Introduction
Domestic violence is one of the most disturbing yet most common type of case being handled by trial courts, not only in a domestic but also in an international level. There are, in reality, many types of violence. There is however, one thing that is common among these violence-related crimes—they all lead to a multidimensional type of injury.
The injury that could come as a result of being a victim of violence could target the physical, emotional, and social integrity of an individual, which makes it only logical to brand domestic violence as one of the most destructive forms of crime that can be committed by a perpetrator.
Educating victims and also those who are at risk of becoming the victim of this trending crime is essential in decreasing the prevalence rate of domestic violence and minimizing the damages that have already been done. A high level of education can be achieved through the spread of literatures, which opens a lot of opportunities for evidence-based practice. However, the legal and paralegal industry faces a dilemma in this aspect. There is actually little to very few literatures about domestic and other types of violence that could be read by people.
The objective of this paper is to summarize and review an article about domestic violence, focusing on the provision of an essay form of discussion about the implications and the significance of the results and findings on the study.
Summary—Synopsis
The title of the journal article is “Increasing the Proportion of Domestic Violence Arrests that are Prosecuted: a Natural Experiment in Milwaukee” by authors Robert Davis, Barbara Smith, and Bruce Taylor, published in 2008. The journal article revolves around the perceived effects and other possible implications of a process wherein a state prosecutor liberalized the screening policies that usually serve as guidelines for prosecutors, judges, and other key law professionals in handling cases of criminals accused of perpetrating a crime related to domestic violence.
The liberalization of policies pushed through after several appeals of various public and prosecutors, and victims of domestic violence who believe they were not able to receive the justice that they deserve which aimed to modify the current law enforcement policies and standards in the past. They wanted to modify, or using a more appropriate term, to liberalize, the law enforcement guidelines and policies because perpetrators of domestic violence were “being arrested less often, prosecuted as vigorously, or sentenced as severely as other violent criminals”.
One of the identified reasons behind the laxity of the past law enforcement system in terms of processing the trial and sentence of those who are convicted for domestic violence is the time frame. A trial could not progress to sentencing unless there are enough evidences that could prove whether the suspect is guilty or otherwise. The same principle actually applies to domestic violence trials. Because it usually takes so much time, criminal justice officials and other law enforcement officers usually get sick of it and bored. They just wanted to get rid of such cases—particularly domestic violence cases, as much and as quickly as possible.
This is actually a reality in the criminal justice system during the 1970s, Law enforcement and justice used to be so lax when it comes to fighting domestic violence and their perpetrators. However, after several years, many people have noticed that there needs to be some change in the system and so liberalization occurred. In the new system, criminal justice and law enforcement officers were instructed to carefully review and scrutinize every bit of information pertaining to the suspect so that perpetrators of violence-related crimes would be punished to the full extent of the law. They were also instructed to process crimes related to domestic violence the same way they process crimes related to assault and felony.
Basically, the authors’ main purpose or motive in writing their paper was to identify if there were any serious implications of the liberalization of the new justice and criminal system, particularly in terms of handling cases of domestic violence. Was it able to address the lax law enforcement system that actually seemed violence-friendly rather than the other way around or was it not? This goal ultimately leads to every literature’s goal, regardless of the theme or topic.
The main supporting ideas that the authors used in this paper would be none other than the events that happened before the 1970s. The events that happened during that timeframe triggered some law enforcement-savvy members of society to make a move and initiate some changes in the system. Of course, other supporting ideas would also include the literatures such as books, journal articles, press releases, news articles, and documented interviews that are related to law enforcement, criminal justice, and domestic violence.
Analysis
In this case, the article presented some obvious yet practical and significant information. Laxity in the law enforcement system is indeed one of the most commonly ignored problems and not so many people are actually aware that something like that exists in the first place. The authors used a diverse set of sources in explaining the rationale of the study as well as in presenting a set of general principles which the readers could use to better understand the significance and implications of the study.
The results of the authors’ analysis were also in line with the theoretical results when only common sense and practicality would be used. Considering all these factors, the text seems to be appropriately convincing. As far as the subjects are concerned, we could tell that the author did not miss any points or factors in this research because in the information gathering phase of the study, the authors did not fail to obtain information from both sides of the story. They presented statistical data from criminal justice and law offices and also an encoded comprehensive interview with the victims for the sake of the research. If there is one thing that could make this paper more complete, that would be the types of information that came from the perpetrators themselves.
However, we also have to consider the scope of the paper. Perhaps interviewing the inmates and convicts would render the paper out of scope or unfocused. The authors did not overemphasize anything because after all of the information they included in their research does not make the paper out of scope or focus and because they used peer-reviewed literatures as one of their main supporting information, it would be wrong to say that this is a one-sided text even though it clearly points out that there was a problem in the criminal justice and domestic violence law enforcement system. Overall, the text seems balanced because two sides were actually interviewed and used as a source of data.
My Reactions
As far as the topic is concerned, the article did not quite get my attention at first because of the popularity of the issue. I did not know that laxity is even present in the criminal justice and law enforcement system and that that could be a factor in determining a convicted individual’s future—whether he will spend the next few years of his life in prison or not. Reading the abstract of the paper literally got me hooked, perhaps because it was such a nice discovery, knowing that something like this could have a big impact on the convicts and victims’ lives.
The piece did not seem bothering or offensive at all because the authors were basically presenting their researched data and its analysis to the readers and nothing more than that. And besides, the paper was written and published for academic purposes.
If I could tell something to the authors, I would tell them that they have done a pretty good job. They have successfully exposed something that is not usually known by common people, especially those who do not have the know-how when it comes to law and violence.
I realized that there are extrinsic and intrinsic factors that could affect the decision-making processes in the criminal justice and law enforcement system. Upon realizing that, I cannot seem to stop asking what would happen to me if I would be in the convicts’ shoes. Would I be glad that the system goes like that when handling cases?
This journal article reminds me of the setting in school. I can see that there is also some form of laxity in enforcing academic rules and policies. Some are actually being literally ignored for the sake of saving time and trouble. This, for me, somewhat resembles the setting in this journal article.
References
Davis, R., Smith, B., & Taylor, B. (2008). Increasing the Proportion of Domestic Violence Arrests that are Prosecuted: A Natural Experiment in Milwaukee. Journal of Criminology and Public Policy.
