NCJ Number
120992
Date Published
1989
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This packet addresses issues attending an abuse victim's being charged with aiding and abetting the abuser to violate a protection order, the victim's being charged with being an accessory in the violation of a protection order, and a court's finding that the victim has waived the protection order by letting the abuser into the home.
Abstract
Articles and other materials document women abuse victims being charged under various statutes as accessories or accomplices upon an abuser's entering the family home in violation of a protection order. The rationale for these charges is that the victims supposedly protected under the order have cooperated with the abuser in his violation of the order. Materials are presented in this packet to counter this rationale. The primary argument against bringing such charges is that Federal and State courts have found that the victim of a crime cannot be an accomplice. Applied to the protection order, this would mean that the person whom the protection order is intended to protect cannot be an accomplice in the violation of that order. The roles of victim and accomplice are thus mutually exclusive.