| Domestic violence research focusing on one aspect of the criminal justice process such as arrest or prosecution has failed to produce consistent findings of lowered recidivism. In contrast, studies of coordinated community responses indicate that defendants in these settings often have lower rates of recidivism. Through a two-phased natural experiment, this study describes the process, offenders, and their outcomes in one specialized domestic violence court. Phase One utilized an ethnographic approach to describe the process of the court, focusing on the judge's use of therapeutic jurisprudence, and on identification of the main components of a domestic violence court. Data collection methods included participant-observation, interviews, and review of court-transcripts. Findings identified a constellation of components in three broad areas to describe the court process: legal rules, legal procedures, and the general court process. Seven additional components were identified to describe the judge-defendant interaction, characterized by a process of respect. Phase Two described offenders and their relationships to outcomes using a quantitative approach. Data collection consisted of a case file survey comprised of all misdemeanor domestic violence case filings in the court in 1997 (N = 289), and a three-year statewide recidivism follow-up. Two dependent variables were considered in separate analyses: completion of domestic violence, counseling and recidivism, Sixty-three percent (63%) of the sample completed domestic violence counseling. Logistic regression revealed that controlling for age, prior arrest, type of conviction, and children, completion of domestic violence counseling was predicted by not using drugs, not getting a new case, pleading "not guilty" as a first plea, and not having a concurrent case interacting with not being ordered to a work program. Fifty-four percent of the sample have not received any arrests in a three-year follow-up. Among the 40% who received some type of arrest, 11% were arrested for a spousal assault, and another 8% were arrested for other types of domestic violence. Survival analysis revealed that half of all those rearrested (n = 133) were not arrested until one year later and that domestic violence arrests occurred sooner than all other types of arrests except being deported. |
