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For decades Colorado,
and particularly Denver (<http://www.ncadv.org/>NCADV,
<http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/walker.html>Lenore
Walker and "battered woman syndrome," <http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/183781.pdf>NVAWS,
etc.) has been at the core of the hysteria surrounding the human problem
of domestic violence.
This hysteria has led to the tyranny of arrests without a warrant,
forcing citizens from their homes and children with nothing more than
the clothes on their back without even the pretense of due process,
searches without a warrant, seizures of their property without redress,
mandatory arrests often based on nothing more than hearsay, assuming
the accused is guilty until proven innocent, mere allegations that suffice
as proof, denial of the right to confront the accuser and obtain witnesses
in one's defense, denied the assistance of counsel, punishment and imprisonment
that occurs before a trial or without one, public censure for crimes
men have not committed, indentured servitude and often outright slavery.
Erin Pizzey, who started the shelter for battered women movement in
1971, has famously noted that "Any country that has tried to create
a political solution to human problems has ended up with concentration
camps and gulags."
Incredibly, the basis for such tyranny is undefined. Even today domestic
violence advocates, researchers and scholars have yet to agree on:
- Just what "domestic violence" is - In the extreme every
man is a "batterer" and every woman is a "victim";
- What "violence" is - Normal couples commonly roughhouse,
and congress frequently results in scratches and bruises on both male
and female, all accompanied by screams and other loud noises; What is
an "injury" - A faint reddening of the skin or something that
requires immediate medical attention?
- Or what "abuse" is - A man threatening his wife's lover
as in the <http://www.ejfi.org/emerson.htm>Emerson
case?
Underlying the DV hysteria is a real human problem for some couples.
At issue is the magnitude of the problem. The best estimate I've found
is by <http://www.criminologyandpublicpolicy.com/search/abstrDugan.php>Prof.
Laura Dugan based on <http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/NCVS/>National
Crime Victimization Surveys (NCVS). She found that one-half of one
percent (0.5%) of households surveyed reported an act the citizen
regarded as criminal domestic violence, whether they reported it to
police or not.
In <http://www.dvmen.org/dv-101.htm#pgfId-1099527>Table
56 I have compared reported DV incidents with the 0.5% of households
NCVS estimate for the years 1999-2003 in Colorado. For 2003 there
were <http://cbi.state.co.us/dr/cic2k3/supplemental_reports/domestic.htm>7,108
reported DV incidents compared with an estimate of 8,850 including
reported and unreported cases, as compared with 55,548 <http://cbi.state.co.us/dr/cic2k3/state_totals/statewide_offense.htm>major
crimes (homicide, rape, burglary, etc.), among a total population
of 4,550,688. Thus, domestic violence is affecting ~0.2% of the population
in a given year versus ~1.2% of the population impacted by a major
crime, though there is some overlap. While domestic violence is a
tragedy for those involved, it is far from the most common crime a
citizen is likely to encounter.
Unbelievably, with only <http://cbi.state.co.us/dr/cic2k3/supplemental_reports/domestic.htm>7,108
DV incidents reported by police statewide, in 2003 there were <http://www.dvmen.org/dv-97.htm>16,159
DV court cases in Colorado excluding Denver, which likely had at least
2,000 additional DV cases. And <http://www.dvmen.org/dv-100.htm#pgfId-1109958>more
restraining orders are now issued in Colorado than marriage licenses.
In the face of the court overload created by this hysteria, district
attorneys have been trying to find ways of handling so many cases.
Confronted by what they consider a legal problem, and as <http://www.dvmen.org/dv-159.htm#18-6-801>"no
drop" is embedded in Colorado law, district attorneys have tried
a number of extralegal means including <http://www.dvmen.org/dv-59.htm>"Fast
Track" and, most recently, diversion programs. Colorado has a
one-size-fits-all <http://dcj.state.co.us/odvsom/Domestic_Violence/standards.html>36-week
treatment program for "batterers" convicted of a crime involving
domestic violence. Battering in a relationship involves beating or
verbally abusing an intimate partner over a long period of time and
is aimed at controlling one's partner or children through the use
of terror, confusion, and disabling the target's ability to think
and reason for themselves.
The prosecutor's problem is that "batterer" describes
very few of the defendants in DV cases they handle. And significant
violence is found only in an estimated 3% of the cases before the
courts because <http://www.dvmen.org/dv-159.htm#18-6-803.6>"shall
arrest" leaves police officers little discretion. In practice
most men and women are before the bar for little more than a loud
argument. Roughly 50% of DV arrests in Colorado are based on hearsay
where a neighbor hears some loud noises and calls the police.
As the EJF has noted for years, virtually any defendant in a DV
case who pleads not guilty, demands a jury trial, and has the wherewithal
to hire a <http://www.dvmen.org/dv-9.htm>competent
criminal defense attorney, will eventually go free as it is commonly
impossible for the prosecutor to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt
to a jury. Additionally, most "victims" don't want the case
prosecuted in the first place, and frequently don't show up at trial,
forcing the prosecutor to dismiss the case after the <http://www.dvmen.org/dv-56.htm>Crawford
v Washington decision in early 2004.
When DV cases are brought to trial, jurors commonly complain to
judges and prosecutors that their time is being wasted by bringing
such trivial incidents before them. But district attorneys are paid
to prosecute and naturally want to win. And everyone agrees that real
domestic violence must be corrected.
Recognizing that many DV cases were unwinnable before a jury, but
faced with public hysteria and "no drop" standards, district
attorneys came up with diversion programs wherein typically a defendant
would be told if they took some sort of anger management classes for
8 hours or so, their case would be dismissed. That made the prosecutor
both judge and jury and punished innocent and guilty alike while feeding
some crumbs to the DV industry. Aside from the moral and legal issues
of district attorneys acting as both judge and jury without court
oversight, the DV industry was unhappy that their <http://dcj.state.co.us/odvsom/Domestic_Violence/standards.html>treatment
standards were not being met.
Thus, DV treatment providers who supplied abbreviated diversion programs
were in danger of losing their certification and practice. They, in
turn, spoke with their district attorneys, who, in the circumstances,
were forced to drop their diversion programs.
As a result, on Friday, April 8, 2005, a number of district attorneys
met with the Colorado <http://dcj.state.co.us/odvsom/Domestic_Violence/meetings.html>DV
offender management board to discuss options. Surprisingly, many of
these prosecutors feel the laws need to be changed to deal only with
actual cases of "battering." Rocky Mountain News reporter
Lou Kilzer attended that meeting,
as did I, and his observations are at:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3687637,00.html
Certainly if we are going to make needed changes in the domestic violence
laws we will need the cooperation of the state's district attorneys
and this is a very welcome development. Whether the hysteria of domestic
violence has crested, and we can now begin to fix the problem, not the
blame, is yet unknown.
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