Coordinated Community Responses to Domestic Violence in Six Communities: Beyond the Justice System. Specialized Staff and Units

In every community except the two rural sites in northern Minnesota, a majority of agencies designate specialized staff or units to handle domestic violence cases (Exhibit 5.1). Specialization enables a group or individual within the agency to become domestic violence experts and to gain considerable experience in handling these cases. Typically, specialized staff also receive more extensive training in domestic violence including the cycle of violence, why victims stay in abusive relationships, and relevant laws and resources. As a result, domestic violence cases can be handled more efficiently since staff become very knowledgeable about the field. Moreover, staff become more sensitive to the unique characteristics of domestic violence cases through their training and experience. This helps them both in preparing cases and also in dealing with battered women. Having a single person or group of people handle domestic violence cases leads to more consistency in the response, which was viewed as a major benefit by people across the sites.

In smaller communities, specialization is usually not feasible. Domestic violence cases comprise a small proportion of any agency's total caseload. In smaller communities, this often means that the number of domestic violence cases is too small for even a single staff person to specialize. This was the case in both communities in Northern Minnesota. In Carlton County, for example, the largest law enforcement agency has fewer than 20 officers and there are only four prosecutors countywide. Larger communities sometimes face this issue as well. For example, in Kansas City one probation office estimated that the entire office had only about 30 domestic violence cases. Since each officer carries a caseload of about 100, there were not enough domestic violence cases to devote a single probation officer to domestic violence.

• Police

  • All of the larger communities designate special police units or staff to domestic violence cases. Every site except Baltimore has a centralized investigative unit for domestic violence within the police department. Baltimore, on the other hand, designates one or two officers in each district to serve as domestic violence specialists. This approach seems to result in quite a bit of variation in the role and experience of the designated officers in this community.

    Patrol officers, who are the first to response to an incident, typically receive some training in domestic violence. Domestic violence cases are then turned over to the specialized units for further investigation. In Kansas City, for example, the responding officer at the scene notifies the domestic violence unit (which is staffed 24 hours a day) about a domestic violence incident. The investigator will then either go to the scene, meet the victim at the hospital or take other appropriate action. In Baltimore, the designated officers receive written reports on all domestic violence cases, and are supposed to follow up with the victim either by letter or by phone.

    Specialized investigative units for domestic violence can help prosecutors build strong cases. Investigators in these units become very knowledgeable about what evidence the prosecutor needs and how to work with battered women to obtain this information. However, the gains made in this area do not seem to be limited to specialized units. A couple of prosecutors noted that police reports on domestic violence cases have improved department-wide, which they attributed to increased training and awareness about this issue.

    Police and prosecutors who specialize in domestic violence often form close working relationships because of their routine interactions. This improves communication between the agencies and enables them to share information and resolve problems in a timely manner. San Diego has formalized the interaction between the two agencies by holding joint staff meetings for police and the City Attorney's Office every other week.

• Prosecution

  • Four communities have vertical prosecution units for domestic violence cases, although the level of cases prosecuted varies across the sites. Some sites target the most serious domestic violence cases, while others focus on less serious offenses because they feel that serious domestic violence cases already receive a lot of attention. In San Francisco, for example, the special unit has always concentrated on felony cases, and assigns priority to the most serious cases. Baltimore's special prosecution unit handles the less serious cases that are not charged as felonies, and felony cases are assigned to other prosecutors. Kansas City and San Diego have taken a different approach by establishing special domestic violence prosecution units in both the City Attorney and County/District Attorney's Offices.

    Prosecutors who specialize in domestic violence gain considerable experience in prosecuting domestic violence cases, which have different characteristics from other offenses. Most prosecutors felt that they spend more time talking to domestic violence victims than was typical for other offenses. Victims in domestic violence cases are often uncertain about whether prosecution is a good idea, and need encouragement and reassurance during this process. One person characterized the process as "victim-intense prosecution." All of the units vertically prosecute domestic violence cases, which means that the victim deals with a single prosecutor from arraignment to the conclusion of the case. In addition, the units have victim advocates on staff to provide support to the victim and to help her through the process. In every site except San Francisco, the advocate helps the prosecutor as well as the victim in domestic violence cases and serves as a liaison between the two parties.

