Citation

Bruley C, Hatfield J, Markel P. J. Rural Ment. Health 2012; 36(1): 18-23.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, National Association for Rural Mental Health, Publisher American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/h0094776

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Domestic violence represents the single largest category of calls received by police, accounting for between 18 to 50% of all police calls and accounting for 1 in 10 violent crime victimizations (Friday, Lord, Exum, and Hartman, 2006; Durose, Harlow, Langan, Motivans, Rantala, and Smith, 2005). Approximately 5.3 million incidents of intimate partner violence occur each year. Complicating this problem is a disturbing finding that domestic violence offenders are more likely than non-domestic violent offenders to commit a new violent act, and commit it against their original victim (Olson and Stalans, 2001). Nationally, domestic violence data indicated that about 40% of domestic-violence convicted inmates were under restraining or protection order at the time of their conviction for domestic violence. An estimated 75% of local inmates convicted of domestic violence had prior convictions, with most having a history of convictions for violence (Greenfield, Rand, Craven, Klaus, Perkins, et al., 1998). However, most of the existing research focused on urban areas only, and few studies have examined rural domestic violence (Johnson, 2000). Thus little is known about rural domestic violence. Studies of urban courts which have dominated the literature may not be appropriate with cases of domestic violence in rural communities. One of the strongest arguments against the applicability of urban techniques to rural settings is the lack of anonymity between judges and defendants found in rural communities, where judges and court personnel find it almost impossible to put aside their knowledge of the parties involved in domestic violence (National Center for State Courts, 2008). In addition, in many urban areas domestic violence courts have been established which shifted the court focus to a problem solving models that operate under the premise that the defendant's criminal behavior stems from underlying problems that treatment or services can resolve. Notwithstanding all the attention given to the study of domestic violence, one area stands out as lacking sufficient study: the treatment of domestic violence in rural courts. Thus, using a sample of DV offenders in a rural setting, the following hypotheses were tested: 1) domestic violence offenders who receive counseling treatment are at lower risk for re-arrest; 2) domestic violence offenders who are assessed a fine are at lower risk for re-arrest; 3) domestic violence offenders who pay their fine in full are at lower risk for re arrest; 4) domestic violence offenders who receive a jail sentence are at lower risk for re-arrest.

Language: en