Domestic violence vs law enforcement - Research Paper Example

“Domestic violence includes abuse inflicted on spouses; children; older or otherwise vulnerable adults, including parents; and any other persons similarly situated to a spouse, child, or parent. The abusive conduct may be physical, sexual, emotional, or financial” (Kruger & Valltos). Historically, domestic violence has been treated differently by different people because of different religious beliefs and cultures. For example, in Islamic beliefs, the women are not getting enough freedom and the males often tortured their wives.

It was/is difficult for a Muslim woman living in a fundamental society to register a complaint against her husband with respect to domestic violence. Male domination was so prominent earlier and not only in Muslim cultures, but even in other cultures also, women were afraid of registering complaints about their husbands. However, such beliefs are slowly diminishing and because of the efforts of feminists and currently women see no dangers in registering complaints about the abusive behaviors of their partners.

“In the last twenty years public pressure to recognize domestic violence as a crime, rather than a family problem continued to grow due to educational efforts by victims and advocates”(Hunt, p.ii). . He will try to incorporate such experiences with every domestic violence incident he may investigate. Thus he will quite often fail to find out the nature of the crime or the actual culprit responsible for the crime. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that no state shall "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

" If a woman can prove that a police department has a gender-based policy of refusing to arrest men who abuse their wives, she can claim that the policy is based on gender stereotypes and therefore violates the equal protection laws (Domestic Violence—The Laws and the Courts - Landmark Legal Decisions) Different states have different laws with respect to domestic violence. Some states treat even simple domestic problems as serious cases whereas some other states may neglect simple incidents with respect to domestic violence.

However, in most of the cases, arrests are common for serious domestic violence cases. Probation, treatment programs, fines, paying restitution to the victim, jail sentence etc are some of the common means of punishing the culprits in domestic violence cases. Alcohol addiction or drug addiction can cause domestic violence. In such cases, punishments will never be an option; the law enforcing agencies opt for treatment programs in such cases. Counseling is another major option available in solving domestic violence cases.

In most of the cases, the family members engage is violent activities because of the momentary loss of control or short temper. In such cases, it is unwise to punish the criminal since the punishment will generate vengeance in the mind of the criminal and he/she will never