General deterrence was originally articulated to reduce the use of vengeful and ex post facto punishment and to increase more humane forms of legal control. From a policy point of view, it is not clear whether the aim of deterrence is to deter individual criminal acts or to reduce crime rates. Establishing specific deterrence effects is also problematic. The arrest approach to crime control is systematically disconnected from any known theoretical perspective, although several studies on the use of arrest in domestic conflict have been published. At the same time, many changes have occurred in the internal and external environment of policing over the past 20 years. External changes in particular have made the police more vulnerable to political pressures and trends. Police agencies are increasingly influenced by market forces, and the police focus on a narrow intervention such as arrest to alter behavior demonstrates the willingness of police agencies to change their orientation in an effort to be seen as reformers and as sensitive to market trends. The author concludes that the "preventive conceit" of the deterrent effect of arrest remains unproven and that further longitudinal studies and ethnographic analyses are needed. 66 references