Justice System Changes Way It Looks At Domestic Violence
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Editor's Note: This is the sixth and final part of a series of articles on domestic violence.
Only recently has the criminal justice system in the United States taken a hard line against domestic violence, no longer looking at it as a family matter.
Thanks to new policies instigated by the victim's assistants in Kosciusko County and to new police attitudes toward spouse abuse, battered women no longer need to press charges against their batterer for the batterer to be charged with a crime.
The police can now charge the alleged perpetrator based on what they see.
"To hit is a criminal act. To couch that in the context of marriage or a relationship - it's still a criminal act," said Capt. Steve Foster of the Warsaw Police Department.
The Kosciusko County prosecutor's office has a no-dismiss policy for domestic violence, said Prosecutor David Kolbe. Depending on the circumstances of the incident, alleged abusers can be charged with battery, criminal mischief, invasion of privacy or criminal recklessness.
Most domestic violence cases are misdemeanors. "Around 30 to 35 percent of misdemeanors are family violence cases," Kolbe said.
Committing "serious bodily injury" elevates the case to a felony, as does threatening to kill or intimidating with a weapon. But felony cases, Kolbe said, are in the minority.
Police and prosecutors are trained to continue the case even if the victim does not testify against the abuser in court, said deputy prosecutor Joe Sutton.
"It's not for the scoreboard of convictions, it's for the safety of those involved," he said.
Keeping an eye on the safety of the victim is often the most challenging and difficult part of handling a domestic violence case, said County Court Judge James Jarrette, whose court handles most of the misdemeanors.
"What you're dealing with, generally, are relationships between men and women, and those are love-hate. There is no emotion, other than survival, that is greater that love and hate," he said. "Then throw in children, family background, financial security and substance abuse. ... I have maybe 10 minutes with them and I don't know if it's a once-in-a-lifetime incident or if the victim is subjected to it day in and day out. And I'm supposed to intercede and prevent it from happening again."
Because the relationship is often volatile, and because the court may have no information about the parties' records if they lived in other areas, Jarrette said adjudicating these cases is "like walking through a minefield with a blindfold on."
"The scary part to me is, if you make a mistake, it could be really bad, it could be a horrible mistake," he said. "By engaging the violent person, we have raised the stakes. ... You never see your successes. You are confronted daily with your failures - you give people the opportunity to improve and hope they take the rope and hang on."
Without bodily injury, Jarrette said, batteries are B misdemeanors and incur a fine of between $1 and $1,000, and from one to 180 days in jail. If the victim is a spouse, an ex-spouse or under age 18, a domestic violence fine of $50 is charged.
With bodily injury, he said, the charge can go up to an A misdemeanor, with a fine of $1 to $5,000, and up to a year in jail. Sentencing can include probation, anger management therapy, restitution for medical expenses and protective orders for the victim.
Repeat offenders face increasingly harsh sentences.
Sutton said he works with victim's assistant Lisa Eckert in getting the victims' input on appropriate sentencing. "If I'm going to miss, I want to miss on being too tough on the guy," he said.
Domestic violence is one area in which early and intense intervention actually can break the cycle of violence, Kolbe said.
"This is a case where holding the gun to his head works," he said. "If someone's looking over his shoulder, the abuse tends to stop or lessen." [[In-content Ad]]
Editor's Note: This is the sixth and final part of a series of articles on domestic violence.
Only recently has the criminal justice system in the United States taken a hard line against domestic violence, no longer looking at it as a family matter.
Thanks to new policies instigated by the victim's assistants in Kosciusko County and to new police attitudes toward spouse abuse, battered women no longer need to press charges against their batterer for the batterer to be charged with a crime.
The police can now charge the alleged perpetrator based on what they see.
"To hit is a criminal act. To couch that in the context of marriage or a relationship - it's still a criminal act," said Capt. Steve Foster of the Warsaw Police Department.
The Kosciusko County prosecutor's office has a no-dismiss policy for domestic violence, said Prosecutor David Kolbe. Depending on the circumstances of the incident, alleged abusers can be charged with battery, criminal mischief, invasion of privacy or criminal recklessness.
Most domestic violence cases are misdemeanors. "Around 30 to 35 percent of misdemeanors are family violence cases," Kolbe said.
Committing "serious bodily injury" elevates the case to a felony, as does threatening to kill or intimidating with a weapon. But felony cases, Kolbe said, are in the minority.
Police and prosecutors are trained to continue the case even if the victim does not testify against the abuser in court, said deputy prosecutor Joe Sutton.
"It's not for the scoreboard of convictions, it's for the safety of those involved," he said.
Keeping an eye on the safety of the victim is often the most challenging and difficult part of handling a domestic violence case, said County Court Judge James Jarrette, whose court handles most of the misdemeanors.
"What you're dealing with, generally, are relationships between men and women, and those are love-hate. There is no emotion, other than survival, that is greater that love and hate," he said. "Then throw in children, family background, financial security and substance abuse. ... I have maybe 10 minutes with them and I don't know if it's a once-in-a-lifetime incident or if the victim is subjected to it day in and day out. And I'm supposed to intercede and prevent it from happening again."
Because the relationship is often volatile, and because the court may have no information about the parties' records if they lived in other areas, Jarrette said adjudicating these cases is "like walking through a minefield with a blindfold on."
"The scary part to me is, if you make a mistake, it could be really bad, it could be a horrible mistake," he said. "By engaging the violent person, we have raised the stakes. ... You never see your successes. You are confronted daily with your failures - you give people the opportunity to improve and hope they take the rope and hang on."
Without bodily injury, Jarrette said, batteries are B misdemeanors and incur a fine of between $1 and $1,000, and from one to 180 days in jail. If the victim is a spouse, an ex-spouse or under age 18, a domestic violence fine of $50 is charged.
With bodily injury, he said, the charge can go up to an A misdemeanor, with a fine of $1 to $5,000, and up to a year in jail. Sentencing can include probation, anger management therapy, restitution for medical expenses and protective orders for the victim.
Repeat offenders face increasingly harsh sentences.
Sutton said he works with victim's assistant Lisa Eckert in getting the victims' input on appropriate sentencing. "If I'm going to miss, I want to miss on being too tough on the guy," he said.
Domestic violence is one area in which early and intense intervention actually can break the cycle of violence, Kolbe said.
"This is a case where holding the gun to his head works," he said. "If someone's looking over his shoulder, the abuse tends to stop or lessen." [[In-content Ad]]