Bad and batter

Susan (not her real name) endured 10 years of physical and emotional abuse from her husband before she finally stood up to him one night and defended herself. Pittsburgh police arrested both Susan and her husband, and after spending a night in jail Susan swore that she would never call the police in the future.

Valerie Arnold, the non-resident facilitator at the Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh who relates this story, says Susan's experience isn't uncommon. That's because of the Pittsburgh Police Department's "must arrest policy" in domestic violence cases, which directs police who notice "visible signs of injury" on husband and wife to arrest them both.

"I have heard of cases in which there have been no visible wounds on the man and the woman gets arrested," says Arnold. "I have also heard of situations where the man cuts himself so the woman will get arrested. I see too much abuse of this policy. I can't say it's wrong. But I don't think it's quite right."

Police officers claim that the policy is justified because it relies upon visible evidence, the only kind officers have at the scene, and it enables them to stop a violent or potentially violent situation quickly. But advocates for battered women question the positive effect of the policy, and say that women who are already victimized by their husbands are often further victimized by the system.

"My problem [with the policy] is: do you expect a woman to stand there and be a punching bag when she is being physically assaulted?" says Ann Hazlett, a legal systems advocate at the shelter. Hazlett says that, although there are circumstances in which the woman must be arrested "because of the choice she made in defending herself," in cases where the man's wounds are slight while the woman's are severe, the woman's arrest is unfounded and ultimately unproductive. Hazlett says that the latter cases are much more common; she feels that Pittsburgh police arrest too many women.

"These are calls that are responded to in a fairly routine way," says Hazlett. "Once they establish that it's a domestic, I don't really know how much research they do into what's really going on, because they have to go on to something else."

Police argue that those speaking for the victims don't understand that officers have to make life-and-death decisions in a moment. Pittsburgh Police Detective Mary Causey says that after the arrest, "You have two to three days to decide if the wounds are defensive in nature. But at the time, we have a situation which could escalate into life-threatening violence. Maybe, the least offensive thing to do is to arrest both of them and then let the court decide."

Like many police departments, Pittsburgh's provides sensitivity training to educate its officers about domestic violence. Hazlett, who has taken her concerns to the police for 16 years, and has led police sensitivity training in that time, does not believe these programs work. "You don't change attitudes in police training," she says. "There is a certain percentage of police officers who are abusing their own partners anyway. You do police training by telling them what the law is what they are supposed to do to be safe from liability. That's what police training is about -- safety."

Both Causey and Hazlett say that the city and Allegheny County could crack down on domestic violence crimes by prosecuting abusive spouses without the victim.

Causey says that in states which do so "it seems that their domestic violence cases have greatly diminished. But that's not necessarily a good thing, because the woman might be dead later."

Hazlett cites San Diego and Quincy, Massachusetts as cities that have lowered their incidents of domestic violence by coordinating legal, law enforcement, advocacy groups and community-support offices in an effort to establish "zero-tolerance communities" -- those that don't tolerate any type of violence.

Hazlett says Allegheny County "isn't the easiest county to get everyone working together, because we have so many municipalities, so many districts, justices, city-court judges, city police, campus police, and municipality police officers. But in the 16 years I've been doing this there have been changes. There's absolutely no doubt that change can come. What I'm hoping for is the possibility that change can continue."