Many jurisdictions mandate an arrest be made when officers respond to a domestic violence situation regardless of what the victim says or wants. Good policy?
I think it’s a good thing if there is evidence of an assault. From experience I know that they can’t go forward with charges if the victim doesn’t cooperate. The only way they could is if the assault was witnessed by others and they can move forward without the victim’s testimony.
Exactly, but some people feel like this mentality could lead to unjustified arrests, after all it comes down to officer discretion in the end and many officers prefer to take the lockup in order to be safe even if the evidence isn't necessarily there.
It bothers me that people cry wolf about false accusations etc. I totally get that it’s a big problem and needs to be addressed. But the outcry over it (more specifically when it comes to recent sexual assault claims) and the degradation that the accusers endure prevents other true victims from coming forward and that is the bigger problem. It’s a subject that hits close to home for me for a couple reasons so I get vocal! 😳
If there is clearly a victim, there should just as clearly be an arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration. No victim should have to press charges for the justice system to deal with criminals when there is sufficient evidence without their testimony to prosecute the crime.
In my experience arrests are only made if preliminary investigations give reason to believe the event actually occurred. But if the victim is adamant about it and there are no real signs of it then generally officers try to get the "suspect" to at least leave the location for the night/day.
💠WeightlessWings asked:
05/28/2018
Many jurisdictions mandate an arrest be made when officers respond to a domestic violence situation regardless of what the victim says or wants. Good policy?
Yes, I agree with this. In the state of AL, the government can charge and prosecute the person, no matter what the spouse wants. I believe this works to protect the abused spouse. In this way, it’s not the spouse’s “fault” that the abuser was arrested, so he’s less likely to retaliate against the abused.
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