VICTIMIOLOGY AND ALTERNATIVES

Victimiology and Alternatives to the Traditional Criminal Justice System

Victimiology and Alternatives to the Traditional Criminal Justice System

Adversarial justice responses to crimes

Traditional retributive justice aims for punishment of the guilty, whereas restorative justice is a new paradigm seeking victim-oriented criminal justice (Dignan & Cavadino, 1996). Justice is adversarial when two sides of the case square off to uncover truth and affix responsibility by examining evidence through the questioning of witnesses. Procedural justice refers to the fairness of the adjudication process and substantive justice to the appropriateness of the penalty (Konradi & Burger, 2000). Because somewhat different justice processes apply to rape and physical assault, each is reviewed separately.

Partner violence

Women are eight times more likely than men to be assaulted by an intimate partner (Greenfield et al., 1998). Independent estimates of the percentage of women who report domestic assaults to police range from 7% to 14% (Kantor & Straus, 1990), compared with official U.S. Department of Justice figures of approximately half of White women and two thirds of Black women (Greenfield et al., 1998). Among the fraction of incidents known to police, almost half (48%) of the women were judged to have insufficient evidence for filing or acceptance of charges (McFarlane, Willson, Lemmey, & Malecha, 2000). There were no differences in the levels of violence con- tained within charges that were accepted and those rejected. However, women who were turned away had significantly elevated danger scores three months later.

Civil Protection Orders

Protection orders are sought mainly by women experiencing severe violence after they have been injured; thus, they are a desperate call for help, not a primary prevention strategy (Harrell & Smith, 1998; also see Buzawa & Buzawa, 1992, 1996). The majority of abusers violate protection orders in some way within two years, 29% with severe violence (Klein, 1998). Although many women felt that temporary restraining orders were helpful in documenting that abuse had occurred, few thought their partner believed he had to obey the order (Harrell & Smith, 1998). There are no differences between women with and without protection orders in the levels at which they experienced subsequent physical violence, threats, or property damage. The Massachusetts Office of Domestic Violence reported that between 1992 and 1998, half of offenders battered a new victim within two years of their last restraining order, and 23% of offenders had two or more restraining orders taken out against them by different women (Boston Globe, p. A16). Experts have concluded that "Civil protection orders do not adequately protect women from further abuse and primary reliance on them must be seriously questioned" (Klein, 1998, p. 53).

Mandatory Arrest

Evaluations of mandatory arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Metro-Dade, Florida; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Omaha, Nebraska, indicated that although arrest seemed to initially deter violence in employed men (but not unemployed men), in the long run battering increased (Schmidt & Sherman, 1998; also see Buzawa & Buzawa, 1992, 1996; Stark, 1998; Zorza, 1998). The Federal Violence Against Women Act of 1994 encouraged police departments to adopt ...