DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03103.v1
title: Survey of Prosecutors' Views on Children and Domestic Violence in the United States, 1999
title: Version 1

description: This survey of prosecutors was undertaken to describe
current practice and identify "promising practices" with respect to
cases involving domestic violence and child victims or witnesses. It
sought to answer the following questions: (1) What are the challenges
facing prosecutors when children are exposed to domestic violence? (2)
How are new laws regarding domestic violence committed in the presence of
children, now operating in a small number of states, affecting
practice? (3) What can prosecutors do to help battered women and their
children? To gather data on these topics, the researchers conducted a
national telephone survey of prosecutors. Questions asked include case
assignment, jurisdiction of the prosecutor's office, caseload,
protocol for coordinating cases, asking about domestic violence when
investigating child abuse cases, asking about children when
investigating domestic violence cases, and how the respondent found
out when a child abuse case involved domestic violence or when a
domestic violence case involved children. Other variables cover
whether police routinely checked for prior Child Protective Services
(CPS) reports, if these cases were heard by the same judge, in the
same court, and were handled by the same prosecutor, if there were
laws identifying exposure to domestic violence as child abuse, if
there were laws applying or enhancing criminal penalties when children
were exposed to domestic violence, if the state legislature was
considering any such action, if prosecutors were using other avenues
to enhance penalties, if there was pertinent caselaw, and if the
respondent's office had a no-drop policy for domestic violence
cases. Additional items focus on whether the presence of children
influenced decisions to prosecute, if the office would report or
prosecute a battered woman who abused her children, or failed to
protect her children from abuse or from exposure to domestic violence,
how often the office prosecuted such women, if there was a batterers'
treatment program in the community, how often batterers were sentenced
to attend the treatment program, if there were programs to which the
respondent could refer battered mothers and children, what types of
programs were operating, and if prosecutors had received training on
domestic violence issues.
description: Violence against women and violence against
 children are not isolated phenomena. Rather, such violence often
 co-exists in families. Children who grow up in violent homes suffer a
 wide range of adverse behavioral and psychological effects, including
 a tendency to repeat abusive behaviors, as perpetrators and as
 victims, when they attain adulthood. Increased awareness of the
 adverse effects of domestic violence on children has prompted some
 states to enact laws either creating a new offense, or imposing new
 sanctions, for cases in which domestic violence is committed in the
 presence of children. It is the prosecutor's job to enforce these new
 laws, as well as other existing laws that might be relevant. In their
 efforts to enforce the law while balancing the interests of women and
 children, prosecutors across the country have found themselves caught
 in the midst of a debate over how best to protect children in the
 context of domestic violence. This study aimed to describe current
 practice and to identify "promising practices" in the response to
 cases involving domestic violence and child victims or witnesses. It
 sought to answer the following questions: (1) What are the challenges
 facing prosecutors when children are exposed to domestic violence? (2)
 How are the new laws, now operating in a small number of states,
 affecting practice? (3) What can prosecutors do to help battered women
and their children?
description: In order to identify existing policies and
 practices in responding to cases involving domestic violence and
 children as victims or witnesses, the researchers conducted a national
 telephone survey of prosecutors. In consultation with attorneys from
 the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse, the decision was
 made to survey two prosecutors' offices in each state, for a total of
 100 respondent jurisdictions. The reasoning was that the statutory
 framework was a key consideration when examining prosecutorial
 decision-making. Depending upon the structure of each prosecutor's
 office, it was possible to interview either a single individual with
 responsibility for all family violence cases (whether as head of a
 Family Violence Unit or as an individual attorney with this particular
 assignment), or two prosecutors, one with responsibility for domestic
 violence cases and the other with responsibility for child abuse
 cases. For purposes of analysis, in jurisdictions where two
 prosecutors were interviewed, the two responses were combined, so that
 the unit of analysis remains the jurisdiction and not the individual
attorney.
description: Questions asked include case assignment,
 jurisdiction Cof the prosecutor's office, caseload, protocol for
 coordinating cases, asking about domestic violence when investigating
 child abuse cases, asking about children when investigating
 domestic violence cases, and how the respondent found out when a child
 abuse case involved domestic violence or when a domestic violence case
 involved children. Other variables cover whether police routinely
 checked for prior Child Protective Services (CPS) reports, if these
 cases were heard by the same judge, in the same court, and were
 handled by the same prosecutor, if there were laws identifying
 exposure to domestic violence as child abuse, if there were laws
 applying or enhancing criminal penalties when children were exposed to
 domestic violence, if the state legislature was considering any such
 action, if prosecutors were using other avenues to enhance penalties,
 if there was pertinent caselaw, and if the respondent's office had a
 no-drop policy for domestic violence cases. Additional items focus on
 whether the presence of children influenced decisions to prosecute, if
 the office would report or prosecute a battered woman who abused her
 children, or failed to protect her children from abuse or from
 exposure to domestic violence, how often the office prosecuted such
 women, if there was a batterers' treatment program in the community,
 how often batterers were sentenced to attend the treatment program, if
 there were programs to which the respondent could refer battered
 mothers and children, what types of programs were operating, and if
prosecutors had received training on domestic violence issues.
description: Response Rates: The response rate was 93 percent.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Several Likert-type scales were used.
description: Convenience sampling.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Survey of Prosecutors' Views on Children and Domestic Violence in the United States, 1999
description: Prosecutors' offices that had knowledge of, or experience
with, cases involving children and domestic violence in the United
States.