DOI: 10.3886/icpsr20343.v1
title: Effect of Procedural Justice in Spouse Assault in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1987-1989
title: Version 1

description: The purpose of the research project was to examine the
 extent to which the perception of procedural fairness by suspects
 arrested for spouse assault effectively inhibited their subsequent
 violence. The data for this study were collected for the MILWAUKEE
 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EXPERIMENT, 1987-1989 (ICPSR 9966), which was
 conducted from April 1987 to August 1988. In this experiment, all
 cases of misdemeanor domestic battery where probable cause to arrest
 existed were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) warning
 with no arrest, (2) arrest with a brief detention period (average of 3
 hours), and (3) arrest with a longer detention period (average of 11
 hours). Variables include demographic and background information, as
 well as descriptive variables pertaining to the domestic violence
incident.
description: The goal of the study was to perform a reanalysis
 of the Milwaukee Domestic Violence Experiment. Specifically, the
 purpose of the research project was to examine the extent to which the
 perception of procedural fairness by suspects arrested for spouse
assault effectively inhibited their subsequent violence.
description: The data for this study were collected for the
 MILWAUKEE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EXPERIMENT, 1987-1989 (ICPSR 9966), which
 was conducted from April 1987 to August 1988. In this experiment, all
 cases of misdemeanor domestic battery where probable cause to arrest
 existed were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) warning
 with no arrest, (2) arrest with a brief detention period (average of 3
 hours), and (3) arrest with a longer detention period (average of 11
 hours). Warned suspects were immediately released at the scene and
 were not interviewed by the research team. Each arrested suspect was
 taken to police headquarters for processing. Suspects who were
 arrested were interviewed while in police custody. The interviews were
 conducted by research staff immediately after suspects were booked. A
 special team of 36 Milwaukee police officers implemented the
 experiment. These officers were assigned to four police districts that
 had both high rates of spouse assault and a large proportion of poor,
 minority residents. A case was deemed ineligible for random assignment
 if the suspect could not be located or had an outstanding arrest
 warrant or restraining order, or if the case involved either serious
 injury or the threat of violence.
 Data for this project used a subset of the MILWAUKEE DOMESTIC
 VIOLENCE EXPERIMENT, 1987-1989 (ICPSR 9966), a study that contained
 1,200 domestic battery incidents. The researchers eliminated cases for
 110 female suspects and 23 cases with missing demographic or
 employment information from their analysis, thus leaving 1,067 cases
in the data in this collection.
description: Variables include demographic and background
 information, as well as descriptive variables pertaining to the
 domestic violence incident. Demographic and background variables
 include age, age at first arrest, race/ethnicity (black, white, and
 other), prior domestic violence incidents, marital and employment
 status, stake in conformity, member of community organization, and
 member of church. Descriptive variables pertaining to the domestic
 violence incident include whether the subject was arrested, whether
 the subject was handcuffed in front of victim, physical force used
 against subject, angry about being arrested, wrong to harm partner,
 formal and informal sanctions, suspect or victim using drugs/alcohol,
 police calmed things down, victim transported to hospital, and time
 police spent at the scene. Other variables include representation
 measure, consistency measure, and impartiality measure, as well as
 bond, stigma, and several variables that were not assigned variable
labels.
description: none
description: Presence of Common Scales: none
description: Data for this project used a 1,067 case subset of the
 MILWAUKEE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EXPERIMENT, 1987-1989 (ICPSR 9966), a
 study that contained 1,200 domestic battery incidents. Approximately
 91 percent of the suspects in the Milwaukee Domestic Violence
 Experiment were male. Since females composed such a small proportion
 of the total suspect sample, and because of the possibility that
 spouse assault involving a female perpetrator is a fundamentally
 different event from that involving a male, the researchers decided to
 eliminate the cases for 110 female suspects from their analysis. An
 additional 23 cases were deleted because of missing demographic or
 employment information, thus leaving 1,067 cases in the data in this
 collection.
 For their published analyses, the researchers created the first
 subset of 825 suspects by selecting the 479 arrested suspects that
 answered 4 or more of the questions of interest on the suspect survey
 and the 346 suspects who were warned but not arrested. While the
 dependent variable was observed for the entire sample, only those
 suspects who were arrested and agreed to be interviewed provided data
 on whether they believed they had been treated in a procedurally fair
 manner. Thus, the sample of 825 suspects was only used for some of the
 analyses reported by the researchers because only suspects who were
 arrested were interviewed and had an opportunity to provide this
 information.
 Accordingly, to create the second subset for analyses, the
 researchers first selected, from the original full file, the 721 cases
 that were male arrestees. From these 721 cases, the researchers
 selected only male arrestees that answered 4 or more of the questions
 of interest on the suspect survey, thus creating a subsample of 479
 male arrestees. The researchers restricted their analysis of the
 arrested suspects to these individuals because they did not wish to
 generalize the results to individuals who did not complete the vast
 majority of items on the survey. Accordingly, in the remaining
 analyses, the subsample of 479 arrestees were the principal
focus.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Effect of Procedural Justice in Spouse Assault in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1987-1989
description: All cases of misdemeanor domestic battery in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, between April 1987 and August 1988. Smallest Geographic Unit: none
description: (1) This data collection contains 1,067 cases and is
 distributed in SAS, SPSS, and Stata formats. Users must use the SAS
 syntax file in this data collection to subset the original full file
 into subsamples that the researchers used in their analyses. Please
 reference the sampling section of this document for additional
 sampling information. (2) Users are encouraged to refer to the
 original data source, the MILWAUKEE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EXPERIMENT,
 1987-1989 (ICPSR 9966), or the Paternoster et. al. article entitled
 "Do Fair Procedures Matter? The Effect of Procedural Justice on Spouse
 Assault" listed in the "Related Literature" section for this study for
 more detailed information regarding the study design and methodology
 for both this study and the original Milwaukee Domestic Violence
Experiment.