What did the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment show?
The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment (MDVE) tested the deterrent power of police actions upon future violence in domestic relationships. Its major finding was that persons who were arrested were violent again at a much lower rate than those who were dealt with in other ways.
What was the significance of the Minneapolis experiment quizlet?
The original Minneapolis experiment (Sherman & Berk, 1984) was actually a test of predictions derived from two alternative theories concerning the impact of punishment on crime: deterrence theory and labeling theory.
When was the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment?
The experiment, conducted from early 1981 to mid-1982, applied only to simple (misdemeanor) domestic assaults, where both the suspect and victim were present when the police arrived. The design called for each officer to carry a pad of report forms, color coded for the three different police responses.
What hypothesis did Milgram's obedience study quizlet?
To test the hypothesis that obeying orders to kill another human was specific to extreme obedience and that it wouldn't happen again - specifically, U.S. citizens in the 1960s to administer electric shock to others.
What is the purpose of civil service procedures?
It allows for delegation of specific tasks to lower ranking officials in police organizations. the police place greater responsibility on rank-and-file officers at the neighborhood level to be more responsive to neighborhood residents.
Which participants in the criminal justice system have traditionally been forgotten?
Which participants in the criminal justice system have traditionally been forgotten? Victim Services.
Why do vice crimes present special enforcement problems?
Why do vice crimes present special enforcement problems? They are victimless crimes. Which is not considered a vice crime?
Which of the following is perhaps the most common type of order maintenance activity carried out by the police?
Traffic enforcement activity is perhaps the most common type of order maintenance activity carried out by the police. Police officers generally find traffic enforcement a distasteful task.
Overview
The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment (MDVE) evaluated the effectiveness of various police responses to domestic violence calls in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This experiment was implemented during 1981-82 by Lawrence W. Sherman, Director of Research at the Police Foundation, and by the Minneapolis Police Department with funding support from the National Institute of Justice. Among a pool of domestic violence offenders for whom there was probable …
Background
Domestic violence historically has been viewed as a private family matter that need not involve government or criminal justice intervention. Before the early 1970s, police in the United States favored a "hands-off" approach to domestic violence calls, with arrest only used as a last resort. At the time, domestic violence cases were typically classified as misdemeanor assault cases. During the 1970s, many U.S. jurisdictions did not authorize the police to make arrests in any misdemea…
The study
The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment looked at effectiveness of methods used by police to reduce domestic violence. Cases used in the study were misdemeanor assault calls, which make up the bulk of domestic violence calls for service. Both the victim and offender needed to still be present when the police arrived, in order to be included in the study.
51 patrol officers in the Minneapolis Police Department participated in the study. Each was aske…
Policy response
The results of the study received a great deal of attention from the news media, including The New York Times and prime-time news coverage on television. Many U.S. police departments responded to the study, adopting a mandatory arrest policy for spousal violence cases with probable cause. New York City Police Department Commissioner Benjamin Ward quickly issued a new mandate for officers to make arrests, after reading the results of the study in a Police Foundation report. War…
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." …
Criticism
The Minneapolis study was criticized for its methods and its conclusions. The follow-up period of six months may have been too short to capture the episodic and cyclical patterns that can occur with domestic violence. Also, Minneapolis may have been unusual, in that they kept arrestees overnight in jail, whereas in other jurisdictions arrestees might be sent home much quicker.
While the Minneapolis design had many methodological strengths, randomized experiments loo…
Replication
Beginning in 1986, the National Institute of Justice sponsored six replications of the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment. While each site was an independent study, NIJ required that each study had to 1) use an experimental design (i.e., random assignment), 2) address domestic violence incidents that come to the attention of the police, 3) use arrest as one of the treatments, and 4) measure repeat offending using official police records and interviews with victims. The st…