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Published in:

01-11-2010 | Original Article

Intimate Partner Violence: Victims’ Opinions About Going to Trial

Author: Sara C. Hare

Published in: Journal of Family Violence | Issue 8/2010

Abstract

Criminal justice officials assume that intimate partner violence victims oppose filing charges against their abusers. In a study of 94 respondents, reluctance actually occurred with the prospect of going to trial. While 70% supported filing charges, only 37% wanted a trial. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses help explain the reasons women gave for their opinions about trials. The strongest quantitative predictor was that as the level of the victim’s injury sustained from the crime increased, their support for a trial increased. Gondolf and Fisher’s (1988) survivor theory predicted factors that influenced victims’ support or opposition to a trial in the quantitative section. The nested ecological model explained approximately half of the open-ended responses to those opposing trials while the goals of sentencing model articulated most victims’ support for trials.

The relationship of the victim and defendant was not recorded in the prosecutors’ files and was not evident until we interviewed the victims. Thus, we do not know how many of the 75 refusals were IPV victims.

Married couples were not asked whether they were separated.

Respondents were not asked who had fathered their children.

Respondents’ current income was recorded, not their income when the crime occurred. Knowing both figures would give us a clearer understanding of the victims’ financial situations during the crime and 2 years later.

The percent of those threatened (36%) and promised something (22%) exceeded the overall 44% of the victims who experienced this because some victims received both promises and threats.

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Title: Intimate Partner Violence: Victims’ Opinions About Going to Trial
Author: Sara C. Hare
Publication date: 01-11-2010
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of Family Violence / Issue 8/2010
Print ISSN: 0885-7482
Electronic ISSN: 1573-2851
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-010-9334-4

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Intimate Partner Violence: Victims’ Opinions About Going to Trial

Abstract

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

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