    Across the sites, prosecutors stressed the difficulty in prosecuting domestic violence cases where the victim is frequently uncooperative and at times hostile. Specialized prosecutors learn to build cases in which victims do not show up, withdraw their charge or change their testimony, and many have developed policies to subpoena victims and, in some cases, to issue body attachments. In one site, several judges noted that prosecutors who specialize in domestic violence are noticeably more experienced and skilled in handling these cases than other prosecutors. They felt that someone attuned to the special circumstances of domestic violence resolves problems with these cases more quickly and effectively.

• Probation and Pre-Trial Release Services

  • Two sites (Baltimore and San Diego) have special domestic violence probation units. San Francisco plans to begin a special probation unit during 1996, but this unit was not fully operational at the time of our site visit. Probation officers have contact with many different interests in a domestic violence case, including batterers, battered women, the courts, and batterer intervention providers. Thus, they are well-positioned to assess the situation and work with both the victim and offender in the case. Probation officers in some of the specialized units try to maintain frequent contact with the victim. As one person put it, domestic violence is one area where "you know who the victim is ahead of time." In Baltimore, for example, probation officers routinely notify the victim about the terms of the probation and provide information about what to do if the offender violates these conditions. They encourage the victim to contact them about problems, and have found that victims are becoming more apt to do so.

    Specialization allows probation officers to develop close relationships with batterer intervention providers. Since there are a smaller number of probation officers supervising domestic violence cases, batterer intervention providers often get to know the specialized probation officers better than other officers who may only have a couple of domestic violence cases. As a result, people felt that there was much more interaction on cases and that a probationer's compliance was monitored more closely and problems were identified more quickly.

    The special probation units differ across the sites in terms of the type of cases handled and the level of supervision. For example, in San Diego the special probation unit handles only felony domestic violence cases, and misdemeanors are supervised by the court. In San Francisco, on the other hand, the domestic violence probation unit plans to supervise both felony and misdemeanor cases. San Francisco plans to provide the same level of supervision to domestic violence cases as other offenses. The goal of the unit is to improve the response by having officers who are more knowledgeable about domestic violence laws and resources. Alternatively, probation agents in Baltimore's F.A.S.T. unit are assigned smaller caseloads and provide more intensive supervision for domestic violence cases.

    Baltimore's Pre-Trial Release Services is the only Pre-Trial Release Program in the country with a specialized domestic violence unit. Similar to Baltimore's probation unit, Pre-Trial Release Services designates domestic violence cases as high priority and provides more intensive supervision for these cases.

• Courts

  • Specialization in the court system is less common, with consolidated dockets for protection orders being more common than for criminal cases. Even rarer is consolidation of all matters (or at least all civil matters) involving the same principals, such as divorce, property settlement, child custody, visitation, and domestic violence. Four sites have a consolidated docket or calendar for protection orders, although the features vary across the sites. San Francisco has a domestic violence calendar for protection orders every other week. In Baltimore, one judge is designated the "duty judge" to hear all requests for protection orders in domestic violence cases every day from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In Kansas City, a full-time judge is assigned to the consolidated docket for protection orders. Since the Missouri statute for protection orders is so generous (allowing for child custody and support in the order), having a permanent judge was viewed as particularly important for consistency.

    Only two sites (Kansas City and San Diego) have any specialization within the courts for criminal domestic violence cases, although Baltimore plans to establish a Domestic Violence Court in the near future. In San Diego, one judge handles pre-trial matters for all domestic violence misdemeanors. Kansas City has made the most sweeping changes in this area by creating a special docket in the Municipal Court, where the vast majority of domestic violence cases are tried. Creating this docket was viewed by many as a cornerstone of this community's efforts, but it was also strongly opposed by a number of judges. The consolidated docket allows for better victim advocacy services, since advocates previously had to staff multiple courtrooms. In addition, many people feel that it has vastly improved the consistency with which domestic violence cases are handled. A judge in one site suggested a consolidated docket for domestic violence cases a couple of years ago, but many judges opposed the idea because they want to be generalists and find it too difficult to handle only one type of case. They were also concerned that if there were a single judge, attorneys (both for the prosecution and defense) would question the individual's impartiality in these cases.

    Some courts assign a permanent judge to preside over the consolidated docket, while others rotate judges into the position. This can have implications for the effectiveness of the docket. In Kansas City, the docket in Municipal Court initially rotated every six months, and the handling of cases varied tremendously depending on which judge was assigned to the docket. A permanent, full-time judge was later designated to ameliorate this problem. In several communities, changes in the court's response resulted from the actions of an individual judge who is particularly sensitive to this issue. For example, some judges institute a policy in their courtrooms to require defendants to wait in the courtroom while the victim leaves.

