System Alert: Arizona' s Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Violence

Publication Date: October 2007

Publisher: Morrison Institute for Public Policy

Author(s): Richard Toon; Bill Hart

Research Area: Justice; Social conditions

Keywords: Criminal Justice; Domestic Violence

Type: Report

Coverage: Arizona

Abstract:

Domestic violence ranks among the most common 911 calls to police statewide. Morrison Institute's System Alert report reveals that the victims making the calls and the professionals working in Arizona's criminal-justice system say the state's response is at risk of failing. The report finds that despite important strides made over the past three decades, the Arizona's criminal justice system is too often falling short of its goals of achieving victim safety and offender accountability.

System Alert examines the impact of this destructive force through the views and opinions of front-line practitioners in Arizona's criminal-justice system and the victims who have sought its aid. Researchers conducted more than 800 confidential surveys and 71 in-depth interviews of prosecutors, judges, probation officers, victim advocates, and victims throughout Arizona. This report completes an examination of domestic violence attitudes and outcomes in Arizona that began with the 2005 report Layers of Meaning: Domestic Violence and Law Enforcement Attitudes in Arizona.