Contextual factors impacting battered women's intentions to reuse the criminal legal system

Abstract

While a small number of past studies have examined either situational, relational, or systems-level factors that influence battered women's use of either the police, prosecutorial, or court systems, no study to date has examined how these factors each influence women's intentions to reuse these systems. To address this gap, in-person interviews were conducted with 178 women whose assailants had been charged with a domestic violence-related crime against them. Survivors of intimate partner violence were asked about the violence itself, their relationship with the perpetrator (including financial dependence on him), community supports, their expectations, and desires regarding the criminal legal response, and their prior experiences with the police, prosecutors, legal advocates, and the courts. Regression analyses were conducted to examine women's intentions to reuse the criminal legal system in the event of future violence. Consistent with an ecological perspective on behavior (e.g., Bronfenbrenner, 1979), the context of women's lives, the violence they had experienced, and their experiences with the police and the legal system all impacted their intentions. Specifically, women were more likely A R T I C L EThis project was supported by grant #98-WT-VX-0024 awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Correspondence to: Ruth E. Fleury-Steiner, Department of Individual and Family Studies, University of Delaware, 116 Alison Hall West, Newark, DE 19716. E-mail: rfs@udel.edu to want further involvement with these systems if they were employed, felt supported by their communities, had received information about services from the police, had experienced case outcomes consistent with their desires, and had been treated well by the criminal legal system. Women were less inclined to intend to use the system in the future if they were legally or financially tied to their perpetrators, if they had been assaulted again before the court case was closed, if court proceedings had been cancelled at least once, and if they had been pressured rather than supported by the criminal legal system. Implications of the findings are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Each year, approximately 1.3 million women are battered by their intimate partners or ex-partners; nearly one in four women are abused by a partner during their lifetime (Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998). Research shows that police and court intervention, as part of a coordinated community response, can reduce reabuse in many cases (e.g., Murphy, Musser, & Maton, 1998;Steinman, 1990;Syers & Edleson, 1992). Yet, intimate partner abuse crimes are also underreported. In some of the earlier research on reporting, Walker (1979) reported that only 10% of her sample had called the police. Recent research suggests that currently less than half-perhaps far less than half-of domestic ...

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