Abetting Batterers by Andrew R. Klein & Jessica L. Klein

Author:Andrew R. Klein & Jessica L. Klein [Klein, Andrew R. & Klein, Jessica L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2016-04-21T16:17:52+00:00

Failing to Stop Abusers After Arrest

Prosecutors can effectively cripple their efforts before their domestic violence prosecutions ever reach trial. Allowed to be free and unsupervised after arrest, abusers do what prosecutors often fail to do. They make a beeline to their victims. Whether with roses or blows, they help the prosecutor justify the subsequent dismissal by making the victim “uncooperative.” It’s not malice on the part of prosecutors, but mainly misunderstanding. In most of their criminal cases, prosecutors only have to worry about whether or not the defendant shows up for trial. Imposition of even token bail usually suffices. When most defendants are charged with crimes or even accused of assaulting a stranger, police, prosecutors, and courts can concentrate on scheduling and preparing for a subsequent trial. They don’t have to worry about a vulnerable victim being manipulated, threatened, intimidated, or even killed pending trial.

None of this applies to domestic violence. Prosecutors cannot proceed as they would in most other criminal cases, but many do. As revealed in the California review, some prosecutor offices don’t even bother to show up in court at arraignment when bail and/or release conditions are set, or not set, by the judge. Without specific efforts to safeguard victims and stop abusers from doing what they did to get arrested in the first place, prosecutors lose the key and often the only evidence police have provided them, the victim.

Relying on the threat of an impending trial to keep abusers in line before trial is not enough. Even jailing some abusers before trial is sometimes not enough.

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