Tuesday, April 17, 2012

http://www.americancriminallawreview.com/files/1814/0943/7881/Zelcer.pdf Please summarize the article "Battling Domestic Violence: Replacing Mandatory Arrest Laws with a Trifecta of Preferential Arrest, Officer Education, and Batterer Treatment Programs" from the link on top.

"Battling Domestic Violence: Replacing Mandatory Arrest Laws with a Trifecta of Preferential Arrest, Officer Education, and Batterer Treatment Programs" is an article by Amy M. Zelcer published in American Criminal Law Review (Vol. 51) in 2014. It takes as a starting point the June 27, 2005 United States Supreme Court decision in the case of Castle Rock v. Gonzales. The facts of the case are not disputed. The delays of the police in responding to the complaints of Jessica Gonzales about her estranged husband's abduction of their children were, at best, problematic and, at worst, a factor that enabled the husband to murder the children. Had the police responded more promptly and arrested the husband for violation of the restraining order, the children might not have died. The decision, however, affirmed that arrest of people who violate restraining orders is not mandatory within either Colorado or federal law, and thus the police and the town were not legally culpable.
Zelcer notes that many legal scholars consider this decision a step backwards in addressing domestic violence and advocate introducing legislation mandating arrest for violators of restraining orders as an important step in victim protection. Zecler disagrees with this approach. She begins by reviewing the history of laws against domestic violence in the United States, showing that laws concerning marital conduct were grounded in British common law and that regulation of domestic violence began in the late nineteenth century, a time when married women were gaining independent legal rights. She traces the gradual creation of laws and social programs addressing domestic violence in the twentieth century.
Next, she suggests that mandatory arrests are a bad idea for six reasons:

(A) the ineffectiveness of mandatory arrest on recidivism; (B) the disempowerment of women; (C) increased arrests of women; (D) adverse effects on women with children; (E) discriminatory consequences for poor, minority, and immigrant women; and (F) procedural challenges posed by mandatory arrest (546).

She concludes that a better approach would be a mixture of preferential arrest, more training for police in handling domestic violence, and improved treatment programs from abusers.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-278.ZO.html

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