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Criminal Justice Professionals and Social Service Providers This chapter focuses on the perceptions and experiences of criminal justice professionals and social service providers who play a direct role in addressing the issue of women arrested for domestic violence.1 Thirty-seven structured, indepth interviews were conducted, during which respondents answered a number of set questions as well as took the opportunity to raise additional issues they deemed relevant. Each interview began by asking respondents if they felt that women’s violence against their partners was increasing, and if so, would this change account for the increase in the number of women arrested. Without exception, none of the respondents (e.g., treatment providers, counselors, shelter directors and workers, prosecutors, police officers,2 defense attorneys, public defenders, probation officers) believed that women’s aggressive violence was increasing and thus justifying increased arrests. Rather, they indicated there were other reasons that could explain why more women were being arrested, such as their use of violence in self-defense. Most respondents were aware of the 1984 shift in police response and the emphasis on a pro-arrest policy, stimulated by fear of civil lawsuits. Both probation officers and shelter workers asserted that all of their clients had histories of victimization, but the police are now directed to make arrests. So rather than ignoring women’s behavior as they had in the past, the police focus on the violence itself and not the context in which it occurs. As one probation officer said, “The guy might hammer her three times and maybe even get charged and convicted; and she hammers him once in response and gets charged during the fourth incident.” 77 After Arrest Chapter 5 In fact, often if a woman was on probation for relationship violence, the probation department also had her male partner on the caseload. Victim services personnel said that they often received calls from women who were arrested— women they knew from earlier episodes in which the women were victims. A social worker in the prosecutor’s office also talked about these women: A lot of our female “victims” have had a long victimization history. I think that a lot of our female victims just reach a point, even if it is just verbal abuse, where they can’t take it anymore and then they lash out; and it’s true, they are getting a criminal charge and that criminal charge can be sustained. But there is usually a history that goes with that as to why they’re here. As a prosecutor stated: I think in a lot of these situations . . . they’re both verbally abusive . . . and they both get in each other’s face and I think sometimes she gets arrested. But I still think that he’s the dominant figure . . . he controls everything . . . He’s still the man and he’s still the head of the household and that’s probably where half the problems come in—when you challenge that authority figure that he is, or you want to go against him or do something he doesn’t want you to do. Interestingly, what these statements show is that members of the prosecutor ’s office (prosecutors and social workers), whose job it is to prosecute the women as offenders, view them as and call them “victims,” not “offenders.” Overwhelmingly, the respondents dismissed the idea of mutual combat or equivalent danger, and instead talked about the reasons why women used violence. . . . most of the time it is to tell him to “stay away” and then as he approaches , sometimes he gets stabbed. (treatment provider) Women typically say that “he was assaulting me and I was trying to get away from him.” The women are more likely to admit what they did, like they’ll say, “Yeah, I stabbed him!, but this is why.” The men a lot of times will not even admit that they struck her unless you say, “Well then, how did she end up with a broken nose?” Even then, the men still sometimes don’t admit it, even when you have the facts right there. (probation officer, domestic violence unit) What also was consistent across respondents was that they believed that the police are being overly cautious: “If they see any mark, any scratch at all, police will charge, regardless if it was due to fighting back or inflicted because 78 victims as offenders [3.21.104.109] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 04:28...

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