Effects of Interactions among Community Agencies on Legal System Responses to Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault in Stop-Funded Communities

• Author: Janine M. Zweig,Martha R. Burt
• Published date: 01 June 2003
• DOI: 10.1177/0887403403014002006
• Date: 01 June 2003
• Subject Matter: Journal Article

10.1177/0887403403252457ARTICLECRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY REVIEW / June 2003Zweig, Burt / STOP-FUNDED COMMUNITIES

Effects of Interactions Among

Community Agencies on Legal System

Responses to Domestic Violence

and Sexual Assault in STOP-Funded

Communities

Janine M. Zweig

Martha R. Burt

The Urban Institute

The STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grants Program is a federal funding

stream that promotes institutionalized system change in communities, such that

women victims of violent crime can encounter a supportive and effective response

from the criminal and civil justice systems and from victim service (VS) programs.

This analysis assesses the degree to which receiptof STOP funding for nonprofit VS

programsand state-level STOP program support for collaboration has led to greater

community interaction and legal system outcomes. It also examines whether types of

interaction among community agencies are related to post-STOP legal system

responses to victims. Changed interactions among nonprofit VS programs, law

enforcement, and prosecutionstaff members seem to lead to changes in the legal sys-

tem’s approach to handling domestic violence and sexual assault cases. They also

assist communities in meeting the needs of victims.

Keywords: community collaboration; violence against women; domestic violence

249

AUTHORS’ NOTE: This project is supported by Grant No. 99-WT-VX-0010 awarded by

the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view in this document

are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the officialposition or policies of the

U.S. Department of Justice or of other staff members, officers,trustees, advisory groups, or

funders of the Urban Institute. Portions of this article are included in a final report for the

evaluation: M. R. Burt, J. M. Zweig, K. Schlichter,& C. Andrews, Victim Service Programs

in the STOP FormulaGrants Program: Services Offered and Interactions WithOther Com-

munity Agencies (2000).

Criminal Justice Policy Review, Volume 14, Number 2, June 2003 249-272

DOI: 10.1177/0887403403252457

© 2003 Sage Publications

The STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grants Program is a federal

funding stream that promotes institutionalized system change in communi-

ties, such that women victims of violent crime can encounter a supportive

and effective response from the criminal and civiljustice systems and from

victim service (VS) programs. The program is authorized by Chapter 2 of

the Safe Streets Act, which in turn is part of the Violence Against Women

Act (VAWA), Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement

Act of 1994 (P.L. 103-322). It is administered by the Office on Violence

Against Women (OVW) in the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice

Programs.

Public attention to the needs of domestic violence (DV) victims did not

increase dramatically until the 1980s. At the federal level, the 1984 Report

of the Attorney General’s Task Force on Family Violence recommended

coordinated community responses (CCRs) to DV and specific reforms in

laws and operations of the justice system (Department of Justice, 1984), and

the Bureau of Justice Assistance funded 11 family violence demonstration

programs to establish interagency coordinating committees (Bureau of Jus-

tice Assistance, 1993; Harrell, Roehl, & Kapsak, 1988). The Family Vio-

lence Prevention and Services Act of 1984 also supported grants for DV

prevention programs, shelters, victim assistance services, and training and

technical assistance for law enforcement officers and others in 20 states

(Newmark, Harrell, & Adams, 1995).

VAWA of 1994 continued the support of collaborative efforts among

community agencies to address DV, sexual assault (SA), and stalking. The

act encouraged nonprofit VS agencies to interact with law enforcement and

prosecution through designing state-level implementation plans and

through funding priorities (Burt et al., 2000). OVW provides a number of

technical assistance activities to support the development of coordinated

responses to violence against women including at least VS programs, law

enforcement, and prosecution in local communities around the country.

Few studies have been conducted to examine the impact of interactions

among community agencies on services provided to victims (Zweig & Burt,

2001). During the national evaluation of the STOP Formula Grants Pro-

gram, telephone surveys and site visits gathered process information about

how STOP-funded agencies interact with others in the community and per-

ceptions of the impact of coordinated responses (Burt et al., 1999, 2000,

2001). These efforts helped to identify the nature of interaction among

agencies in communities. Four types of interaction have been identified

with increasing levels of cooperative activity: (a) communication—agen-

cies talking with one another and sharing information, (b) coordination—

250 CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY REVIEW / June 2003