The Role of Domestic Violence Courts: Criminal Justice Study Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of domestic violence courts, highlighting their establishment, roles, and impact on reducing domestic violence cases. It discusses the court's function in processing misdemeanor and felony cases related to domestic violence, including accusations among intimate partners. The report details key processes within these courts, such as mandatory arrests, charge reviews, and no-contact orders, emphasizing the importance of probation and counseling for offenders. Furthermore, it outlines the mission statement of domestic violence courts, focusing on enhancing victim safety, ensuring offender accountability, and improving service coordination among community partners and government agencies. The report concludes by examining the implications of domestic violence courts on the community, citing statistics that demonstrate increased victim safety and reduced recidivism, underscoring the positive influence of these specialized courts on the justice system and society.

SEMINAR IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE STUDIES 1
Seminar in Criminal Justice Studies
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliate
Date

SEMINAR IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE STUDIES 2
Seminar in Criminal Justice Studies
Domestic Violence Court
Abstract
There are a number of cases relating to domestic violence which have often been reported
in the courts. Statistics indicate that 1 out of 5 families experience domestic violence and this,
therefore, led to the establishment of the domestic violence courts to handle such cause. This
paper will focus on the domestic violence courts by demonstrating the various roles played by
the courts towards resolving the cases. Further, it has highlighted on the mission statement of the
domestic violence courts in the United States of America. The above mentioned aspects are as
explained in the paper below.
The domestic violence court was established by the Court Training and Improvement and
this was an award by the United States Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against
Women in 2001. Further, the court is considered to a leading committed domestic violence
criminal court and it mainly solves cases relating to misdemeanor and felony. Apart from the
above mentioned cases, it also solves cases in regards to the accusations of domestic violence
which could have happened among partners who are intimate (Sullivan, Price & Pugh, 2017).
There are a variety of organizations in the country which offers support to the court and this has
enabled it to operate successfully. It also works in collaboration with the government partners,
agencies and other interested parties who may have an interest in criminal cases and other
domestic violence issues. When the domestic violence courts specialize in the offenses related to
domestic violence, the cases are processed in an efficient manner and also there will be
consistent judgments on the domestic violence statutes by the courts. Additionally, there has

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been a more emphasis on rehabilitating the offenders and deterring of a repeat of offenses by the
domestic violence court.
Domestic Violence
According to Riger, Bennett & Sigurvinsdottir (2014), domestic violence is an offense
which entails acts that are criminal in nature and are often committed by a particular member of
the family against the other. The offenses related to domestic violence include reckless
endangerment, assault,harassment, and telephone harassment, breach of the domestic protection
orders, destruction of property and threats using a weapon.
There are a number of things which usually happens in the domestic violence courts. One
key thing which happens in the courts entails, a compulsory arrest of the offenders. According to
the law, an offender of domestic violence should be arrested by a particular police officer and
this is especially there is a particular reason to believe that the act was committed within the last
four hours (Tam, Tutty, Zhuang & Paz, 2016). The individual offenders who have breached the
contact orders must also be arrested by the police officer in charge of the domestic violence
incidents. When one has been arrested for domestic violence offense, he or she will be held in
the prison for a period of twenty four hours and later taken to the domestic violence court.
The other thing which usually happens in the court entail the dropping of charges against
the offender. Generally, even with no particular arrest being made by the police officer, he or she
must provide a report which is to be reviewed by the office of the attorney (Richards, Jennings,
Tomsich & Gover, 2014). After a report has made and provided in the domestic violence court,
the prosecutor will go through the charge sheet to decide on whether to drop the case or not.
Also, the dropping of the charges by the prosecutor must be approved by the judge of the court.

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However, the victim is not usually allowed under any particular circumstance to drop the
particular charge.
Further, there is usually no contact order made in the domestic violence courts. Such an
order enables the protection of the other party from contact by the defendant typically after the
arrest of such a person. The order may also constitute certain elements such as contact through
writing, third party or even phone (Mahdzir, Rahman, Rahim & Ismail, 2016). The removal of
the contact order can only be done by the domestic violence court and not even the victim of the
particular case. The party which has been protected has to request for a no order contact and
without which, such an order can be lifted by the court. When the no court order has been
breached by the defendant, especially if entails an assault, it is considered as a gross
misdemeanor offense.
Such a violation can, therefore, be filed in the court as a felony offense. The convicted
individuals of domestic violence typically undergo a supervision by probation officers for a
period of two years (Pinchevsky, 2017). The counselors of probation review and hence ensure
that orders of the court are completed. At times, the offenders of domestic violence may undergo
through certain programs such as parenting classes, drug counselling, and sexual deviancy
treatment.
Mission Statement
According to Gutierrez, Blais & Bourgon (2016), the domestic violence court aims to
improve the safety of various victims, accountability of the offenders and service coordination
among the various community partners and other government agencies which have either direct
or indirect contact with the particular court

