Predicting Legal Resolutions in Domestic Violence Cases

The adoption of such policies as mandatory arrest, pro-arrest, and no-drop prosecution has changed the arrest and prosecution practices in domestic violence cases. Proarrest refers to arrest being preferred, but not required. No-drop prosecution allows the prosecutor, with or without the cooperation of the victim, to decide if the evidence merits going forward. Prosecution and conviction practices were the focus of a meta-analysis by Joel Garner and Christopher Maxwell in Criminal Justice Review 34(1) in 2009. They looked at 135 published reports emphasizing prosecution and/or conviction of intimate partner and other forms of domestic violence. These researchers found that 34 percent of reports to law enforcement of intimate partner violence (IPV) were prosecuted, and 59 percent of arrests for IPV were prosecuted. Overall, 51 percent of prosecuted cases resulted in conviction. They concluded that prosecution for IPV was not rare, but acknowledged that prosecution rates varied considerably across jurisdictions. They also acknowledged that the data in their 2009 study did not provide enough information to identify factors that predict prosecution and conviction of IPV. Identification of such predictive factors is important because these factors may explain jurisdictional variation in the prosecution of domestic violence cases, and may also suggest policies and practices for distinctions between the degrees of assault relate to the level of intent and seriousness of resulting physical injury. In this study we focus on assaults in domestic violence incidents between household members. Household member, as broadly defi ned in Alaska Statue §18.66.990, includes adults or minors who are current or former spouses, living together or who have lived together, dating or who have dated, engaging in or who have engaged in a sexual relationship, related to each other up to the fourth degree of consanguinity, related or formerly related by marriage, or who have a child together. Unrelated individuals residing together as roommates, and live-in caregivers, also fall under this defi nition.