The response to domestic violence in a model court: some initial findings and implications
✍ Scribed by Eve Buzawa; Gerald Hotaling; Andrew Klein
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 232 KB
- Volume
- 16
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0735-3936
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This study utilized a non-experimental design to obtain information on a full range of domestic violence incidents brought before the Quincy, Massachusetts District Court, a model court. One limitation of previous research on spouse assaults using more sophisticated designs is that the target population has been restricted to speci®c subgroups of cases thereby limiting subsequent discussions of policy/practice implications of the ®ndings vis-a-vis all spouse assault cases. To address this research ``shortfall'', we obtained permission from the Quincy District Court to examine all the spouse assault cases brought before the court during a 7-month period (June, 1995, through February, 1996). The ®ndings show that in a full enforcement environment, victims took out restraining orders only against the most violent, criminally abusive men. Most men who were arrested for domestic violence had prior criminal histories for a variety of oenses. Domestic violence oenders appeared to be of two types: those with extensive and diverse criminal histories and those with little or no such involvement. However, active criminal justice intervention against domestic violence oenders appears to be primarily directed toward oenders already active in the criminal justice system.