Fighting for Girls: New Perspectives on Gender and Violence

TWO: CRIMINALIZING ASSAULT Do Age and Gender Matter?

33 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 33 TWO CRIMINALIZING ASSAULT Do Age and Gender Matter? Eve S. Buzawa David Hirschel Waves of unprecedented statutory changes beginning in the l970s have altered how police respond to domestic violence. Due to the interplay of activist pressure, research, and political imperatives, legislators have enacted legislation and police departments have implemented policies that have produced a marked increase in arrest rates (see, e.g., Chaney & Saltzstein, 1998; Lawrenz, Lembo & Schade, 1988; Zorza & Woods, 1994: 12; Wanless, 1996: 58–59; Office of the A.G. California, 1999; Municipality of Anchorage , 2000: 8–9; Hirschel et al., 2007: 6–7). While domestic violence statutes were initiated primarily to address the needs of female victims of spousal partner violence, these statutes initiated a subsequent wave of revised legislation that included an expansion of the relationships included (Buzawa & Buzawa, 2003). Police are now required by statute to respond aggressively to relationships as varied as heterosexual and same-sex intimate partners regardless of marital status, siblings, parents and adult children, parents and teenagers, grandparents and grandchildren, and teenaged and adult daters and ex-daters. To date, there has been limited detailed empirical examination of how the increase in domestic assault arrests may disproportionately impact specific subpopulations. Research has primarily used broad categorical relationships to compare arrest rates for intimate partner assault to assaults by acquaintances and strangers (Buzawa & Austin, 1993; Buzawa, Austin, & Buzawa, 34 FIGHTING FOR GIRLS 1995; Eigenberg, 2001; Elliott, 1989; Felson & Ackerman, 2001; Felson & Paré, 2005; Fyfe, Klinger, & Flavin, 1997; Hirschel et al., 2007; Hotaling & Buzawa, 2001; Smith, 1986; Oppenlander, 1982; Sheptycki, 1993). Some researchers have used these findings to conclude that apparent similarities in domestic and non-domestic assault rates suggest that police treat these assault offenders similarly (Felson & Ackerman, 2001). However, such broad comparisons are problematic because domestic assault statutes, unlike those governing stranger or acquaintance assaults, have far more explicit requirements for police intervention. In most jurisdictions, officers are now required by statute or department policy to arrest domestic violence offenders on a presumptive, if not a mandatory, basis. Further, officers are authorized by law to make warrantless misdemeanor arrests in domestic violence cases, a power does not exist for other misdemeanor assaults. Therefore, contrasting general arrest practices and determining that police practices may be equally applied across categories may mask significant within-category variations. A further key limitation of previous research is that studies limited to domestic assault usually only examine the police response to domestic violence in cases of adult domestic violence relationships, that is, “spouse,” “ex-spouse,” or “dating partner,” and typically focus only on male-againstfemale intimate partner violence (Bachman & Coker, 1995; Buzawa et al., 1999; Feder, 1999). These studies have provided significant contributions regarding the impact of such legislation on the initially targeted population of victims. However, the exclusion of other significant relationships, as well as the failure to examine the differential effect of the variety of socio-demographic characteristics encompassed under domestic violence statutes, have been the source of considerable concern. First, we believe there is a need to examine in greater depth more specific categories of relationships included under domestic violence statutes and how they vary in the types of offenses committed. Second, there is a need to investigate more closely the factors that impact the decision by police to arrest. Specifically, we believe it is important to provide a more detailed analysis of how the increase in arrests for domestic assault may disproportionately impact two groups who have historically been underserved when victims of domestic assault: females and juveniles. As we will discuss in the next section, there is a theoretical basis for assuming that police will differentially respond to incidents involving juvenile and/or female offenders. Since cases involving the abuse of children under the age of 13 are handled through existing child protection laws, whereas incidents involving adolescent and young adult children and their caretakers do qualify under domestic violence statutes, we are excluding from our analyses cases with children under the age of 13. For purposes of this study, juveniles will hereinafter encompass victims and offenders aged 13 through 17. 35 CRIMINALIZING ASSAULT THE DIVERSITY OF DOMESTIC ASSAULT RELATIONSHIPS As stated earlier, studying the effects of domestic violence statutes by merely examining pro-typical male-against-female intimate partner violence presents a limited perspective as these relationships are not the only relationships subject to police intervention under domestic violence statutes. Indeed, considerable data exist suggesting that these “other...