Running head: SHORT TITLE OF PAPER (<= 50 CHARACTERS)
The Cost of Domestic Violence
Doreen Leavitt
CRJ 499
Strayer University
Dr. Diane Barrs
Introduction
The issue of domestic violence did not come to national attention until the early 1960’s. A doctor, C. Henry Kempe, M.D., brought national attention to child abuse as being the common cause of injuries and/or death for children. Domestic Violence is the number one public health problem in the United States, and affects all aspects of society in amazing dimensions, being the number one killer of women. In addition, the information was not based on a very wide demographic as well as each state having different definitions of Domestic Violence making it hard to accurately determine the expenses to the court system.
A revision to the current legal system would need to be done in order to protect the victims and combat the cost of domestic violence on the courts. As the issue of domestic violence became noticed, it started to overwhelm the legal system. In calculating the Cost of Domestic Violence on the legal system, namely the courts, you must include offender programs, the cost of recidivism, and administration.
OFFENDER PROGRAMS
A domestic violence court promotes a coordinated, multi-disciplinary approach to improving the criminal justice system’s response to domestic violence, family violence and child abuse. The domestic violence court specializes in a court docket handled by a dedicated judge and court staff and linked to key partners, which serves to address gaps in traditional domestic violence case processing where multiple judges and prosecutors handle various aspects of the case. Victim and child safety is paramount in developing a project and all components of a domestic violence court must keep this goal in mind. Vital components in the domestic court are the need for trained personnel to assist the victims that have no prior experience with courts or its procedures.
Recidivism
The cost of recidivism is almost as impossible to track and is one of the largest constant battles in the cost of the court system. If not given the proper treatment the offender returns home and the pattern of abuse begins again. If a judge’s orders that the batterer be assessed for his/her potential to continue the violent behavior, and based on the results of that assessment, order the individual to enroll in a program to learn how to change the behavior. To combat the rate of recidivism the court would need to operate on a court level as well as community level. Working at a community level provides the courts with the information on the offender’s history of substance abuse, mental health issues and any medical problems past and present. The community level would also help to provide information on victim services that are available to the victims and offenders.
There is little formal research available on recidivism or other factors which might indicate how successful these programs are in assisting batterers in changing their behavior. National data indicate a recidivism/re-assault rate of about 50%. Some workers in domestic violence feel that battering, similar to drug and alcohol use, can never be “cured”, but will require continuing commitment to refrain from its use. The cost of recidivism can also be found in the children these battered children become batterers later in life. According to Straus & Gelles, in the book Physical Violence in American Families, 1990, children that are exposed to domestic violence are more likely to abuse others.
Administration
The administrative cost includes programs for the offender such as “DOSE (Domestic Offenders Sentenced to Education). There is a lot of debate about whether such programs work, but one thing I know is defendants are less likely to re-offend while on probation and going through such programs.” (Hamilton, Joyce) On the administrative level the domestic violence court includes two judges; a director, a resource coordinator for each individual judge, court officer and clerk, prosecutors, and liaisons in court to help.
Stake Holders
A stakeholder is someone outside of the organization that has an interest in the company. In order to start a Family Court program that would cut down on the costs there would need to be a lot of stakeholders. The stakeholders really do a most of the work that is required to start a program. Before you are able to get funding from the legislature you would need to obtain several grants which will enable some institutional changes to get some of the stakeholders on board. This includes clients /customers, investors/lenders, suppliers, the community, future generations, and government. Whether it is an internal or external stakeholder, they all need to have detailed description of the relationship with both perceptions of it and the exact direction of the company. The relationships of a stakeholder could be anywhere from distant/minimal (monthly or quarterly) to close/continuous (daily).
There are levels of stakeholders and is based on their power and interest. The high influence stake holders with a high interest are those with a lot of influence over the direction of the company. It is important to listen and understand their view. These stakeholders are vital to the funding and success of the company. The low influence stakeholders with high interest are interested but have little influence. These stakeholders can be a great source of information, documentation, and can help with the organizational challenges of past efforts. High influence and low interest stakeholders are those that pay attention to the direction and the profit and not so much the fine print. Low influence and low interest stakeholders have little to no interest in the project and very low influence of the operations.
Internal
Internal stakeholders for domestic court included parents' attorneys, domestic courtroom clerks, the elected Clerk of Court, Department of Social Services', the attorney, the courtroom clerk, domestic court case managers, social workers, custody mediators and judges presiding the elected Clerk of Court. Improving the cost of domestic violence to the courts include two judges; a director; a resource coordinator for each individual judge, court officer and clerk, prosecutors, and liaisons in court help with in the court.
The internal stakeholders also include the people and departments within a business such as the board members, former board members, staff members, former staff members, department heads and section heads, all levels of employees and management. With internal stakeholders almost no company can exist without their employees so an employee comes first. Employees are key internal stakeholder of any business; even small actions of the company affect the employees greatly.
External
External stakeholders included representatives from programs that are already in at work in the court system. External stakeholders included community representatives from agencies providing parent education classes to parents in domestic court and some other representatives from community programs that provide services to litigants in court.
The external stakeholders are not directly involved with the program but have a vested interest in it.
The program for cutting the cost for the cost of domestic violence in the court system Wake County was used as a pilot program for other jurisdictions. In order to propose a program to cut down the cost of domestic violence in the courts, there is a need for institutional changes.
This cannot be done overnight it took well over a year of meetings for the Wake County system to make the changes, with the Chief District Court Judge, attending all of the meetings to give leadership and guidance from the court.
The stake holders, internal or external, do not always get along with each other on many topics due to the varying points of view making it very difficult in the decision making process. There will need to be committees to try to get everyone on board before instituting changes. Even at that it is a very difficult process because no one likes change.
