NCJ Number
239374
Journal
Journal of Crime and Justice Volume: 35 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2012 Pages: 68-92
Date Published
March 2012
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This study analysed data from interviews with battered women to explore their criminal justice help-seeking experiences.
Abstract
In this analysis the author used data from interviews with 22 battered women in 2 States to explore their criminal justice help-seeking experiences. First, the author examines participants' overwhelmingly negative experiences with three criminal justice help-seeking strategies: calling the police, pursuing prosecution of their abusers, and obtaining protection orders. Next, she contextualized these negative experiences by identifying two sources of conflict between help-seeking battered women and the criminal justice system: perception incompatibility and goal incompatibility. Here, the author also used the narrative data to evaluate women's sense that use of the criminal justice system 'backfired' on them, and identify the consequences of this backfire for disrupting women's help-seeking pathways. The author also presents, as a counterpoint, women's uniformly positive experiences with two non-criminal justice resources: shelter and support groups services. Finally, the author uses these findings to identify specific lessons that can be learned to improve the overall criminal justice response to help-seeking battered women. (Published Abstract)