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The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment
By Lawrence W. Sherman and Richard A. Berk
Under a grant from the National Institute of Justice, the Minneapolis Police Department and the Police Foundation
conducted an experiment from early 1981 to mid-1982 testing police responses to domestic violence. A technical
report of the experiment can be found in the April 1984 issue of the American Sociological Review. This report
summarizes the results and implications of the experiment. It also shows how the experiment was designed and
conducted so the reader may understand and judge the findings.
Findings in Brief
The Minneapolis domestic
violence experiment was the first
scientifically controlled test of
the effects of arrest for any
crime. It found that arrest was
the most effective of three
standard methods police use to
reduce domestic violence. The
other police methods—
attempting to counsel both
parties or sending assailants
away from home for several
hours—were found to be
considerably less effective in
deterring future violence in the
cases examined. These were not
life-threatening cases, but rather
the minor assaults which make
up the bulk of police calls to
domestic violence.
The findings, standing alone as
the result of one experiment, do
not necessarily imply that all
suspected assailants in domestic
violence incidents should be
arrested. Other experiments in
other settings are needed to learn
more. But the preponderance of
evidence in the Minneapolis
study strongly suggests that the
police should use arrest in most
domestic violence cases.
Why the Experiment
Was Conducted
The purpose of the experiment
was to address an intense debate
about how police should respond
to misdemeanors, cases of
domestic violence. At least three
viewpoints can be identified in
this debate:
1. The traditional police
approach of doing as little as
possible, on the premise that
offenders will not be punished by
the...