About the Book
Whatever the number, domestic violence victims remain far too many for a preventable crime. More and more victims of intimate partner violence are reaching out to police, prosecutors and judges only to be sorely disappointed, even betrayed. While laws and programs have multiplied over the last few decades to address domestic violence, the country is getting safer for almost everyone except for women who have, or have had, abusive male intimate partners. Andrew R. Klein and Jessica L. Klein look at the criminal justice response to domestic violence across America today, ranging from police to prosecutors and courtrooms across the nation.
Abetting Batterers reveals the troubling pattern of inattention and incompetence that compromises the safety of women and encourages their male abusers to continue their abuse and violence. Although criminal justice system agencies vary among cities, towns and counties within the same state they all too often relegate domestic violence to the backburners of the system, dismissing victims and ignoring even the most serious and chronic abusers. The variation reveals the real problem in preventing intimate partner violence lies in these agencies’ commitment and will, rather than their ability to do the job.
The authors unveil what is working in regard to protecting victims of domestic violence and holding their abusers accountable, and they suggest strategies for ensuring that what is being done right can be replicated and become the law and practice across the nation. The wide variation in how intimate partner violence is handled by similar jurisdictions demonstrates the real problem in preventing it lies in these agencies’ commitment, rather than ability to do the job. This book proves to be invaluable in understanding what is and is not being done in the reality of domestic violence in America.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Right of Chastisement, A Husband’s Responsibility1: Counting Domestic Violence Victims
2: Victim Advocacy and Services Helpful, But Insufficient
3: Prying Open Court House (Back) Doors
4: Making Domestic Violence a Real Crime
5: Encouraging Domestic Violence Arrests
6: Prosecuting Abusers
7: Sentencing Abusers
8: Unfinished Business
About the Author :
Andrew R. Klein is a nationally recognized expert in the study of domestic violence and criminal justice. He has served on numerous national commissions and advisory boards on development of domestic violence courts, sentencing and supervision of abusers, batterer treatment, and more. He has provided technical assistance, headlined conferences and provided professional training in his areas of expertise in almost every state of the Union, United States Military bases abroad as well as the US Coast Guard. He has served as a principal investigator on numerous research and evaluation grants for multiple federal, state and county government and non-profit agencies covering a diverse range of areas from family violence, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), victim rights, batterer intervention programming, faith-based rural domestic violence programming, elder abuse, and residential prison substance abuse treatment. He is editor and columnist for Thomson-West’s National Bulletin on Domestic Violence Prevention and also the author of major texts, including Alternative Sentencing, Intermediate Sanctions and Probation (1997) and The Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Violence (2003).
Jessica L. Klein is a Rape Crisis and Domestic Violence Victim Advocate for Beth Israel Hospital, New York, NY, providing advocacy, counseling, safety planning, and service referrals to patients admitted to Emergency Department after experiencing sexual assault or intimate partner violence. She is also a Rape Crisis Counselor on a hotline for the Anti-Violence Project, a New York based organization that services LGBTQ and HIV-affected people across New York City. She has provided training at the Judicial Domestic Violence Training for Hawaiian Judges, training judges on the basic warning signs/components of intimate partner violence. She is also a contributor for Thomson-West’s National Bulletin on Domestic Violence Prevention.
Review :
Coauthors Andrew Klein, an expert on the study of domestic violence, and Jessica Klein, a rape crisis counselor and victim advocate, provide a meticulous study of the domestic violence epidemic in America. The premise is that the safety of victims requires a more engaged and competent criminal justice system. Rich with statistics, state court cases, and a historical analysis of legislation, their thorough investigation argues that the police, prosecutors, and courts are not doing enough to protect victims. To support this claim, they assert that while victims are reaching out more than ever, they are met with inadequate services. The authors explain that although some states have made legislative progress, others are simply backtracking and thus encouraging abusers to remain destructive. Even with legislative progress, there is still a lack of commitment and competence by criminal justice practitioners to implement these statutes. The takeaway is that making perpetrators accountable for their actions is what works. The authors show how this is being done and offer recommendations as to how it can be put into practice elsewhere. VERDICT A solid choice for law students and researchers in the social sciences seeking a national evaluation of legislation on domestic violence issues and strategies for change.
The Kleins, experts and advocates about domestic violence, address the failure of the criminal justice system to adequately confront domestic abuse. They note substantial progress in the reform of the system of laws that govern behavior, but progress in the effective use of these laws has been inconsistent and ineffective in most jurisdictions. The system of plea bargaining coupled with a continued tendency to perceive domestic violence as less 'violent' than non-domestic violence results in minimal punishments in cases of domestic abuse. The authors note that jurisdictions that have committed to the control of domestic abuse have developed effective programs. That is, the means and knowledge to control domestic abuse are usually present, but not applied. The Kleins are recognized as leading experts in this field, bringing a combined academic and practical approach to the assessment of the problem and to their recommendations for expansion of effective programs to other jurisdictions. The book is well written with effective use of case histories and is adequately referenced and indexed. For libraries serving practitioners or academic departments of criminal justice, political science, psychology, sociology, or social work. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic levels/libraries, as well as professionals in the field.
Abetting Batterers, by Andrew and Jessica Klein, is a must read for every judge, prosecutor, law enforcement officer and community advocate committed to protecting victims of domestic abuse. It is the most thoroughly researched, well written treatise on the Criminal Justice System's struggle to curb the violence and provides a long awaited mirror for every such program to hold itself up to if it is to fortify its efforts to succeed.
Andy Klein is one of the great pioneers in the field of domestic violence. His extensive leadership experience in bringing about major reform in the criminal justice system's response to victims of domestic violence, coupled with his record of conducting highly regarded nationwide studies on practices in a diverse range of jurisdictions, brings a much needed perspective to what we know about domestic violence nationwide. Jessica Klein brings her vast knowledge of developing trends in the field. Together, the authors are able to not only tell us about past practices, new mandates and current best practices, but they also are able to show us the inherent limitations in bringing about change. They explain how and why current practices still often differ among jurisdictions as well as differ from what is required. At the same time, this book offers hope and shows how far we have come in effecting positive changes as the result of dedicated and committed policy makers, practitioners, and researchers.
