This paper reviews the major lessons learned from implementing two randomized trials, one in the Bronx and the other in Rochester, New York. Published in the Journal of Experimental Criminology, Volume 6, Number 4 (December 2010).
This compendium provides contact information for 208 criminal domestic violence courts in the United States as of December 2009. These courts handle criminal domestic violence cases on a separate calendar or assign criminal domestic violence cases to one or more dedicated judges or judicial officers.
With funding from the State Justice Institute, the Center for Court Innovation sought to test whether it was possible to create a court screening tool capable of efficiently identifying victims of trafficking and engaging them in needed services. This short report summarizes the implementation of this experiment and offers lessons for other jurisdictions interested in improving their response to trafficking.
An overview of the research literature on specialized domestic violence courts, this paper provides a summary of the current state of the field, an analyses of domestic violence court characteristics and goals, and a review of major research findings concerning court impacts on case processing, stakeholder coordination, informed decision-making, offender accountability, recidivism, victim safety, and victim services.
A study comparing recidivism rates, victim satisfaction, and costs of filing all domestic violence cases with the court vs. declining to file cases when the victim opposes prosecution. Published in Criminology and Public Policy, Volume 7, Issue 4 (November 2008), and available from Wiley InterScience online at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121645493/abstract.
An article that both critically examines the research literature related to each of two goals that are commonly ascribed to court-ordered batterer programs: rehabilitation and offender accountability. The article also considers the prospects for several new directions in sentencing, including judicial monitoring, community service, and heavy fines. The article concludes by recommending that, whether or not courts continue to rely on offender programs, they also seek to incorporate more comprehensive and systematic approaches to offender monitoring and sanctioning for noncompliance.
Judge Elizabeth “Libby” Hines presides over a specialized docket dedicated to domestic violence cases in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 2009, she spoke with our director of communications, Robert V. Wolf, about her work.