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There are also four certain goals of the domestic violence court and they entail the following as
indicated below;
 Providing an access to various services by the offenders and victims and a timely manner
 Encouraging accountability of the offenders and also the interventions to ensure that the
cycle of domestic violence has been stopped completely.
 Enhancing the response to the safety planning and needs of the victims by the criminal
justice system
 Ensuring that the offenders are prosecuted and also accelerating the various processes
involved in the court.
There are usually two particular rotating judges concerned with monitoring the program. The
judges typically must have a specialized training on the dynamics happening in the domestic
violence cases. Further, there is usually a docket court which is used by the judges for both the
post-sentence and pre-trial hearings (Elizabeth, 2015). The accuracy of information used in the
courts is enhanced by the overconcentration of the judicial oversight. Such accurate information
used in decision making by the judiciary helps in improving the monitoring of the offenders on
the basis of their compliance with the orders made by the court. Apart from the above mentioned
use of accurate information by the judges, the information aids in the processing of the domestic
violence cases in a consistent and time effective manner (Elmquist et al., 2014).
Implications of Domestic Violence Courts on the Community
According to the recent statistics, there are numerous domestic violence cases ranging
from 700 to 800 which have been processed using the specialized system (Cattaneo & Goodman,
2015). The external and internal assessments on the case have displayed that the domestic

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violence courts have typically successfully increased the level of safety of victims of domestic
violence. Also, it has reduced the level of recidivism.
Conclusion
In summary, the domestic violence courts have helped in the reduction of the cases of
domestic violence. Most of the cases relating to the domestic violence have been now processed
quickly and this was unlike in the past where there were cases of delay and thus delay in justice
for the victims. Also, the courts have enabled the victims of domestic violence to receive justice
since the whole process has been made effective, accurate and thus reliable due to the support the
courts receive from a variety of agencies all over the world. The above mentioned aspects
generally form the fundamental implications of the domestic violence courts on the society. The
critical goals of the domestic violence courts relate to Encouraging of accountability of the
offenders and also the interventions to ensure that the cycle of domestic violence has been
stopped completely. The other goal entails, enhancing the response to the safety planning and
needs of the victims by the criminal justice system.

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References
Cattaneo, L. B., & Goodman, L. A. (2015). What is empowerment anyway? A model for
domestic violence practice, research, and evaluation. Psychology of Violence, 5(1), 84.
Elizabeth, V. (2015). From domestic violence to coercive control: Towards the recognition of
oppressive intimacy in the Family Court. New Zealand Sociology, 30(2), 26.
Elmquist, J., Hamel, J., Shorey, R. C., Labrecque, L., Ninnemann, A., & Stuart, G. L. (2014).
Motivations for intimate partner violence in men and women arrested for domestic
violence and court referred to batterer intervention programs. Partner abuse, 5(4), 359.
Gutierrez, L., Blais, J., & Bourgon, G. (2016). Do Domestic Violence Courts Work? A Meta-
Analytic Review Examining Treatment and Study Quality. Justice Research and
Policy, 17(2), 75-99.
Mahdzir, N., Rahman, A. A., Rahim, A. A., & Ismail, C. T. M. (2016). Domestic violence court:
a new model to combat domestic violence against women in Malaysia. UUM Journal of
Legal Studies, 7, 95-105.
Pinchevsky, G. M. (2017). Understanding decision-making in specialized domestic violence
courts: can contemporary theoretical frameworks help guide these decisions?. Violence
against women, 23(6), 749-771.
Richards, T. N., Jennings, W. G., Tomsich, E., & Gover, A. (2014). A 10-year analysis of
rearrests among a cohort of domestic violence offenders. Violence and victims, 29(6),
887-906.
Riger, S., Bennett, L. W., & Sigurvinsdottir, R. (2014). Barriers to addressing substance abuse in
domestic violence court. American journal of community psychology, 53(1-2), 208-217.

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Sullivan, T. P., Price, C. E., & Pugh, N. E. (2017). CRIMINAL PROTECTIVE ORDERS AS A
CRITICAL STRATEGY TO REDUCE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.
Tam, D. M., Tutty, L. M., Zhuang, Z. H., & Paz, E. (2016). Racial minority women and criminal
justice responses to domestic violence. Journal of family violence, 31(4), 527-538.