Legal Interventions in Family Violence

Violence inflicted by one family member against another includes child physical and sexual abuse and neglect; domestic violence; and elder abuse. Sorting out and understanding violent behavior among family members presents complex challenges. Many factors render traditional criminal justice responses inappropriate or ineffective-the cyclical nature of family violence, the relationship between the perpetrator and victim, the causes and effects for both perpetrator and victim; the frequent ambivalence of the victim/witnesses toward involvement of the criminal justice system because of coercion by or fear of the perpetrator, and the guarded privacy traditionally accorded the family. As public awareness and concern about family violence have increased in recent years, many practitioners have sought to fashion responses that take into account the needs of victims as well as punishment and treatment of perpetrators. However, the myriad variables surrounding these responses often send complex and sometimes conflicting signals to even the most sophisticated criminal justice practitioners. Research performs an invaluable function by identifying and sorting through these variables to determine how they affect, and are affected by, various criminal justice responses. This publication contains "bottom line" information from articles written by researchers about their own work or in several instances about other researchers' work on subjects of immediate concern to practitioners: collaborative efforts between police and protection agencies, arrest policies, protection orders, battered women defense strategies, sentencing, batterer treatment, child sexual abuse, and children's testimony. The research findings are the core of the document. It is from these that the researchers have derived their implications for practice and it is from these that the reader may derive additional-and perhaps different-implications for their own particular practice. The studies summarized in this publication represent only those that relate specifically to how the criminal justice system addresses family violence. Other aspects of family violence, such as those associated with custody and divorce proceedings are not included. Also not included are findings from ongoing research mandated by the groundbreaking Violence Against Women Act of 1994-for example, the effects of the "full faith and credit" clause as it pertains to protection orders. The long-range aim of this publication is to encourage continued investigation into family violence and continued critical review of the results so that practitioners can make better informed decisions about practical criminal justice responses.