested batterers, their chance of revictimization fell by half. However, the general effect of arrest on incidence rates is not as apparent as the specific effect. The time-lagged effect of arrest on incidence rates, which was shown in this study, needs future research for meaningful interpretation because there is no theory to explain such a delayed effect.
Since dual-examination of the specific effect and the general effect showed the overall effectiveness of arrest in reducing IPV incidence and revictimization, social work policy and practice fields will be able to develop informed, effective intervention strategies in IPV.
