Building Monitoring and Tracking Systems (From Coordinating Community Responses to Domestic Violence: Lessons From Duluth and Beyond, P 89-113, 1999, Melanie F. Shepard and Ellen L. Pence, eds. -- See NCJ-180760)

• NCJ Number: 180763
• Author(s): Dennis R. Falk; Nancy Helgeson
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 25 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Monitoring and tracking systems needed for responses to domestic assault are discussed, based largely on the experience of developing and maintaining a tracking system in Duluth, Minn.

Abstract

The main purposes of a monitoring and tracking system is to promote women's safety by sharing information among practitioners in a way that will hold individual offenders accountable and maintain accountability among various criminal justice agencies that respond to domestic assault. A tracking system records relevant information about a particular case as the persons involved move between various individual and agencies that try to respond to the problem. The tracking systems three elements are: (1) the collection and submission of relevant information in a consistent form; (2) the receipt, organization, and storage of the information, and (3) the retrieval and provision of information to those who need it. An effective tracking system increases attention to victim safety, holds individual workers accountable, holds individual offenders accountable to court orders, identifies cases that are slipping between the cracks, recognizes procedures that work against victim safety, reveals patterns of possible bias, and provides information for program evaluation and planning. Barriers and problems encountered in the Duluth system include difficulties obtaining information from agencies, problems involving people, increased workload, computer and technology problems, the complexity of the information system, and not having the required skills available at the proper time. Agencies can use information from a tracking and monitoring system at both the microlevel and the macrolevel. Lessons learned from the Duluth program include the needs for a strong individual at the center, developing ongoing relationships at all levels of the organizations, focusing on positive outcomes and potential benefits, promoting a sense of ownership at all levels of the organization, selecting an inclusive name, and other actions. Figures and 5 references