The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking, and homicide by intimate partners exceed $5.8 billion annually; of this total, nearly $4.1 billion are for direct medical and mental health care services.  Civil protection orders are a critical component of the legal system's efforts to address intimate partner abuse (IPA). The study draws on the perspectives of victims of intimate partner abuse who use civil protection orders to understand how the experiences in court affect safety and decision making. Procedural justice theory suggests that if citizens view legal processes and procedures as fair, both positive and negative legal outcomes will be viewed as acceptable. Unlike procedural justice, situated justice emphasizes the broader context of peoples' lives and how that, in turn, impacts their perceptions of the law. Thus, the perceived fairness of the process is critical to understanding both faith in and future use of the legal system.

To that end, 172 women participated in a detailed, highly structured survey shortly after a protection order hearing.  To better understand women’s experiences, another 30 women participated in open-ended interviews about their experience shortly after a hearing.  Approximately three quarters of women surveyed or interviewed participated in an additional survey or interview three months later.  In addition, 765 protection order hearings were observed in family court.  More than 60 undergraduate and graduate students gained applied research experience through assisting with data collection and analysis.  As of this writing, data analysis is ongoing.

Courtroom Observations 

To better understand the dynamics of protection order hearings, 765 protection order cases were observed.  The majority of these cases involved allegations of male to female IPA (75%).  A smaller number of cases were female to male IPA (16%).  The remaining cases involved other family relationships, such as siblings or parent/adult child.  Preliminary findings suggest that across all the family relationships, people with attorneys were more likely to receive the order.  The respondent’s access to an attorney did not impact the outcome of the case.  However, when we look only at cases involving allegations of male to female IPA, women’s access to an attorney did not increase likelihood of receiving an order.  Moreover, men’s access to an attorney in these cases led to fewer orders being issued.

Survey and Interview Participant Demographics

The majority of women who took part in the surveys or interviews were White (43%) or African American (39%), while a smaller number were Latina (8%), Asian (2%), or multi-racial (8%).  Women’s ages ranged from 19 to 71.  On in five women had a disability (20.5%).  Most women had at least completed high school (92.5%) and many had an Associate’s degree or higher (29%).  Most were employed part or full time at the time of the interview (68%). The majority of women had at least one child (92%).  Women had been in a relationship with their batterers for an average of 7.6 years (SD =7.2 years).  At the time of the interview or survey, nearly all of women were no longer in a relationship with the batterer (92%). 

Perceptions of the Court Process

At the time of the initial survey or interview, the majority of women had received a protection order (69%).  One in five women did not receive an order; the remaining cases were still in process at the time.  Not surprisingly, many women believed the court process was fair; on average the women surveyed said that the court process was “somewhat fair.”   Women were significantly more likely to report higher levels of satisfaction with the overall court process when they also thought that the court personnel, including mediators and hearing officers, were being fair to them.  For example, one woman interviewed said “And so I think he [the hearing officer] was just very fair. He wasn’t intimidating. He listened to me. Umm, [I] wasn’t in the courtroom very long. And he granted the PFA. Even when he’s, he said it would be for a year and I requested two years, he didn’t question me. He said ‘okay, we’ll do two [years]. No problem.’”  Women’s demographics and the types of abuse they have experienced do not always predict court satisfaction – our findings indicate that who they speak to in court and how they are treated by court personnel may also be critical. 

Implications  

Although analysis of the data is still ongoing, initial results suggest that while women do perceive the court process and outcome as fair, access to resources and interactions with court staff impact these perceptions.  Ongoing analyses will focus on the long term implications of perceptions of fairness on future use of the civil legal system as women seek safety from their abusers. 

Last Modified: 09/22/2017
Modified by: Ruth E Fleury