    Minnesota has integrated its court system, to incorporate civil, criminal, and juvenile courts. This makes it possible for a judge in one court to access information from proceedings in other courts. For example, if a domestic violence offender is on trial in criminal court for an assault or in civil court for violating a child support order, the judge hearing the misdemeanor domestic violence case could access this information. However, this information is not always used, since a judge must actively seek out the information about a case.

• Specialized Individuals and Programs

  • Sometimes individuals become specialists due to desire, experience, or training, rather than through agency policy. Some specialized units were initiated by individuals who became interested in domestic violence through the course of their jobs. In Baltimore, for example, a commanding police officer began an unofficial domestic violence unit in one district before this was department policy. In the Northern Minnesota community, an officer in one police department reviews all domestic violence reports during his shift and follows up with the responding officers. In both these cases, changes resulted from an individual's initiative rather than a department policy.

    We also saw several models of special programs and co-locating staff from different agencies. Examples include a joint program between the Childrens' Services Bureau and the Probation Department in San Diego, and the Community Access and Advocacy Unit that co- locates a victim advocate at a police precinct in a predominantly Latino neighborhood in San Francisco. Many of these special programs seek to improve services for a subgroup of battered women and/or offenders. For example, the joint project between the Children's Services Bureau and the Probation Department in San Diego targets high-risk families where a domestic violence offender is on probation and children are in the home and themselves in danger of abuse. The Advocacy Unit housed in a police precinct in San Francisco focuses on domestic violence in the Latino community.

• Issues Concerning Specialization

  • One issue that communities must struggle with in creating a specialized unit is whether it should narrowly focus on domestic violence or include other related crimes such as sexual assault, child abuse or elder abuse. Several of the units we examined had merged or were considering merging domestic violence with such related crimes. For example, in San Diego, the probation department's special unit covers sexual offenses in addition to domestic violence, and the District Attorney's Office handles both child abuse and domestic violence cases.

    Experts we spoke with disagree over the use of this approach. Some feel that merging related responsibilities into a single unit is more efficient and cost effective, particularly in times of tightening budgets. Others fear that merging responsibility for related but different types of cases hinders true specialization and that other cases may receive priority over domestic violence. In Kansas City, for example, the homicide unit used to handle domestic violence investigations. One person felt that domestic violence cases now receive more attention by the special domestic violence unit. Furthermore, merging related functions may increase the chance that the special units will be further subsumed under more general departments. Some police departments have compromised by housing related functions together, thereby reducing overhead costs, but retaining the specialization of individual staff.

    Across the board, people stressed the importance of staffing special units with people who want to be there, rather than by requiring people to work in this area. In fact, many supervisors prefer to have people who are interested in and committed to this issue over people with more extensive experience. Given the special characteristics of domestic violence cases, it is critical for people working in the field to be sensitive about these issues. Most of the units are staffed by people who requested the assignment. In a couple of cases, agencies tried assigning people to the unit regardless of interest or commitment, but it does not appear to have worked well. In Kansas City, detectives were originally assigned to the domestic violence unit who did not want to work there. Since then several detectives have been reassigned and the unit has brought in new staff who requested the assignment.

    There were several concerns noted about the use of specialized units for domestic violence. Some people felt that no one should be required to or even allowed to specialize in domestic violence for an extended period of time or an entire career. Burnout tends to be very high among individuals who work in the domestic violence field, due to stress and nature of the job. Furthermore, individuals who only work on one issue may lack an understanding of how their role fits into the broader system.

    Agencies that have specialized staff for domestic violence sometimes see less of a need to train and improve the behavior of other staff. As a result the response to domestic violence may be inadequate on an agency-wide basis, even if the response by the specialized unit is particularly strong. One person felt that within the police department there was no need to train officers in domestic violence since the special unit investigated these cases. However, the front-line officer is still the first person to respond to a domestic violence incident. In several communities, people felt that specialized units had improved the ultimate response considerably, but further improvement was needed in the front-line response. Special units can also create tensions within an agency. This seemed to be particularly true when the specialized staff had smaller caseloads than other staff. If the rest of the agency is not aware of how the special unit's jobs differ, other staff may resent the special unit.