Civil Protection Orders and Criminal Court Actions: The Extent and Impact of "Overlap" Cases

• NCJ Number: 221285
• Author(s): Edward W. Gondolf Ed.D.
• Date Published: October 2001
• Length: 51 pages
• Grant Number(s): 99-DS-19-9184
• Sponsoring Agency: Pennsylvania Cmssn on Crime and Delinquency
• Corporate Author: Mid-Atlantic Addiction Training Institute (MAATI)
• Sale Source: Pennsylvania Cmssn on Crime and Delinquency
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded January 22, 2008

Annotation

This study examined the relationship of protection orders in criminal court action in domestic violence cases to identify the extent and impact of overlap cases.

Abstract

Overlap cases are referred to as domestic violence cases in which a battered woman petitions for a protection order in civil court and her male batterer is arrested and appears in the criminal court for the same incident. Results indicated that overlap cases appeared to improve most outcomes by reducing reassault and rearrests. Many of the cases that needed more extensive intervention, such as cases with more severe and extensive violence in the past, were obtaining it. The vast majority of the women indicated that they were satisfied with the court action in the advocates' assistance. However, more civil cases would likely benefit from an accompanying criminal court action. Many limitations in the court documents were identified: there were difficulties in identifying the cases among multiple appears, cases involving violence against women from violence against other family members or same sex partners, and in obtaining the final outcomes or the disposition of the case. Overlap cases comprised a relatively small percentage of the total cases. Only 8 percent of the total numbers of cases were overlap cases. Approximately 56 percent were civil only cases, and 35 percent were criminal only cases. This translates into 13 percent of the women appearing in civil court, and 19 percent of the women in criminal court being in an overlap case. A substantial portion of the cases involved in civil and criminal courts did not receive the most severe actions of the court. Data were analyzed from dockets from civil and criminal courts collected from the first half of 2000; the total number of new petitions for protection orders was approximately 900 for January to June 2000 within the city of Pittsburgh. A 6-month followup with a convenience sample of court cases was conducted to identify impact. Tables, references, appendix