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Home  News Letter to the Editor February 27th, 2010
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Letter to the Editor February 27th, 2010 |
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Letter to the Editor February 27th, 2010
From Linda Darin , President of Pinellas NOW
Can the courts prevent abuse? | Feb. 27, story
System must do more to stop domestic violence
The recent tragic murder of a woman and the charging of her "paramour" in her death make it vitally important for us to look at the way that domestic violence is dealt with in the Pinellas criminal justice system. The Times' headline asked: "Can the courts prevent abuse?"
The Pinellas National Organization for Women contends that if the criminal justice system holds the batterers accountable, there will be less domestic violence. If the police make more arrests, if the state attorney prosecutes more batterers, and if the courts sentence more abusers to the Batterers Intervention Program, there will be less violence.
Last year the Sheriff's Office and multiple police departments averaged an 82 percent arrest rate for domestic violence. That shows a steady improvement from 63 percent in 2004. In contrast, the state attorney's prosecution rate for the most serious felony domestic violence cases was only 24 percent last year. The five years before that it was between 26 percent and 19 percent. Thus, the statements made by the state attorney in the Times' article sound like excuses.
The State Attorney's Office needs to improve its prosecution rates. Another area that needs improvement is for judges to sentence batterers who receive final injunctions to the Batterers Intervention Program. This program is run by trained experts on domestic violence to teach batterers to relate without abusing.
The judges' rate for sentencing batterers to the intervention program for the last few years was less than 10 percent. Thus, the State Attorney's Office and judges missed crucial opportunities to stop domestic violence.
Linda Darin, president, Pinellas NOW, Seminole
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