August 13, 2015

Approximately one in three women in the United States will experience physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is associated with long-term negative health consequences, creating a serious need to examine potential prevention strategies.

A domestic violence protective order (DVPO) is a legal intervention that prevents contact between two parties for up to 12 months. They have been shown to be effective secondary IPV prevention tools, but judges currently have a great deal of autonomy in granting or denying DVPO requests.

Christine Agnew-Brune

Christine Agnew-Brune

On June 17, an article by four researchers from the UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health was published online by the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Titled, “Domestic Violence Protective Orders: A Qualitative Examination of Judges’ Decision-Making Processes,” the paper shared findings about the factors judges consider in their decisions regarding DVPOs.

Christine Agnew-Brune, MPH, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Behavior at the Gillings School, is the study’s first author. Co-authors were Kathryn E. (Beth) Moracco, PhD, research associate professor, Cara J. Person, MPH, doctoral candidate, and J. Michael Bowling, PhD, research associate professor, all in the health behavior department.

The aim of the study was to investigate how District Court judges decide whether to issue a DVPO. In-depth interviews with 20 North Carolina District Court judges addressed three research questions: What factors influence judges’ decisions to grant or deny a DVPO? What individual considerations potentially guide their decisions? What do they worry about when making such decisions?

Interview analyses revealed that, before issuing a DVPO, judges must feel that a specific violent incident reached a certain threshold. Judges often rely on personal assessments to determine whether plaintiffs’ accounts are credible and if plaintiffs have a justifiable need for a DVPO.

The interviews also revealed that the presence of children can create competing concerns, and may affect judgment outcomes. Judges reported that they must consider consequences related to DVPOs, such as how a child might be affected by losing access to one parent.

Overall, given the complex nature of IPV, judges experience worry about the negative impact their decisions may have on the lives of those involved. As one interviewee stated, “You’re always worried. […] Did you get it right? […] There are serious consequences either way. I think it’s the toughest courtroom that District Court judges have.”

Given the range of factors that currently influence decision-making on this complex topic, the authors suggest that the DVPO process could benefit from a few changes. They suggest three approaches that would mitigate the impact of judge discretion on DVPO decisions, increase consistency in decisions across judges and reduce judges’ concerns about potential regret related to the impact of their rulings.

Recommendations include training to increase expertise about IPV among judges, so they can rely on knowledge about its dynamics and consequences instead of on personal perceptions. The researchers also propose implementing specialized domestic violence courts where appropriate, and modifying DVPO filing forms to reflect the chronic nature of IPV in a relationship rather than solely describing the most recent incident.

While judges clearly strive to avoid bias in their decision-making, the findings of this study suggest that changes to promote standardization and reduce intuition-based judgments will help individuals in need obtain DVPOs.


Share
.
Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu
RELATED PAGES
CONTACT INFORMATION
Visit our communications and marketing team page.
Contact sphcomm@unc.edu with any media inquiries or general questions.

Communications and Marketing Office
125 Rosenau Hall
CB #7400
135 Dauer Drive
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400