Arrest Web Entanglement: The Experiences of Female Survivors of Domestic Violence with Police Intervention and Coercively Controlling Male Partners

Background and Purpose:

Mandatory arrest ordinances adopted across U.S. jurisdictions in the 1980s and 1990s, meant that intimate partner violence (IPV) was taken more seriously by law enforcement. Domestic violence moved from a private problem, to a public crime keeping many victims safe and holding perpetrators accountable. As a result, however, many women with survivorship histories who used or allegedly used force in the presenting incident were arrested, charged with domestic violence related offenses, and placed on probation supervision, and court-ordered to services. This turn of events also placed women of marginalized identities at increased risk of unjust criminal legal system (CLS) involvement. The purpose of this study is to illuminate how women at the intersection of IPV and sexual violence survivorship, as well as IPV perpetration, experienced interactions with responding officers and coercively controlling partners that resulted in their own arrests.

Methods:

The researcher interviewed 33 women who participated in court-ordered antiviolence group intervention. Interviews focused broadly on the women’s CLS journeys for a larger qualitative study, with an overall goal to investigate how the court-ordered women experienced the CLS’s hegemonic power. Fifteen women identified as African American or Black, 1 as Asian American, 2 as Latina, 2 as Native American, and 13 as White. Three women identified as bisexual, 27 as heterosexual, 2 as lesbian, and 1 as queer. Most women’s income was below $15,000 a year. Interview transcripts and field note documents were compiled and analyzed for common themes using Dedoose 8.0.42. Open coding entailed compiling a master list of general deductive and inductive codes as well as evolving themes.

Results:

Eighteen of the 24 arrested women identified IPV survivorship histories in their presenting relationships as well as using force or allegedly using force that brought them to the attention of responding police officers. The women described a constellation of factors at the scene of the incident that contributed to their own arrests, including: 1) police strict adherence to arrest procedures, 2) women’s coercively controlling partner’s manipulation of the arrest process, i.e. mentioning her immigration status or mental health issues to responding officers, 3) women’s lack of understanding of officer initiated pre-arrest interviews, and 4) women’s forthcoming self-disclosure of their actions coupled with their partner’s withholding information. This combination of complex circumstances acted as an arrest web that effectively entangled the women in the CLS for years.

Conclusion and Implications:

Although mandatory arrest has been blamed for increasing arrests of women with survivorship histories, the arrest web demonstrates that incident circumstances leading to the women’s arrests were far more complicated than policy alone. Therefore, the women’s narratives will contribute to disentangling this unjust process through innovations in policy, first responders’ approaches, and social work interventions.