Do the Views of the Prosecutor's Offices Have an Impact on Whether Intimate Partner Violence Cases Go To Trial?

Each year there are approximately 589,000 nonfatal violent victimizations (e.g., aggravated assault, simple assault) committed by an intimate partner (US Dept. of Justice, 2003). Of that, roughly 85% of these violent victimizations were committed against females (US Dept. of Justice, 2003). Even with this large amount of violence against women, only about 33% of the perpetrators of those crimes are brought to trial in state courts (US Dept. of Justice, 2005). Even a cursory look at the literature indicates that extra-legal factors, including the personal views of the police, judges, and prosecutors, have an effect on which cases are brought to trial. Mandatory prosecution laws attempt to overcome these extra-legal factors. I will investigate if these laws succeed in reducing prosecutorial discretion and result in a greater percentage of domestic violence cases going to trial or if the views of the prosecutors' offices still determine which cases are brought to trial.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Department dc:contributor.department

Sociology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Kershaw, Njeri

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Hawdon, James E.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Calasanti, Toni M.
• Ryan, John W.

• domestic violence
• intimate partner violence
• no-drop policies

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-04142009-154712

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/31715