Domestic Violence and Mandatory Arrest: Influences on Police Officer Actions

Domestic Violence and Mandatory Arrest: Influences on Police Officer Actions
John F. Waldron
November 2012

ISBN-13:  978-1-59332-581-7 / Hardcover
Dimensions:  5.5 x 8.5 / x, 264 pages

Price   $75.00

Description

Despite mandates requiring annual in-service training on domestic violence for all New Jersey police officers, many officers do not receive this training. In-service training enhances the enforcement of domestic violence laws. Police officers in New Jersey, a mandatory arrest jurisdiction for the enforcement of domestic violence laws, rely heavily on their perception of the law to justify their enforcement activities. Victim’s wishes and opinions on the enforcement of domestic violence laws have little effect on the arrest outcome in mandatory arrest jurisdictions, such as New Jersey, according to both officer’s opinions and their reactions to hypothetical situations in this study.

About the Author

John F. Waldron is a retired New Jersey police sergeant with 26 years of law enforcement experience. He is among the third generation of police officers in his family. He earned his MA in Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 1998. He was graduated from the John Jay Doctoral Program in Criminal Justice in 2010. He lives with his wife, Barbara, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains outside Golden, Colorado. They have two adult sons.