Domestic violence is one of the most pressing problems facing Native American and Alaska Native communities. Although the reauthorized Violence Against Women Act recognizes the authority of tribes to prosecute non-Native offenders, more tools are needed. This paper explores whether specialized domestic violence courts, which focus on enhancing victim safety and promoting offender accountability, can be part of a multi-faceted approach for tribal justice systems to address domestic violence.
Domestic violence can involve physical, emotional, financial and sexual abuse and require litigants to participant in multiple cases in many courtrooms before many judges. The Manhattan Integrated Domestic Violence Court streamlines the process by combining a family's cases in one courtroom before a single judge. By doing so, the court promotes greater victim safety and makes it easier to link litigants to services and monitor compliance with court orders.
Katheryn Lotsos and Stephen Forrester from the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children discuss their organization’s approach to supervised visitation. The Society's therapeutic model includes safety planning, parent education classes, special training for the professionals supervising the visits, and close collaboration with the courts.
In this New Thinking podcast, Dr. Oliver Williams brings questions of race, faith, and incarceration into a conversation on domestic violence. Drawing on his work with both victims and perpetrators from African American, Latina, and other immigrant and diasporic communities, Dr. Williams examines the import of cultural responsivity in the justice system’s response to domestic violence.
An overview of the Domestic Violence Online Petition Program, which seeks to improve victim safety by allowing a petitioner—with help from a trained domestic violence advocate—to use the internet to file the application for an order of protection.
This impact evaluation of 24 New York domestic violence courts found reduced re-arrests among convicted offenders. The courts that prioritized deterring recidivism, sanctioning noncompliant offenders, and addressing victims' safety and service needs had a greater impact on re-arrest than other courts.
Family Court judges should consider the impact of violence on families when making decisions about child custody and visitation, according to Kristine Lizdas, a managing attorney at the Battered Women's Justice Project. In this podcast, Lizdas discusses the Justice Project's four-part model for helping judges make more informed decisions. June 2013
Judge Michael Bordallo of the Family Violence Court in Guam discusses his specialized court, including challenges and opportunities faced by the court and stakeholders. The judge also offers a unique perspective on responding to domestic violence in an island community.
Judges Carolyn Minder and James Cawthon preside over the Ada County Domestic Violence Court in Boise, Idaho. The court is one of three domestic violence courts in the U.S. selected by the Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women to serve as a mentor court, helping other courts develop more effective responses to domestic violence. In this episode of New Thinking, the judges explain how they divide their duties, work closely with the community, and promote rapid disposition of cases.