Predicting Case Outcomes and Women’s Perceptions of the Legal System’s Response to Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault: Does Interaction Between Community Agencies Matter?

• Author: Janine M. Zweig,Martha R. Burt
• Published date: 01 June 2006
• Date: 01 June 2006
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0887403405280944
• Subject Matter: Articles

Criminal Justice
Policy Review
10.1177/0887403405280944
Criminal Justice Policy Review
Zweig, Burt / Predicting Case Outcomes
Volume 17 Number 2
June 2006 202-233
Predicting Case Outcomes and
© 2006 Sage Publications
10.1177/0887403405280944
Women’s Perceptions of
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http://online.sagepub.com
the Legal System’s Response to
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Does Interaction Between
Community Agencies Matter?
Janine M. Zweig
Martha R. Burt
The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C.
The goals of the current study were to assess if domestic violence and sexual assault case
outcomes and women’s perceptions of legal system response can be predicted by the
level of interaction between community agencies and the level of legal system response
after communities receive STOP funding. A total 1,509 interviews were conducted with
women living in 26 communities. Two samples were included: (a) a Help Seeker sample
recruited from nonprofit victim service agencies and their legal system agency partners,
and (b) a Community sample of women ages 18 to 35 recruited through random digit dial-
ing of households. Results show that women’s perceptions of whether community agen-
cies were working together to assist her and her case significantly and positively related
to arrests in domestic violence and sexual assault cases and to convictions in domestic
violence cases. It also increases women’s beliefs that law enforcement and prosecution
are effective agencies.
Keywords: domestic violence; sexual assault; community coordination
Focusontheneedsofdomesticviolencevictimsdidnotincreasedramaticallyuntil
the 1980s with the 1984 Report of the Attorney General’s Task Force on Family
Violence. This task force recommended coordinated community responses (CCRs) to
domestic violence and specific reforms in laws and operations of the justice system to
decrease the level of family violence in communities (U. S. Department of Justice,
Authors’Note: This project was supported by Grant No. 99-WT-VX-0010 awarded by the U.S. Department
of Justice, National Institute of Justice. Points of view in this article are those of the authors and do not neces-
sarily represent the official position 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
Zweig and Burt (2003a).
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Zweig, Burt / Predicting Case Outcomes
203
1984). The Bureau of Justice Assistance funded 11 Family Violence Demonstration
programs to establish local interagency coordinating committees (Bureau of Justice
Assistance, 1993; Harrell, Roehl, & Kapsak, 1988). The Services, Training, Officers,
Prosecutors (STOP) Violence Against Women Formula Grants Program—authorized
by Chapter 2 of the Safe Streets Act, which in turn is part of the Violence Against
Women Act, Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
(P.L. 103-322)—continued the support of collaborative efforts among community
agencies to address domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
STOP is a major 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 programs. The funding priorities encourage legal system agencies
(such as law enforcement and prosecution) to interact with nonprofit victim service
agencies (Burt, Zweig, Schlichter, Kamya, et al., 2000). The federal government and
individual states provide a number of technical assistance activities to support the
development of coordinated responses between local community agencies to address
violence against women, including victim service programs, law enforcement, and
prosecution.
Few studies have been conducted to examine the impact of interactions among
community agencies on services provided to victims; however, Zweig and Burt
(2003b) showed how interaction between community agencies predicted local agen-
cies’ legal response to victims in STOP-funded communities. Data were collected
from victim service providers, who reported about the level of interaction between
agencies in the community and the legal system’s response to victims. The researchers
found that the more law enforcement and prosecution worked with victim service pro-
grams in communities, the more likely legal services were to improve for victims,
according to victim service providers. Interactions between agencies were of particu-
lar importance for changes in law enforcement and prosecution behavior related to
violence against women cases and behavior around protective orders. It also was related
to perceptions of more arrests, better evidence collection, and more convictions.
Other studies support the notion that interaction between community agencies mat-
ters for legal outcomes and victim support. During the national evaluation of the STOP
Formula Grants Program, telephone surveys and site visits gathered process informa-
tion about how STOP-funded agencies interact with others in the community at four
levels of increasing cooperation—communication, coordination, collaboration, and
CCRs—and perceptions of the impact of coordinated responses (Burt et al., 1999;
Burt, Zweig, Schlichter, Kamya, et al., 2000; Burt et al., 2001). Staff involved in CCRs
perceive their approach as leading to better treatment and support of victims by system
agencies and better criminal justice outcomes in terms of holding perpetrators of sex-
ual assault and batterers accountable for their actions (Burt, Zweig, Schlichter,
Kamya, et al., 2000; Burt et al., 2001).
Research about the impact of a CCR on domestic violence offers some insight into
criminal justice system outcomes. Shepard, Falk, and Elliott (2002) found that en-
hanced coordinated responses to domestic violence through improved sharing of risk

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Criminal Justice Policy Review
assessment information across criminal justice personnel and advocates is related to
reductions in recidivism as measured by investigations, charges, and convictions.
Tolman and Weisz (1995) documented reduced recidivism of batterers when law
enforcement officers used protocols developed in association with other agencies.
Weisz, Tolman, and Bennett (1998) reported a greater likelihood of a court case or an
arrest when women received both domestic violence services and at least one protec-
tive order rather than only one type of service.
In communities where CCRs have been developed to address sexual assault, repre-
sentatives from the agencies involved have reported that victims receive better ser-
vices because of the cooperation and that more convictions have occurred compared to
when the CCR was not in place (Burt, Zweig, Schlichter, Kamya, et al., 2000; Burt
et al., 2001). Having a sexual assault response team (SART), a form of CCR including
multiple agencies in the community, has also been shown to increase the likelihood
that victims will receive particular services (Campbell & Bybee, 1997). Victims were
significantly more likely to receive information about how sexual assault affects phys-
ical and mental health in communities with SARTs compared to those without SARTs.
Women who lived in communities with more coordinated services among agencies
had more positive experiences with the legal, medical, and mental health systems than
women in communities with less coordinated services (Campbell, 1998).
Little else is known about how interaction among community agencies affects legal
responses to violence against women, particularly in communities with STOP-funded
agencies. The goals of the current study were to assess if case outcomes and women’s
perceptions of legal system response (victim outcomes) can be predicted by the level
of interaction between community agencies, the level of legal system response after
the community received STOP funding, and the particular combinations of services
from which women received help. Figure 1 depicts the conceptual framework for this
study. We hypothesize that victim outcomes (Box 5) would be directly affected by
level of coordination in community response (Box 2), post-STOP legal system
response to victims (Box 3), and service use patterns (Box 4). We also hypothesize
that level of coordination in community response (Box 2) and post-STOP legal system
response to victims (Box 3) have indirect effects on victim outcomes mediated
through service use patterns (Box 4). Finally, we expect that women’s characteristics
and the nature of the victimization they experienced (Box 1) will influence victim
outcomes both directly and indirectly.
Method
Procedure
Testing the study hypotheses required that information about service networks be
collected from programs and linked to victim outcomes as reported by women who
had used services. The study involved two stages of data collection. The first stage of
data collection was a Program Survey collecting information about STOP-funded pro-
grams in nonprofit victim service agencies, their services, and their community link-

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Zweig, Burt / Predicting Case Outcomes
205
Figure 1
Conceptual Framework for Predicting Victim Outcomes
1.
Women’s
Characteristics
5.
Victim Outcomes
and Nature of
Victimization
4.
Service Use
Pattern
3.
Post-STOP Legal
System Response
to Victims
2.
Level of
Coordination in
Community
Response
ages to legal system agencies through telephone interviews with 200 program direc-
tors or the person in the program most...