Family Law
Western countries consider domestic violence as a scourge that must be eradicated in perspectives. Executive, legislative, and judicial systems of Western nations attempt to determine the best ways of attaining this goal. The question that is however challenging is how to tackle domestic violence between intimate partners. It is hard to go by even though worldviews generally deem that domestic violence is detrimental to individuals. In United States of America, mandatory arrest laws play a prominent part. The government is trying to tackle the issue of domestic violence by creating and adopting mandatory arrest. The law compels police officers to arrest perpetrators of domestic violence. This is compulsory to situations where victims do not intend to officially accuse their partner of abuse. Most partners tend to shy away even to report such incidences at the very moment of the offender’s apprehension. Mandatory arrest law clearly stresses American institution’s dedication with regards to management of offenders and clear eradication of violence between intimate partners.
Consequently, in France, their legislation benefits from ‘Loi du 4 avril 2006 renforçant la prévention et la répression des violences au sein du couple ou commises contre les mineurs’ (Feder 1999, p. 90). This came into law on April 4th, 2006. The law reinforces the prevention of domestic violence and represses violence within couples. It is further committed to protect minors against violence. Recent laws against domestic violence aims at preventing and restricting domestic violence. This is supported by the augmentation of punishment for murder from 30 years to life imprisonment in addition to restrictive orders. Policies aiming at curbing domestic violence have been inspired from a concept known as “the wine growers’ method that lay emphasis on the birds” (Feder 1999, p. 90). This is categorically compared to the genes and memes rather than on the flock. It advocates that human being should protect their vineyards. In such a way, the innate sadism and masochism of people involved in domestic violence could be tackled to the root of the problem.
Domestic violence laws may seems persuasive but it does not take into account the biological factors that trigger violence between intimate partners. These laws can be more valuable when biological perspectives are taken into consideration. For example, the integration of chemical inhibitors that restrains the production of testosterone hormone and thus one becomes violent. Biologically, violent partners should not be considered as criminals, but should be considered as people who unfortunately have to abide by the consequences of dominant genes that favor aggression. Additionally, partners enduring domestic violence not be regarded as victims of socially learnt behaviors, but should be regarded as people who cannot counter submerging forces of genes seeking to activate individuals’ reproductive success and transmission. Some countries have taken into account the biological concepts and thus reducing the violence since they are taking care of the root course of the violence.
Mandatory arrest laws for combating domestic violence are somewhat ambivalent in that during its passing, American authorities had the intention of improving and protecting people from domestic violence. Its enforcement on the contrary has turned out to enlarge the panel of weapons in the arsenal of perpetrators. They use the system against their partners and therefore intensifying the misery and desperation of victims. This might make people chastise the authority ranging from the community level to the federal administration by saying that nothing has been done to change for the better the situation surrounding victims of domestic violence. Before taking the issue this far it is important underline the conspicuous American effort of tackling the issue in spite of the flaws. The efforts clearly suggest America’s willingness to change the situation of combating domestic violence.
Furthermore, when the beneficial policies are fully achieved, it will reveal the main underlying reasons at the root course of domestic violence. This will in turn help solve and combat violence between partners. For example, organizations operating covert operations would one day be able to stop or generate domestic violence at will so as to destabilize heads of states or states and thus affecting foreign governments. Consequently, intelligence officers would be able to develop skills of initiating domestic violence between a head of state and his spouse so as to generate leaks in the national and international press (Feder 1999, p. 91). The root course of the violence would accordingly create a climate of suspicion where in the case of conflict between the head of state, his reputation as the head of state or in the international stage or at home could be compromised.
Practically, the implementation and enforcement of mandatory arrest laws in United States has profoundly affected to a greater margin, the statistics of domestic violence. It is surprisingly noticeable that despite implementation of mandatory arrest, rate of homicides between intimate partners are twice as high as in states without the mandatory arrest law (Feder 1999, p. 91). Consequently, contrary to what one may think the number and proportion of females who are arrested for domestic violence is higher than the number of males (Feder 1999, p. 95). A first guess when looking at the mandatory arrest law, we might conclude that it was passed to protect battered females. This seems completely beyond the point of original purpose. What is at stake in different states is that the relevance of mandatory arrest laws is to safeguard abused partners. The efficiency of mandatory arrest laws has in one hand been demonstrated by the sudden increase in the figures mentioned above. The results show a better apprehension of the reality of what entails mandatory arrest and domestic violence in the USA. The rates more accurately reflect the true prevalence of physical aggression against men (Feder 1999, p. 97).
The facts on women presume the sole physical aggression of males against women. The recent high figures encompass the aggregate violent acts perpetrated by both males and females. Researches have reasons about the high equal prevalence of violence in both sexes. For example, Henning and Holdford highlight possibilities that arrested people employ violence as means of retaliation against abusive partners (Feder 1999, p. 106). They say that sometimes police lack good judgment on dealing with domestic violence. This is mainly because they have not been fully aware of desperate situation that abused partners face. Despite these facts, women in their great majority have approved the implementation of mandatory arrest laws (Feder 1999, p. 106). Accordingly, despite an increase in homicide, the overall impact of mandatory arrest laws on the management of domestic violence has positive out in USA in spite of enforcement errors.
Furthermore, mandatory arrest laws have taken a wider step of dual arrests. In laudable efforts to stop domestic violence, law enforcement agencies now prefer to apprehend both partners rather than arresting either the man or woman. In arresting one partner, it has been realized that in most cases, police or law enforcement agencies have been arresting the wrong suspect (Feder 1999, p. 107). On the contrary, arresting one partner could sometimes be staged in that officers may arrest the partner who is usually abused because the abusers call the police in order to revenge. Therefore, mandatory arrest signifying a double arrest has proven helpful in most cases. The government is tackling the issue of domestic violence by creating and adopting mandatory arrest where law compels police officers to arrest perpetrators of domestic violence. This is compulsory to situations where victims do not intend to officially accuse their partner of abuse. Most partners tend to shy away even to report such incidences at the very moment of the offender’s apprehension. Mandatory arrest law clearly stresses American institution’s dedication with regards to management of offenders and clear eradication of violence between intimate partners.
Conclusion
Western countries consider domestic violence as a scourge that must be eradicated in perspectives. Executive, legislative, and judicial systems of Western nations attempt to determine the best ways of attaining this goal and thus most countries have developed a mandatory arrest law. In United States of America, mandatory arrest laws play a prominent part in combating domestic violence. The government is tackling the issue of domestic violence by creating and adopting mandatory arrest where law compels police officers to arrest perpetrators of domestic violence. This is compulsory to situations where victims do not intend to officially accuse their partner of abuse. Most partners tend to shy away even to report such incidences at the very moment of the offender’s apprehension. Mandatory arrest law clearly stresses American institution’s dedication with regards to management of offenders and clear eradication of violence between intimate partners. Mandatory arrest laws have taken a wider step of dual arrests. In laudable efforts to stop domestic violence, law enforcement agencies now prefer to apprehend both partners rather than arresting either the man or woman. In arresting one partner, it has been realized that in most cases, police or law enforcement agencies have been arresting the wrong suspect. Mandatory law might make people chastise the authority ranging from the community level to the federal administration by saying that nothing has been done to change for the better the situation surrounding victims of domestic violence. Before taking the issue this far it is important underline the conspicuous American effort of tackling the issue in spite of the flaws. The efforts clearly suggest America’s willingness to change the situation of combating domestic violence
Reference
Feder, L 1999, Women and Domestic Violence: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Women &
Criminal Justice Series Vol. 10, Routledge, Publisher
