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According to Santa Fe Police Department statistics, it’s very likely that only about 1 percent of people arrested for domestic violence ever spend more than a week in jail.
Moreover, less than a third of the suspects in domestic violence incidents where police are summoned are ever charged with a crime and, in the majority of those cases, charges are subsequently dropped. Only a quarter of those charged are ever sentenced.
Most alarming, however, is the fact that the more violent the offending party in a domestic violence incident, the less likely it is that the person will be arrested.
Police and prosecutors cite a number of reasons for the failure of the criminal justice system to hold domestic violence offenders accountable. At the top of the list, as you might guess, is lack of money, particularly for prosecutors and their staff, including victim advocates, whose domestic violence caseloads can be as high as 300 per prosecutor, per year. That’s almost a case a day — nowhere near feasible for one person to handle.
(Budget problems are not unique to Santa Fe or New Mexico. In Kansas and Maryland last year, prosecutors made headlines when they threatened to stop pursuing domestic violence cases because of underfunding.)
Discouraged by lack of prosecution, police are sometimes less than zealous in pursuit of domestic violence perpetrators, even those whom they may recognize as repeat offenders. Plus, police say, the most violent offenders frequently are savvy enough about the system to know to leave the scene of an incident before police arrive, further reducing the probability for arrest.
Finally, few victims of home violence prove willing to testify against their assailants. And without a victim’s testimony, juries have proven reluctant to convict.
What’s to be done? More funding is needed for prosecutors and victim advocates, obviously. (Advocates are key in persuading domestic violence victims to press charges against their assailants and testify against them in court.) But, in hard financial times and as prosecutors compete with dozens of other public agencies for money, special consideration for domestic violence may not be in the cards.
That doesn’t mean the situation is hopeless, however. A few ideas:
♦ As suggested by Santa Fe’s deputy police chief, better training for police officers, so that they understand the importance of seeking out repeat or especially violent offenders, could boost arrests of the most dangerous assailants.
♦ A volunteer corps of victim advocates, along the lines of the court-appointed special advocate program for child custody and abuse and neglect cases, could assist beleaguered prosecutors and increase the number of cases against domestic violence offenders that actually go to trial. With victims persuaded to testify, more convictions might result, too.
♦ Filing the most serious possible charges against domestic violence offenders could increase the likelihood that they would suffer at least some consequences for their actions.
♦ Electronic monitoring, as a back-up to court restraining orders, could be a relatively simple and effective way to prevent assailants from getting close enough to their victims to perpetrate more violence.
In the last few decades, our society’s tolerance for domestic violence has waned as programs to help victims escape violent situations have grown in effectiveness. It would be a shame to waste that momentum.
