Unfair Domestic Violence Laws
Laws are wrongfully enforced where it splits familys and punishes the inocent as well as the offender
Domestic Violence Injustice
October is Domestic Violence (DV) Awareness month, but the flurry of articles, speeches, and calls for increased funding omitted crucial data. Current DV arrest policies are blatantly unjust and need to be reinvented.
Every year, an estimated one million Americans are arrested on DV charges. Typically they spend several days in jail. According to the criminal justice review only 30.5 percent of those arrested are convicted. The vast majority of those convicted plead guilty to a lesser crime to avoid trial and possible imprisonment. Thus the percentage of those actually guilty of DV may be considerably lower than 30.5 percent.
If 70 percent of arrested muggers were released without charge, if most of the 30 percent detained were given plea deals, questions would arise about ?overzealous? police and prosecutors. With DV the opposite happens. The low conviction rate brings cries for more aggressive policies and prosecution. Why?
DV is a deeply politicized issue. Gender feminists cast it as a quintessential crime of male oppression; ?get tough? prosecutors and politicians use it as a career path; and an ?industry? of researchers, social workers, lawyers, therapists, and other experts acquire status and income from DV. The incentives are for more and not less enforcement, and those accused become increasingly vulnerable to false accusations and the suspension of their due-process rights.
DV policies vary from state to state, but the general trend is common. Decades ago DV was usually classed as a misdemeanor, and an officer could not make a criminal arrest unless he witnessed the abuse or had an arrest warrant. Instead the emphasis was on separating the parties. In the early ?80s DV advocates protested this ?leniency,? and states began to allow warrantless arrests for unwitnessed incidents. Probable cause was still required; typically it was based on the presence of physical injury.
The federal Violence against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) changed the landscape in at least two significant ways.
First, VAWA provided grants to states ?to promote arrest and enforce restraining orders.? In 2007, for example, Alaska received almost $16 million in grants. (For information on VAWA grants to specific states.
Second, VAWA endorsed ?mandatory arrest? policies that legally require police to detain an accused even without clear evidence. According to the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence, as of 2007 19 states and the District of Columbia had such policies. The concept of probable cause is not abandoned, but arrest practices often discard it in several ways, including: assuming abusers are male (for example, the Nebraska statute refers to suspects with the words ?he? and ?his?); counting vague concepts such as ?fear of imminent serious physical injury? (as in the Oregon statute) as probable cause; and strongly advising police trainees to err ?on the side of caution? and believe the accuser.
When V
October is Domestic Violence (DV) Awareness month, but the flurry of articles, speeches, and calls for increased funding omitted crucial data. Current DV arrest policies are blatantly unjust and need to be reinvented.
Every year, an estimated one million Americans are arrested on DV charges. Typically they spend several days in jail. According to the criminal justice review only 30.5 percent of those arrested are convicted. The vast majority of those convicted plead guilty to a lesser crime to avoid trial and possible imprisonment. Thus the percentage of those actually guilty of DV may be considerably lower than 30.5 percent.
If 70 percent of arrested muggers were released without charge, if most of the 30 percent detained were given plea deals, questions would arise about ?overzealous? police and prosecutors. With DV the opposite happens. The low conviction rate brings cries for more aggressive policies and prosecution. Why?
DV is a deeply politicized issue. Gender feminists cast it as a quintessential crime of male oppression; ?get tough? prosecutors and politicians use it as a career path; and an ?industry? of researchers, social workers, lawyers, therapists, and other experts acquire status and income from DV. The incentives are for more and not less enforcement, and those accused become increasingly vulnerable to false accusations and the suspension of their due-process rights.
DV policies vary from state to state, but the general trend is common. Decades ago DV was usually classed as a misdemeanor, and an officer could not make a criminal arrest unless he witnessed the abuse or had an arrest warrant. Instead the emphasis was on separating the parties. In the early ?80s DV advocates protested this ?leniency,? and states began to allow warrantless arrests for unwitnessed incidents. Probable cause was still required; typically it was based on the presence of physical injury.
The federal Violence against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) changed the landscape in at least two significant ways.
First, VAWA provided grants to states ?to promote arrest and enforce restraining orders.? In 2007, for example, Alaska received almost $16 million in grants. (For information on VAWA grants to specific states.
Second, VAWA endorsed ?mandatory arrest? policies that legally require police to detain an accused even without clear evidence. According to the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence, as of 2007 19 states and the District of Columbia had such policies. The concept of probable cause is not abandoned, but arrest practices often discard it in several ways, including: assuming abusers are male (for example, the Nebraska statute refers to suspects with the words ?he? and ?his?); counting vague concepts such as ?fear of imminent serious physical injury? (as in the Oregon statute) as probable cause; and strongly advising police trainees to err ?on the side of caution? and believe the accuser.
When V
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