Assessing How Victims’ Voices Regarding Risk of Violence Influence Pretrial Release Decisions

• In Event: Evaluation of the Office of Violence Against Women’s Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Demonstration Initiative

Abstract

The decision to detain or release an arrestee while awaiting trial, and which conditions and restraints to place on those released pretrial are among the most challenging and impactful decisions courts make. While innocent until proven guilty is the cornerstone of U.S.’s criminal justice system, federal statutes maintain a court’s right to detain those who are unlikely to re-appear in court or are likely to harm others while awaiting trial. Validated pretrial risk assessments and management practices have evolved over the past four decades to help courts to simultaneously ensure equity and public safety, yet none of these risk assessments include structured input from domestic violence victims. Using linked police, jail, and court data from a large, multisite study of intimate partner violence, this paper will illustrate how an assessment, which measures the risk of lethal violence by an intimate partner that is administered by police officers in the field, influences pretrial release conditions. The paper will also consider whether the use of this assessment to improve complex, multidimensional decision-making by criminal justice officials reduces or amplifies systemic inequalities that have often arisen at the intersection of the arrestees’ sex and race.

Authors

• Heidi Bonner, East Carolina University

• Joy S. Kaufman, Yale University School of Medicine

• Christopher D. Maxwell, Michigan State University

• Tami Sullivan, Yale University School of Medicine