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Full-Text Articles in Law
Judicial Deference Or Bad Law? Why Massachusetts Courts Will Not Impose Municipal Liability For Failure To Enforce Restraining Orders, Carolyn Grose
Judicial Deference Or Bad Law? Why Massachusetts Courts Will Not Impose Municipal Liability For Failure To Enforce Restraining Orders, Carolyn Grose
Faculty Scholarship
The authors take up the challenge that was thrown down by the Ford v. Town of Grafton court. The first part of this Article examines the somewhat tortured and fascinating history of the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act. It then describes the arguments Catherine Ford made, how the court responded, and why it responded as it did. In Part II, Massachusetts' strong commitment to protecting and assisting victims of domestic violence is examined. A variety of legislative, executive and judicial initiatives that demonstrate commitment are described, but the Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 209A, the restraining order statute, is emphasized. The article …
Crawford V. Washington: The End Of Victimless Prosecution?, Andrew King-Ries
Crawford V. Washington: The End Of Victimless Prosecution?, Andrew King-Ries
Faculty Law Review Articles
Domestic violence offenses are difficult to prosecute because the batterer's actions often make the victim unavailable to testify. Since the mid- 1990s, prosecutors have pursued "victimless" prosecutions' to combat the problem.2 Victimless prosecutions seek to introduce reliable evidence without the victim's in-court testimony, often to maintain the victim's safety or to avoid re-victimizing the victim.3 The victimless prosecution is based largely on the admission of hearsay statements that a victim makes to 911 operators, police officers, doctors, nurses, paramedics, and social workers.4 Victimless prosecution has been a highly successful tool in society's efforts to eradicate domestic violence and it is …
Refocusing On Women: A New Direction For Policy And Research On Intimate Partner Violence, Lisa A. Goodman, Deborah Epstein
Refocusing On Women: A New Direction For Policy And Research On Intimate Partner Violence, Lisa A. Goodman, Deborah Epstein
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
A key question facing researchers of intimate partner violence is how the real-life contexts of victims’ lives should affect state policy. The bulk of recently adopted and much touted criminal justice reforms have taken the form of relatively inflexible, one-size-fits-all mandatory responses focused on counseling, restraining, and punishing batterers. Even the protection order system relies far more heavily on batterer treatment programs than on victim support to prevent future violence. Together, these reforms have largely sacrificed the contextualized, woman-centered focus from which the anti-domestic violence movement originated. Recently, however, a small body of research has emerged indicating that responding flexibly …