Criminalizing domestic conflict and the corollary belief in arrest as a solution to social conflict is at least partially due to reduced police legitimacy and their increasing vulnerability to market pressures, management data, and vaguely understood community demands. Specifying the deterrent effects of arrest is difficult and entails philosophical problems. Arrest is not connected to any systematic theory of criminal behavior in a positive, direct fashion, and the claimed deterrent effects of arrest on rearrest result from a series of dubious methodological and operational definitions and arbitrary measurement decisions. Further, the isolation of arrest from the consequences underestimates costs to the police, participants, and society. A review of the diverse functions of arrest and changes in policing over the past 20 years suggests that police departments are vulnerable to new pressures and are eager to be seen as reforming and sensitive to market trends. 67 references