NCJ Number
158905
Date Published
1995
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This overview of the criminal justice system's response to domestic violence considers the police, restraining orders, diversion programs, courts, and corrections.
Abstract
Regarding police response to domestic violence, the intervention model that has shown the most effectiveness is the Duluth Abusive Intervention Project. The model includes intensive training of police and coordination of volunteer advocates, jail personnel, prosecutors, and judges. Every police intervention is accompanied by a volunteer advocate for the woman and a visit to the abuser in jail by a counselor. This model increases accountability and an integrated response from the entire system. Temporary restraining orders (TRO's) were established in the 1980's to provide proactive protection, so it was unnecessary to wait until women had been badly beaten before making arrests. When men are in the early phases of battering; have not committed many repeated, extreme acts of violence; and are not alcohol and/or chemical dependent, TRO's often serve to maintain women's desire for separations without violence. On the other hand, men who are severe, long-term batterers and those who are alcohol and/or chemical dependent are not deterred by TRO's and may even use violence to retaliate when women obtain them. Regarding diversion programs for batterers, only those batterers whose violence is not severe and who reports affection and satisfaction in his marriages is likely to change his behavior as a result of participation in short-term group therapy for battering. Generalized aggressors and emotionally volatile men need long- term intervention, including counseling, education, and legal supervision. Criminal courts must act to ensure the men who repeatedly assault and terrorize women should not be free to continue their abuse until one or the other partner is dead; and civil court decisionmaking that fails to take into account the manipulation, domination, and threats used by men who batter colludes in the abuse of women. Regarding corrections policies, some States have attempted to introduce "reasonable woman" standards for self-defense, but the majority of women who kill their abusers are prosecuted for manslaughter or murder. Efforts are underway to conduct clemency hearings for women incarcerated for self-defense, but such bills meet with local resistance; Federal leadership on clemency for battered women could help in mitigating the injustices of past decisions that have given from 5 years to life sentences to women who have never committed a crime but were forced to protect themselves and their children from a homicidal man. 5 references