A stakeholder of a program, whether it is internal or external, is very important to the start and continued support that is needed in the success of any program.
The cost to the courts for domestic violence cases can be very overwhelming. In order to combat that cost there must be a revision of the court system. A revision would include a restructuring of the system itself giving way to changing how each case was handled. To have a court and judges that specialize in domestic laws will give the opportunity for the court system to track a case and an offender. A system that could follow a case all the way through the system would give the courts the ability to hear cases in a timely manner as well as knowing the disposition.
Technology
Tracking Offenders
GPS tracking of offenders convicted of domestic violence offenses would be useful in some cases, particularly in stalking cases, and this is currently being done in some places by probation officers. However, due to a lack of resources at the state and national level this would not be practical, or possible, in most cases. The cost of the system, as well as the cost of monitoring it and reporting back to law enforcement and/or the courts would be quite expensive. And, such tracking systems are only as effective as the people who are responsible for monitoring and following up on the information obtained. If the tracking showed that the offender was violating a court order this information, to be useful, would need to be immediately transmitted to a law enforcement officer so an arrest could be made. Supervision
Another area in which technology could be useful would be where there is supervised visitation and exchange centers which provide services to families where domestic violence has occurred. These centers provide valuable services to families after separation and divorce, and participation by domestic violence offenders is often court ordered, but communication between these centers and the courts can be haphazard. Quick communication, with follow up, is crucial to prevent future violence in some of these family situations. Certainly a computerized system that provides information to the courts about concerns the center has in specific cases would be extremely helpful. However, you need law enforcement and/or court employees who can monitor and follow up on information received, and these resources are not always available without additional funding.
Problems with Technology
Technology is a wonderful thing, but it cannot solve all problems. For example, programs which help domestic violence victims have many privacy issues that preclude them from sharing certain information with law enforcement and the courts. HUD, The Department of Housing and Urban Development, help the homeless as well as victims of domestic violence through funding controlled by congress. In order to receive funding they were told by congress that they needed to track the funds and needed a count of the clients. HUD quickly refused noting that the information was vital for the safety of the clients and employees. HUD eventually had to comply in order to continue receive funding.
Technology used against victims
Also, technology is currently being used by offenders against victims, and it is extremely hard for law enforcement and legislatures to stay ahead of these offenders considering how quickly changes in technology occur. Some offenders have gotten very good at hacking, or otherwise accessing, computers belonging to victims. In addition, GPS tracking devices are so small, cheap and easily obtainable now that offenders are purchasing them and secretly installing them on victims' vehicles so they can know where the victim is going when she/he drives that vehicle.
Data Collection
Local Level
If you live in Wake County and needed data on domestic violence complaints you can go to an organization called Interact. Interact is a private non-profit, United Way agency that provides safety, support, and awareness to victims and the survivors of domestic violence. With the cooperation in the community as well as the court system they are able to collect a plethora of information that would otherwise not be found. A lot of the court case information is, of course, confidential, for obvious reasons, but they have statistics and general information regarding the extent of domestic violence reports in Wake County that can be shared with the public. Of course, there will be a lot of victims who report to Interact who never file either civil complaints for restraining orders or take out criminal charges so Interacts statistics will be different from those kept by the court.
In addition to getting information from Interact, there is the Triangle Family Services which runs “Time Together”, Wake County's supervised visitation/exchange center, that keeps statistics on the number of parents and children they serve.
Statistics for local, North Carolina court cases can be found through the AOC (Administrative Office of the Courts). The office keeps all kinds of records on case filings in NC, some of which the legislature requires it to keep (A lot of statistics are kept on Family Court cases because the Family Court program is only funded in some court districts, and the legislature wants to know if it is a cost effective program.) A great deal of data is collected by the AOC because the information is helpful for the court system to have so it can operate more efficiently. The AOC's information is compiled based on data submitted by the clerk's offices in each judicial district.
National Level
At a national level, the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va., a non-profit corporation, is a good source of data and information because they gather information on a national level. The Center conducts studies that look specifically at Domestic Violence Courts. The information includes the evolution, rationality, and the varied operations of each department.
Family Court is intended to move cases through the court system more efficiently to provide closure as soon as possible for all parties involved. Before a program like that is instituted, you really have to change the existing legal culture and mind set. For example, in Wake County, domestic attorneys were used to “judge shopping”; picking judges they thought may give leniency on their client. (Most defense attorneys do not want to pick a judge that may have already seen the offender in a previous case).
With a Family Court, every domestic case gets an assigned judge early on, then sent to a Family Court case manager that schedules cases so that cases move along the system and will not be forgotten. In many instances this runs counter to what domestic lawyers have been doing for years which is to delay the disposition of cases as long as possible.
I would like to model my proposal behind the Family Court program in Wake County where there are already several existing resources to start to start a program of assigning cases to judges as they are filed. There are existing staff members who could take over all the calendaring for domestic cases from courtroom clerks which can enable the judges to have more control over calendaring. In order to start a program like this there will need to be stakeholders both internally and externally. However, you will still need to work with the Administrative Office of the Courts and the legislature to try to obtain government funding for Court staff.
Hamilton, Joyce, Interview 2/6/2012, Retried Wake County Chief District Court Judge
Labriola, Melissa, National Center for State Courts, Document Title: A National Portrait of Domestic Violence Courts, 2010, accessed 2/6/2012, http://www.ncsc.org/Topics/Children-Families-and-Elders/Domestic-Violence/Resource-Guide.aspx
Hamilton, Joyce, Interview 2/8/2012, Retried Wake County Chief District Court Judge
Hamilton, Joyce, Interview 1/18/2012, Retried Wake County Chief District Court Judge
